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Reader is also available as an open-source Node library you can run yourself. It’s the same engine that powers Reader Cloud, distributed under Apache 2.0. Most users should start with Reader Cloud - it handles proxies, browser management, scaling, and billing, and starts free with 1,000 credits a month. Self-hosting is worth the extra operational overhead when you need:
  • Data residency or network isolation - air-gapped environments, on-premise deployments, strict compliance
  • A custom fork - you want to modify scraping behavior, add new engines, or ship patches to your own version
  • Extreme volume - your workload is high enough that infrastructure costs beat API credits

reader on GitHub →

Full source, issues, Dockerfile, and examples.

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Cloud vs Self-Hosted

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What self-hosted Reader gives you

  • ReaderClient - high-level API with lazy initialization, browser pool management, and proxy rotation
  • scrape() and crawl() - the same primitives as the Cloud API
  • Playwright browser engine - full headless Chrome with JavaScript execution and anti-bot bypass via stealth plugin
  • Proxy tiers - standard (datacenter) and premium (residential) proxy pools, selectable per request
  • Browser pool - recycled Chrome instances with health checks and graceful retirement
  • CLI - one-off scrapes, crawls, and a daemon mode with shared pool
  • Pluggable config - domain profiles, block detection, and URL rewriters are all caller-provided
  • Deployment scripts - production-ready Dockerfile and Docker Compose setup

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Where to go next

Installation

Install the package and its system dependencies.

Quickstart

Make your first scrape in 60 seconds.

Examples

Real runnable examples for every feature.

API Reference

Full type reference for every option and result.