Automa: 21K Stars for No-Code Browser Automation

When I used to do repetitive web tasks, I either wrote Selenium scripts or clicked around manually. Writing scripts was overkill, and manual clicking was mind-numbing. Then I found Automa, a browser extension with 21.2K stars that makes automation feel like building with LEGO blocks.

What This Project Is

Automa is a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox. Its core idea is visual workflow editing with blocks. You drag out blocks like “open page,” “click element,” “fill form,” and “extract data,” then connect them with lines to create automated tasks.

Zero coding required. For non-programmers, it’s basically a free RPA alternative.

Core Features in Practice

Visual workflow editor. The interface looks like a low-code platform. Blocks panel on the left, canvas in the middle. Each block is one step, and lines show execution order. I built a login-and-scrape flow in about ten minutes.

Plenty of supported actions:

• Open/close tabs
• Click, hover, scroll
• Fill inputs, select dropdowns
• Extract element text or attributes
• Conditions and loops
• Triggers and scheduled tasks
• Integration with Google Sheets and other services

Import/export workflows. You can share automation with your team or reuse workflows from the community.

Local execution, data stays private. Unlike cloud RPA services, Automa runs inside your browser. Sensitive data doesn’t leave your machine.

Quick Start

Install it from the Chrome Web Store or Firefox Add-ons. Then click the extension icon to open the editor:

1. Click “New Workflow”
2. Drag a “Trigger” block from the sidebar
3. Drag a “New Tab” block and enter a URL
4. Drag an “Element Click” block and select a button
5. Drag a “Get Text” block to extract data
6. Save and run

The first workflow I built scraped product prices from an e-commerce site. Took about 5 minutes and ran reliably.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Fully visual, zero coding required
• Supports Chrome and Firefox
• Covers most common web automation scenarios
• Community-shared workflows available
• Runs locally, better privacy
• Free and open source

Cons:

• Complex logic can be tricky, like dynamic loading, iframes, Shadow DOM
• Slower than native scripts
• Struggles with heavily anti-bot-protected sites
• Update frequency is mediocre since March 2026
• Workflows break when page structure changes or the browser crashes

Comparison

Tool	Coding	Visual	Browser Extension	Price	Best For
Automa	None	✅	✅	Free	Personal automation, light RPA
Selenium	High	❌	❌	Free	Complex testing, development
Playwright	High	❌	❌	Free	Enterprise automation testing
UI.Vision	Low	✅	✅	Free/Paid	Desktop + browser automation
Zapier	None	✅	❌	Paid	App integrations

Automa’s positioning is clear: browser automation for regular users. Developers might prefer Selenium or Playwright for flexibility, but if you just want to stop clicking the same buttons every day, Automa is much faster to learn.

Who Should Use It

Three groups fit well:

1. Operations and data entry folks who fill forms and copy-paste repeatedly
2. Content creators and e-commerce sellers who batch-scrape data or auto-publish
3. Non-technical users who want automation without learning to code

After using it for about two weeks, my take is: it’s not universal, but for “clicking the same buttons every day” tasks, it genuinely saves time.

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About the Author

Liudingyu is a full-stack developer and heavy GitHub user. With 900+ starred repos over the past 3 years, this site only covers tools I’ve actually used or deeply researched.

📧 Found a great tool to recommend? Email [email protected]