# agent-browser vs Playwright MCP (slim)

> Playwright MCP scores 67.6 (B) on agent readiness against agent-browser's 66.6 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. agent-browser leads on schema & documentation and security & auth. Both do browser automation. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-browser-vs-playwright-mcp.md (~2,400 tokens) · this version ~580 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-browser-vs-playwright-mcp.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-browser-vs-playwright-mcp
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-09

Playwright MCP scores 67.6 (B) on agent readiness against agent-browser's 66.6 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. agent-browser leads on schema & documentation and security & auth. Both do browser automation.

- agent-browser: B 66.6, rank #263 of 842 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/agent-browser.min.md
- Playwright MCP: B 67.6, rank #228 of 842 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/playwright-mcp.min.md
- agent-browser, good for Coding agents with a shell that want short commands and compact snapshots. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 84 against 70; Security & auth, 67 against 57.
- Playwright MCP, good for The default choice for an agent that drives web pages by structure rather than pixels. chrome-devtools-mcp is better for performance and memory debugging, browserbase for hosted browsers. Ahead on Reliability, 57 against 48; Agent ergonomics, 84 against 78; Maintenance & community, 84 against 70; Transparency & trust, 72 against 61.

| Category | agent-browser | Playwright MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 48 | 57 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 84 | 70 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 78 | 84 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 67 | 57 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 60 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 70 | 84 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 61 | 72 |

| Fact (where they differ) | agent-browser | Playwright MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Vercel Labs | Microsoft |
| Transports | stdio | stdio, Streamable HTTP, SSE (legacy) |
| Tools exposed | 158 | 72 |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| MCP registry | not listed | `io.github.microsoft/playwright-mcp` |
| Last release | 2026-10-01 | 2026-09-28 |
| Popularity | 44k stars, 2.1M npm/wk | 37k stars, 5.3M npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3/5 (2) |