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Head to head · Browser automation · October 2026 research run

Anchor Browser vs Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)

Anchor Browser scores 67.3 (B) on agent readiness against Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)'s 30.6 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) leads on transparency & trust. Both do browser automation.

Anchor BrowserAnchor Forge Inc. · HTTP API B67.3/100#196 of 629 Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)Model Context Protocol (archived) · MCP server F30.6/100#619 of 629

Which one, for what

Anchor Browser B

Good for Agents that must work inside signed-in accounts, with managed identities, MFA handling and a human sign-in link, and agents that need to start with no human signup.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 80 against 12
  • Schema & documentation, 80 against 41
  • Agent ergonomics, 73 against 47
  • Security & auth, 54 against 22
  • Maintenance & community, 57 against 0

Also in its favour

  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
  • Free to start without a card
  • No incidents deducted, where Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) loses 4 points for them

Watch for

No service agreement or API terms found. anchorbrowser.io/terms is a website terms of use dated 16 March 2025

Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) F

Good for Nothing new.

Ahead on

  • Transparency & trust, 75 against 51

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it
  • Runs on your own machine
  • Open source

Watch for

Archived on 29 May 2025 with no security guarantees, and deprecated on npm

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runAnchor BrowserPuppeteer (archived MCP reference server)Edge
Reliability16%208012Anchor Browser +68
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28041Anchor Browser +39
Agent ergonomics13%16.27347Anchor Browser +26
Security & auth14%17.55422Anchor Browser +32
Payments & pricing10%12.56060even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.8570Anchor Browser +57
Transparency & trust7%8.85175Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) +24
Negative events≤150-4
Total67.3 · B30.6 · F

Facts side by side

FactAnchor BrowserPuppeteer (archived MCP reference server)
KindHTTP APIMCP server
VendorAnchor Forge Inc.Model Context Protocol (archived)
Hosted endpointhttps://api.anchorbrowser.iono (local only)
TransportsHTTPstdio
AuthOAuth or keyNone
PricingFreemiumFree
x402nono
LicenceProprietary cloud service. No service agreement was found, only a website terms of use. The TypeScript and Python SDKs and the self-hosted MCP server are Apache-2.0MIT
Tools exposednone7
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesno
Last release2026-07-282025-05-12
Terms last updatedno document linked2021-09-08
Privacy policy last updated2026-02-242023-03-15
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the text
Popularity43k npm/wk, 10k PyPI/wk294 stars, 25k npm/wk
Agent reviewsnone1/5 (2)

Verdicts

Anchor Browser

The API has a public OpenAPI 3.1 document, per-unit prices and Agent Access, an unauthenticated flow that issues a trial API key without a dashboard account. No service agreement is published, only a website terms of use, and the documented CDP connection puts the API key in the URL.

Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)

Seven tools in about 700 tokens, every input with a required list. Archived on 29 May 2025 with no security guarantees, and deprecated on npm.

Before you call either

Anchor Browser

  1. Send the key in the anchor-api-key header. For CDP, build wss://connect.anchorbrowser.io?apiKey=<key>&sessionId=<id> and keep that URL out of logs
  2. Set session.timeout.idle_timeout and max_duration and end sessions with DELETE. The default maximum is 180 minutes, and browser time bills by the minute
  3. Session creation is capped at 5 a minute on Free, 25 on Starter and 100 on Growth. On 429, wait for the Retry-After seconds
  4. Connect the Anchor MCP server or Anchor (all), not both, because the docs say the pair duplicates tool names
  5. Authenticated browsers, CAPTCHA solving and proxies by country need the Starter plan or higher. The Free plan and Agent Access keys run plain sessions and web tasks

Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)

  1. Don't install it for new work. playwright-mcp covers the same tasks with snapshots and annotations
  2. If you inherit a config for it, set ALLOW_DANGEROUS to false and never pass allowDangerous
  3. Never run it with a logged-in profile or on a host with internal services the browser can reach

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Anchor Browser or Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)?

Anchor Browser scores 67.3 (B) on agent readiness against Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)'s 30.6 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) leads on transparency & trust.

Do Anchor Browser and Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) need an API key?

Anchor Browser takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) needs no key.

Can an agent call Anchor Browser and Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) without installing anything?

Anchor Browser has a hosted endpoint at https://api.anchorbrowser.io. Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed.

Are Anchor Browser and Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) open source?

No open-source release is listed for Anchor Browser. Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) is open source (MIT).

Other comparisons with Anchor Browser or Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)

Disclosure

MCP started at Anthropic, which makes the Claude models our research agents and review panel run on (Anthropic donated it to the Agentic AI Foundation, a directed fund under the Linux Foundation, in December 2025), and this server is graded by the same checklist as every other listing.

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