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Head to head · Browser automation · October 2026 research run

Anchor Browser vs Skyvern

Anchor Browser scores 67.3 (B) on agent readiness against Skyvern's 63.1 (B), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. Skyvern leads on schema & documentation, security & auth, maintenance & community and transparency & trust. Both do browser automation.

Anchor BrowserAnchor Forge Inc. · HTTP API B67.3/100#196 of 629 SkyvernIkonomos Inc. (Skyvern) · HTTP API B63.1/100#288 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 57
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 32

Also in its favour

  • No incidents deducted, where Skyvern loses 3 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

Skyvern B

Good for Agents that must finish a multi-step job on sites with logins, 2FA and forms, where stored credentials, saved workflows and cached scripts matter more than raw browser time.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 88 against 80
  • Security & auth, 59 against 54
  • Maintenance & community, 85 against 57
  • Transparency & trust, 72 against 51

Also in its favour

  • Runs on your own machine
  • Open source

Watch for

Every API key and OAuth token has full organisation authority. The docs state there are no read-only, per-endpoint or per-resource keys

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runAnchor BrowserSkyvernEdge
Reliability16%208057Anchor Browser +23
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28088Skyvern +8
Agent ergonomics13%16.27376Skyvern +3
Security & auth14%17.55459Skyvern +5
Payments & pricing10%12.56032Anchor Browser +28
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.85785Skyvern +28
Transparency & trust7%8.85172Skyvern +21
Negative events≤150-3
Total67.3 · B63.1 · B

Facts side by side

FactAnchor BrowserSkyvern
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorAnchor Forge Inc.Ikonomos Inc. (Skyvern)
Hosted endpointhttps://api.anchorbrowser.iohttps://api.skyvern.com/v1
TransportsHTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
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-2.0AGPL-3.0 for the open-source server, SDKs and MCP server. Skyvern Cloud is a proprietary service under Skyvern's terms, and its anti-bot measures aren't in the repository
Tools exposednone114
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registrynot listedio.github.Skyvern-AI/skyvern
Last release2026-07-282026-10-01
Terms last updatedno document linked2026-02-27
Privacy policy last updated2026-02-242026-10-01
Customer content may train modelsyes, with an opt-out
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 waiveryes
Popularity43k npm/wk, 10k PyPI/wk23k stars, 3.2k npm/wk, 1.6k PyPI/wk

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.

Skyvern

The hosted MCP server annotates every tool as read-only or destructive and can advertise a 29 or 32-tool subset in place of 114, and the API has a written six-month deprecation policy. Every key and OAuth token carries full organisation authority, with no read-only or scoped credential, and no request rate limits are documented.

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

Skyvern

  1. Connect to https://api.skyvern.com/mcp/x/lean or /x/operate, or send X-Skyvern-Scope, so the client loads 32 or 29 tools. The scope filters the list and does not limit permissions
  2. Use a separate Skyvern organisation for each blast radius. Any key or OAuth token can read and write stored credentials and delete workflows
  3. Never pass passwords to skyvern_act or skyvern_type. Store them as credentials and call skyvern_login
  4. Set max_steps on tasks, or x-max-steps-override on agent runs, to cap credits. A run that reaches the cap ends as timed_out
  5. On 503 from POST /v1/run/agents, wait Retry-After seconds. No run was created, so resubmitting is safe

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Anchor Browser or Skyvern?

Anchor Browser scores 67.3 (B) on agent readiness against Skyvern's 63.1 (B), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. Skyvern leads on schema & documentation, security & auth, maintenance & community and transparency & trust.

Do Anchor Browser and Skyvern need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

Can an agent call Anchor Browser and Skyvern without installing anything?

Yes. Anchor Browser has a hosted endpoint at https://api.anchorbrowser.io and Skyvern at https://api.skyvern.com/v1.

Are Anchor Browser and Skyvern open source?

No open-source release is listed for Anchor Browser. Skyvern is open source (AGPL-3.0 for the open-source server, SDKs and MCP server. Skyvern Cloud is a proprietary service under Skyvern's terms, and its anti-bot measures aren't in the repository).

Other comparisons with Anchor Browser or Skyvern

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