# AutoCua vs Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) (slim)

> AutoCua scores 44.3 (E) to Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)'s 30.8 (F) for browser automation. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/autocua-vs-puppeteer-reference-server-archived.md (~4,450 tokens) · this version ~1,930 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/autocua-vs-puppeteer-reference-server-archived.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/autocua-vs-puppeteer-reference-server-archived
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-06
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Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) shut down on 2025-05-29. AutoCua scores 44.3 (E) on agent readiness against Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)'s 30.8 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) leads on transparency & trust. Both do browser automation.

- AutoCua: E 44.3, rank #1100 of 1354 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/autocua.min.md
- Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server): F 30.8, rank retired, not ranked · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/puppeteer-reference-server-archived.min.md
- AutoCua, good for Developers who want a local agent to operate desktop apps, their own browser or phones across platforms, on a machine they control. Ahead on Reliability, 25 against 12; Agent ergonomics, 55 against 47; Security & auth, 38 against 22; Maintenance & community, 65 against 0. Also Still running. Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) has shut down; No incidents deducted, where Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) loses 4 points for them.
- Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server), good for Nothing new. It shut down on 2025-05-29. Ahead on Transparency & trust, 77 against 42. Also Runs on your own machine.

| Category | AutoCua | Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 25 | 12 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 42 | 41 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 55 | 47 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 38 | 22 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 60 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 65 | 0 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 42 | 77 |

| Fact (where they differ) | AutoCua | Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent framework | MCP server |
| Vendor | Ashish Yadav and contributors (ComputerUseAgent on GitHub) | Model Context Protocol (archived) |
| Transports |  | stdio |
| Tools exposed | none | 7 |
| Last release | 2026-11-04 | 2025-05-12 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2021-09-08 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2023-03-15 |
| Customer content may train models | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Popularity | none | 294 stars, 25k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 1/5 (2) |

Why the edge:
- Maintenance & community, AutoCua +65: AutoCua 65 (v0.1.9 tagged on 4 November 2026 (30). Four tags in 90 days (20). Issues and pull requests weren't read (0 of 25). The PyPI wheel is current (15). No CI; dependencies pinned per OS in requirements files (0 of 10). 30 + 20 + 0 + 15 + 0 = 65.); Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) 0 (Last release 2025.5.12 on 12 May 2025 (0). No releases in the last 90 days (0). Archived on 29 May 2025 and read-only (0). Not in the official MCP registry (0). Pinned to MCP SDK 1.0.1 and an unsupported Puppeteer major (0).)
- Transparency & trust, Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) +35: AutoCua 42 (MIT (30). Says it sends data only to the chosen model provider and keeps everything else locally, and the source agrees (20 of 30). No deprecation policy (0). States no telemetry, and none was found (20). 30 + 20 + 0 + 20 = 70.); Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) 77 (MIT, an OSI licence (30). Local software that keeps screenshots and console logs in memory and talks only to the pages it opens (20). The GitHub banner dates the archive to 29 May 2025 and the archive README says no security updates will follow. Neither the archive, the main repository's Archived list nor the npm deprecation message names a successor, where the Brave and Slack entries do (10). No telemetry (20).)
- Security & auth, AutoCua +16: AutoCua 38 (Framework reading (telemetry, approvals, guardrails, sandboxing). Provider keys stored in a local folder with Chrome profiles (10 of 30). The worker tools are an allow-list with no write tool, unseen ids are refused, downloads need a yes, but on Windows the model answers UAC elevation prompts itself through a kernel driver, with no person asked (6 of 20). The scraping ruleset has a prompt-injection instruction to log page text that gives instructions (10 of 15). Runs are logged in the app, with no audit log (7 of 15). No security policy, disclosure route or advisories found (5 of 20, for the vault and certificate handling). 10 + 6 + 10 + 7 + 5 = 38.); Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) 22 (No credentials to leak and nothing to scope, so the middle band (20). The guard against dangerous Chrome flags such as `--no-sandbox` is switched off by `allowDangerous: true` in the `puppeteer_navigate` arguments, so the model or a page that steers it can lift it. The Docker mode always launches with `--no-sandbox --single-process --no-zygote`, and `puppeteer_evaluate` runs any script (2). Page content and console output reach the model unmarked, with no injection guidance. The README's only caution is that the browser can reach local files and internal addresses (0). No call log (0). The archive README says "NO SECURITY GUARANTEES", and the pinned Puppeteer ^23.4.0 is itself deprecated on npm as "< 24.15.0 is no longer supported" (0).)
- Reliability, AutoCua +13: AutoCua 25 (Local package. Installs from PyPI as AutoCua with Python 3.10 or later and the supported platforms stated (20). No CI runs the tests; the only workflow, use_case_label.yml, labels issues (0). GitHub issues weren't read, so the open-issue line is scored absent (0). Four tags in a week with no changelog file (5). Version 0.1.9 (0). 20 + 0 + 0 + 5 + 0 = 25.); Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) 12 (Archived and superseded, so we scored what's left as a local stdio package. @modelcontextprotocol/server-puppeteer 2025.5.12 still installs from npm, deprecated there with a generic message, and no runtime is stated (10). No tests and no CI for it in the archive (0). The repository has been read-only since 29 May 2025, so nobody can file or fix a crash, and console logs collect in an array that never empties (0). A date version and no changelog (2). Never 1.0 and never declared stable (0).)
- Agent ergonomics, AutoCua +8: AutoCua 55 (Framework reading. One call with a mode, provider, model and task runs a whole agent (20 of 25). A separate compression agent splices handoff summaries in, and runs are capped and stoppable (15 of 20). Permission and blocked-input errors are reported specifically, with no error reference (8 of 20). No resume or retry semantics described (2 of 20). Sensible defaults (simulators unless device is set), Python only (10 of 15). 20 + 15 + 8 + 2 + 10 = 55.); Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) 47 (Seven compact tools, about 700 tokens in total (25). No snapshot or text extraction, so the agent works from screenshots and `puppeteer_evaluate`. Screenshot `width` and `height` are the only size controls (4). Errors return as tool results with the browser's message (10). No annotations at all (0). One or two required parameters per tool, Node only (8).)