# Browserbase vs BxPlaywright (slim)

> Browserbase scores 72.3 (BB) to BxPlaywright's 55 (C) for browser automation. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserbase-vs-bx-playwright.md (~5,000 tokens) · this version ~2,780 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserbase-vs-bx-playwright.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserbase-vs-bx-playwright
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-01
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Browserbase scores 72.3 (BB) on agent readiness against BxPlaywright's 55 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do browser automation. Browserbase accepts x402. BxPlaywright doesn't.

- Browserbase: BB 72.3, rank #111 of 1260 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/browserbase.min.md
- BxPlaywright: C 55, rank #816 of 1260 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/bx-playwright.min.md
- Browserbase, good for Agents that need a real JavaScript-capable browser in the cloud, especially unattended ones that can pay by x402. Ahead on Reliability, 90 against 41; Schema & documentation, 80 against 66; Agent ergonomics, 75 against 63; Payments & pricing, 90 against 60; Maintenance & community, 92 against 53. Also Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better; An agent can pay per call over x402, with no account; A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install; Free to start without a card.
- BxPlaywright, good for Teams on BoxLang or modernising CFML who want browser tests, rendering and a browser for BoxLang AI agents in the same language. Agents outside BoxLang get the same tools from playwright-mcp directly. Also No key needed to call it; Open source; No incidents deducted, where Browserbase loses 4 points for them.

| Category | Browserbase | BxPlaywright |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 90 | 41 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 80 | 66 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 75 | 63 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 43 | 43 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 90 | 60 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 92 | 53 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 72 | 70 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Browserbase | BxPlaywright |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | SDK + MCP |
| Vendor | Browserbase | Ortus Solutions |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.browserbase.com/v1` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |  |
| Auth | API key | None |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| x402 | yes | no |
| Licence | MIT (Stagehand) | Apache-2.0 |
| Last release | 2026-10-30 | 2026-10-23 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-08-01 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2024-06-01 | no date given |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 25k stars | none |
| Agent reviews | 3.4/5 (8) | none |

Why the edge:
- Reliability, Browserbase +49: Browserbase 90 (status.browserbase.com runs on incident.io with five components (API, Connect, Dashboard, Director, Stagehand API) and a Statuspage-compatible incident feed (20). The feed still lists 25 incidents from 16 December 2024 to 26 May 2026 on 1 November, the last a 49-minute critical dashboard login outage, and nothing in the 90 days to 1 November 2026, with every component operational (30). Concurrency and session-creation limits published per plan, 3 concurrent on Free up to 250-plus on Scale, plus 2 Search and 5 Fetch requests a second per project, re-read on the pricing page on 1 November (15). 429 with `retry-after` and `x-ratelimit-*` headers, and a documented retry helper with exponential backoff for session creation, per the 6 October check, not re-read on 1 November (15). No SLA on the pricing page or in anything else we read (0). The sessions API is GA (10). 20+30+15+15+0+10 = 90.); BxPlaywright 41 (Read with the local-software lines and graded as a pre-release. Official package on ForgeBox with BoxLang 1.17.0 or later, Java 21 and the supported platforms stated, but the only version is 1.0.0-snapshot, rebuilt from the development branch on 23 October 2026, with no binary hash on the entry (14 of 20). tests.yml runs 24 test files on Ubuntu and Windows with JDK 21, real-browser tests on Linux and a test of the full distribution, on pull requests, pushes to development and daily. Whether runs pass wasn't read, since WebFetch refused GitHub (15 of 25). Issues weren't readable for the same reason, bugs go to Ortus's Jira, and the repository is a month old, so there's no record to read (5 of 25). Keep a Changelog with semantic versioning stated and a written public contract, but nothing has been released under it and the changelog reads only [Unreleased] (7 of 15). Ortus announced 1.0 as generally available on 13 October, but no 1.0.0 build or tag exists, so it isn't 1.0 for this line (0 of 15). 14+15+5+7+0 = 41.)
- Maintenance & community, Browserbase +39: Browserbase 92 (Node SDK 2.24.0 (changelog dated 30 October 2026) and Python SDK 1.23.0 (29 October), Stagehand 4.3.0 on 19 October and changelog entries on 20, 22 and 27 October (30). Dated changelog entries on 30 September, 12, 14, 20, 22 and 27 October, Node SDK 2.22.0, 2.23.0 and 2.24.0 since 14 October, and Stagehand 4.2.0, 4.2.1 and 4.3.0 since 8 October (20). Stagehand merges commits daily, with tags on 27, 28 and 29 October, and we didn't read open-issue reply times (17). Current official SDKs in Node and Python. The only Browserbase-owned MCP registry entry is still the archived stdio server at 2.1.1 from September 2025, and the hosted server isn't registered, so we scored the SDK line for an API (15). Stagehand CI runs on every merge, per the 1 October check (10). 30+20+17+15+10 = 92.); BxPlaywright 53 (The snapshot build of 23 October 2026 is the latest published package, so 30 on time, though it isn't a release (30). No tagged releases or dated changelog entries in the 90 days, only one version rebuilt (0 of 20). 39 pull requests merged by Luis Majano between 30 September and 23 October. Issue replies couldn't be read and bugs go to Jira (10 of 25). Not in the official MCP registry, and the ForgeBox package has no stable version (5 of 15). Playwright for Java 1.63.0, Dependabot for Gradle monthly and Actions quarterly, a daily test run and a format check (8 of 10). 30+0+10+5+8 = 53.)
- Payments & pricing, Browserbase +30: Browserbase 90 (x402 on x402.browserbase.com for browser sessions (create, status, extend, terminate) at $0.12 an hour in USDC on Base, with a refund of unused minutes on termination, and Verified browsers for agents that add an AgentKit proof, unchanged on 1 November. Fetch, Search and the main api.browserbase.com host aren't covered. Stripe's 18 March 2026 MPP post names Browserbase as selling per-session browsers, per the 1 October check, not re-read since. So partial (30). Per-hour and per-1,000-call prices published without login. Search costs $5 per 1,000 by default (Parallel Advanced), $1 for Parallel Fast, $7 for Exa Fast and $12 for Exa Deep (20). Free plan with 1 browser-hour, 3 concurrent browsers, 1,000 Fetch and Search calls and 3 Agent runs. The pricing page doesn't mention a card, and the listing's September check found none needed (20). An agent with a wallet gets a browser with no account (20). 30+20+20+20 = 90.); BxPlaywright 60 (Free, self-hosted, nothing to buy, so 20 + 20 + 20. The BoxLang runtime's paid plans aren't needed for this module. No payment protocol (0). 60 in all.)
- Schema & documentation, Browserbase +14: Browserbase 80 (OpenAPI 3.0.0 at docs.browserbase.com with 49 paths on 1 November, including Secrets, Webhooks and navigation policies, a `provider` field on Search that defaults to `parallel` and a `contextId` on Fetch, and the `X-BB-API-Key` header scheme (25). llms.txt and Markdown twins of the docs (10). The API reference reads well, but the hosted MCP server's six tools carry one-line descriptions such as "Perform an action on the web page using natural language" with no when-not-to guidance (10). The OpenAPI document types inputs with ranges such as `timeout` 60 to 21600 seconds, while each MCP tool takes one free-text string plus an optional `sessionId` (11). Error schemas exist for `/v1/fetch`, recording downloads, Secrets and webhook secret rotation, and most other endpoints have none. Code samples are plentiful (9). `/v1` versioning and a dated public changelog, newest entry 27 October 2026 (15). 25+10+10+11+9+15 = 80.); BxPlaywright 66 (Library reading. BoxLang is dynamically typed. The public API is listed in the docs' integrations page, `help()` and `bxplaywright help --json` describe it at run time, and the ten agent tools describe each argument in a sentence, with no published API reference (14 of 25). llms.txt with a Markdown copy of each of 18 docs pages (10). The AI page says when to use `aiTools()`, the registry or MCP, and when to turn registration off. Tool descriptions are one line each (13 of 20). Every agent-tool argument is a string, with no enums or limits; library options are checked, and InvalidOption lists the valid values (9 of 15). An errors page lists each error type with when it happens and the fix, eight runnable examples sit in the repository, and the docs have code on every page (13 of 15). Keep a Changelog and docs versioning on release, but no released version and no tags yet (7 of 15). 14+10+13+9+13+7 = 66.)
- Agent ergonomics, Browserbase +12: Browserbase 75 (The hosted MCP server has six compact tools, and the API lists take `limit`, so context cost is low. Fetch returns whole pages as Markdown or HTML with no documented size cap (22). Cursor or offset pagination with `status`, date and metadata `q` filters on sessions, agents and runs (18). Error bodies are documented for Fetch, downloads and Secrets only (12). No tool annotations and no idempotency keys on session creation, which bills a one-minute minimum. Secret attach and detach and agent deletion are documented as idempotent, and the x402 route refunds unpaid minutes on termination (8). Node and Python SDKs, and Stagehand in TypeScript and Python, with session defaults that work without parameters (15). 22+18+12+8+15 = 75.); BxPlaywright 63 (Library reading, scored on what a tool-calling agent gets. Ten compact in-process tools for BoxLang AI, with nothing to load until a tool is used (25 for ten or fewer), less 5 because every action tool returns the whole page's AI snapshot. Through MCP an agent gets Playwright's 24 default tools (20 of 25). The agent tools have no depth, selector or size limit, and `browser_text` returns the whole page. `snapshot( selector )` exists in the library but not in the tools (8 of 20). Errors come back to the agent as text in the form `Error [type]: message Fix: detail`, and the error types are documented (16 of 20). Assertions retry until they pass. The in-process tools carry no read-only or destructive hints, and bx-ai doesn't read them; over MCP the annotations are Microsoft's (8 of 20). Works with defaults (headless Chromium, 1280 by 720) and profiles, but in one language, BoxLang, with the MCP route for any other client (11 of 15). 20+8+16+8+11 = 63.)