# Browserbase vs Steel (slim)

> Browserbase scores 76.2 (BB) on agent readiness against Steel's 70.4 (BB), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Steel leads on schema & documentation and security & auth. Both do browser hosted. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserbase-vs-steel.md (~2,300 tokens) · this version ~630 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserbase-vs-steel.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserbase-vs-steel
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-08

Browserbase scores 76.2 (BB) on agent readiness against Steel's 70.4 (BB), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Steel leads on schema & documentation and security & auth. Both do browser hosted.

- Browserbase: BB 76.2, rank #35 of 722 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/browserbase.min.md
- Steel: BB 70.4, rank #136 of 722 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/steel.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 58; Payments & pricing, 90 against 75; Maintenance & community, 92 against 82; Transparency & trust, 71 against 64.
- Steel, good for Agents that need a real cloud browser with persistent profiles, stored logins, CAPTCHA solving and a human takeover path, and teams that want an open-source runtime they can also self-host. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 86 against 80; Security & auth, 56 against 43. Also Runs on your own machine; Open source.

| Category | Browserbase | Steel |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 90 | 58 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 80 | 86 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 75 | 79 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 43 | 56 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 90 | 75 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 92 | 82 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 71 | 64 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Browserbase | Steel |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Browserbase | Nen Labs, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.browserbase.com/v1` | `https://api.steel.dev` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, stdio |
| x402 | yes | yes, from $0.01/call |
| Licence | MIT (Stagehand) | Proprietary cloud service under Steel's terms. steel-browser and the Node and Python SDKs are Apache-2.0. The MCP server and the CLI are MIT |
| Last release | 2026-09-09 | 2026-10-02 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-08-01 | 2025-02-05 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2024-06-01 | 2026-02-05 |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 25k stars | 47k npm/wk, 63k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.4/5 (8) | none |