# Browserless vs Playwright MCP

> Browserless scores 70.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Playwright MCP's 67.6 (B), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. Playwright MCP leads on agent ergonomics, payments & pricing and transparency & trust. Both do browser automation. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent…

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserless-vs-playwright-mcp
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserless-vs-playwright-mcp.md (~2,450 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserless-vs-playwright-mcp.min.md (~830 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserless-vs-playwright-mcp.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-08

Browserless scores 70.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Playwright MCP's 67.6 (B), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. Playwright MCP leads on agent ergonomics, payments & pricing and transparency & trust. Both do browser automation.

- Browserless: grade BB, 70.4/100, rank #128 of 629. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/browserless.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/browserless.json
- Playwright MCP: grade B, 67.6/100, rank #189 of 629. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/playwright-mcp.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/playwright-mcp.json

## Which one, for what

### Browserless (BB)

Good for: Agents that need a real browser in the cloud with stealth, proxies and CAPTCHA solving, and teams that want the option of running the same server themselves.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 82 against 57
- Schema & documentation, 89 against 70

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: REST and WebSocket routes take the API token as `?token=` in the URL, which the docs give as the standard method

### Playwright MCP (B)

Good for: The default choice for an agent that drives web pages by structure rather than pixels. chrome-devtools-mcp is better for performance and memory debugging, browserbase for hosted browsers.

Ahead on:
- Agent ergonomics, 84 against 78
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 40
- Transparency & trust, 72 against 62

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Open source

Watch for: `browser_run_code_unsafe` runs arbitrary JavaScript in the server process and can't be switched off


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Browserless | Playwright MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 82 | 57 | Browserless +25 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 89 | 70 | Browserless +19 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 84 | Playwright MCP +6 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 53 | 57 | Playwright MCP +4 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 60 | Playwright MCP +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 82 | 84 | Playwright MCP +2 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 62 | 72 | Playwright MCP +10 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **70.4 · BB** | **67.6 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Browserless | Playwright MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | MCP server |
| Vendor | browserless.io, Inc. | Microsoft |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://production-sfo.browserless.io` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | stdio, Streamable HTTP, SSE (legacy) |
| Auth | OAuth or key | None |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | SSPL 1.0 or a commercial licence for the core server and the MCP server. The BAP TypeScript SDK is MIT. BrowserQL, stealth and other cloud additions are proprietary | Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | 14 | 72 |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| MCP registry | not listed | `io.github.microsoft/playwright-mcp` |
| Last release | 2026-10-05 | 2026-09-28 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text |  |
| Popularity | 14k stars, 3.5k npm/wk | 37k stars, 5.3M npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Browserless.** An OpenAPI document, llms.txt and a 14-tool MCP server with annotations on every tool make the service easy for an agent to read, and the free plan needs no card. The API token travels in the URL query string by default, cloud tokens carry no scopes, and no machine payment route exists.

**Playwright MCP.** Accessibility snapshots with `depth` limits and `browser_find`, so the agent reads less of the page. `browser_run_code_unsafe` runs arbitrary JavaScript in the server process and can't be switched off.

## Before you call either

### Browserless

1. Send the token as `Authorization: Bearer` to the MCP server. On REST and WebSocket routes it goes in `?token=`, so keep those URLs out of logs
2. Close sessions as soon as the work is done. Browser time bills one unit per 30 seconds, rounded up, idle or not
3. For multi-step work with `browserless_agent`, set `keepSessionAlive: true` on the first call and pass the returned `sessionId` after that. Sessions are one-shot by default since server 1.33.0
4. On 429, back off and retry. It means the plan's concurrency limit or queue is full, usually from sessions left open
5. Match the path to the protocol. Use `/chromium` for CDP clients and `/chromium/playwright` only for `playwright.connect()`

### Playwright MCP

1. Call `browser_find` before `browser_snapshot` when you only need one element's ref
2. Pass `depth` or a `target` to `browser_snapshot` on large pages
3. Run with `--isolated` for untrusted sites. The default profile persists cookies between runs
4. Add `--caps` only for the groups the task needs. Each group adds tools to the schema
5. Pin a version in `npx @playwright/mcp@<version>`. 0.0.x releases can rename tools

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Browserless or Playwright MCP?

Browserless scores 70.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Playwright MCP's 67.6 (B), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. Playwright MCP leads on agent ergonomics, payments & pricing and transparency & trust.

### Do Browserless and Playwright MCP need an API key?

Browserless takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Playwright MCP needs no key.

### Can an agent call Browserless and Playwright MCP without installing anything?

Browserless has a hosted endpoint at https://production-sfo.browserless.io. Playwright MCP runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed.

### Are Browserless and Playwright MCP open source?

No open-source release is listed for Browserless. Playwright MCP is open source (Apache-2.0).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserless-vs-playwright-mcp.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserless-vs-playwright-mcp.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "browserless", "b": "playwright-mcp"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare browserless playwright-mcp`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/browserless.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/playwright-mcp.json

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