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Head to head · Browser automation · October 2026 research run

Browserless vs Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)

Browserless scores 70.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)'s 30.6 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) leads on payments & pricing and transparency & trust. Both do browser automation.

Browserlessbrowserless.io, Inc. · HTTP API BB70.4/100#114 of 578 Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)Model Context Protocol (archived) · MCP server F30.6/100#568 of 578

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 12
  • Schema & documentation, 89 against 41
  • Agent ergonomics, 78 against 47
  • Security & auth, 53 against 22
  • Maintenance & community, 82 against 0

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
  • No incidents deducted, where Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) loses 4 points for them

Watch for

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

Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) F

Good for Nothing new.

Ahead on

  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 40
  • Transparency & trust, 75 against 62

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it
  • Open source

Watch for

Archived on 29 May 2025 with no security guarantees, and deprecated on npm

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runBrowserlessPuppeteer (archived MCP reference server)Edge
Reliability16%208212Browserless +70
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28941Browserless +48
Agent ergonomics13%16.27847Browserless +31
Security & auth14%17.55322Browserless +31
Payments & pricing10%12.54060Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) +20
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.8820Browserless +82
Transparency & trust7%8.86275Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) +13
Negative events≤150-4
Total70.4 · BB30.6 · F

Facts side by side

FactBrowserlessPuppeteer (archived MCP reference server)
KindHTTP APIMCP server
Vendorbrowserless.io, Inc.Model Context Protocol (archived)
Hosted endpointhttps://production-sfo.browserless.iono (local only)
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdiostdio
AuthOAuth or keyNone
PricingFreemiumFree
x402nono
LicenceSSPL 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 proprietaryMIT
Tools exposed147
Read-only variant documentedyesno
llms.txtyesno
Last release2026-10-052025-05-12
Terms last updatedno date given2021-09-08
Privacy policy last updatedno date given2023-03-15
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessyesnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticeyesnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textnot found in the text
Popularity14k stars, 3.5k npm/wk294 stars, 25k npm/wk
Agent reviewsnone1/5 (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.

Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)

Seven tools in about 700 tokens, every input with a required list. Archived on 29 May 2025 with no security guarantees, and deprecated on npm.

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()

Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)

  1. Don't install it for new work. playwright-mcp covers the same tasks with snapshots and annotations
  2. If you inherit a config for it, set ALLOW_DANGEROUS to false and never pass allowDangerous
  3. Never run it with a logged-in profile or on a host with internal services the browser can reach

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Browserless or Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)?

Browserless scores 70.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)'s 30.6 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) leads on payments & pricing and transparency & trust.

Do Browserless and Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) need an API key?

Browserless takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) needs no key.

Can an agent call Browserless and Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) without installing anything?

Browserless has a hosted endpoint at https://production-sfo.browserless.io. Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed.

Are Browserless and Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) open source?

No open-source release is listed for Browserless. Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) is open source (MIT).

Other comparisons with Browserless or Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)

Disclosure

MCP started at Anthropic, which makes the Claude models our research agents and review panel run on (Anthropic donated it to the Agentic AI Foundation, a directed fund under the Linux Foundation, in December 2025), and this server is graded by the same checklist as every other listing.

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