# BxPlaywright vs Kernel (slim)

> Kernel scores 66.9 (B) to BxPlaywright's 55 (C) for browser automation. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bx-playwright-vs-kernel.md (~5,350 tokens) · this version ~3,080 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bx-playwright-vs-kernel.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bx-playwright-vs-kernel
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

Kernel scores 66.9 (B) on agent readiness against BxPlaywright's 55 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. BxPlaywright leads on transparency & trust. Both do browser automation.

- BxPlaywright: C 55, rank #888 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/bx-playwright.min.md
- Kernel: B 66.9, rank #352 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/kernel.min.md
- 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. Ahead on Transparency & trust, 70 against 61. Also No key needed to call it; Open source; No incidents deducted, where Kernel loses 8 points for them.
- Kernel, good for Agents that need hosted, logged-in browsers at scale with stealth and proxies. browserbase, steel, hyperbrowser and anchor-browser are the nearest listings. Ahead on Reliability, 53 against 41; Schema & documentation, 93 against 66; Agent ergonomics, 84 against 63; Security & auth, 81 against 43; Payments & pricing, 65 against 60; Maintenance & community, 90 against 53. Also A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install.

| Category | BxPlaywright | Kernel |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 41 | 53 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 66 | 93 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 63 | 84 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 43 | 81 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 65 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 53 | 90 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 70 | 61 |

| Fact (where they differ) | BxPlaywright | Kernel |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | SDK + MCP | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Ortus Solutions | Kernel Technologies, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://mcp.onkernel.com/mcp` |
| Transports |  | Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Pay per use |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | none |
| Tools exposed | none | 32 |
| MCP registry | not listed | `com.onkernel/kernel-mcp-server` |
| Last release | 2026-10-23 | 2026-11-06 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2026-09-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2026-09-15 |

Why the edge:
- Security & auth, Kernel +38: BxPlaywright 43 (Library reading, as puppeteer and playwright-mcp were. No credential to leak and nothing to scope, so the middle band (20 of 30). Nothing is restricted by default. `browser_visit` takes any URL with no allow-list, `browser_screenshot` writes to any path the model passes, and the tools are added to bx-ai's global registry unless `registerAiTools` is false, so an agent given every registered tool gets a browser. Over MCP it starts Microsoft's server, which limits file access to workspace roots, and Ortus's plugin starts it with `--headless` but without `--isolated`, with `browser_run_code_unsafe` and `browser_evaluate` in the default set. HTTPS errors are not ignored by default (6 of 20). Page snapshots and text go to the model unfenced, and the docs give no prompt-injection guidance (0 of 15). Screenshot, trace and video policies, `show-trace`, and interception points such as onPageCreate and onPlaywrightArtifact give the operator a record, all off by default (10 of 15). CONTRIBUTING.md asks for reports to security@ortussolutions.com and the Slack #security channel; SECURITY.md points there. No security.txt (410, per the boxlang-ai check of the same day), no bounty, no advisories. Node.js downloads are checked against the release's SHA-256 list (7 of 20). 20+6+0+10+7 = 43.); Kernel 81 (Scoped API keys with resource and action policies, project scoping and expiry, and OAuth 2.1 for MCP with project-limited tokens (30). Least privilege through scoped keys, a payment cap for cards through the MCP server and vault writes that need their own action (16). Pages an agent browses are untrusted, and we found no prompt-injection guidance in the docs read (4). Audit log search and export on Start-Up and above (13). SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, PCI DSS and ISO 27001 on the security page and a HackerOne bounty (18). 30 + 16 + 4 + 13 + 18 = 81, before the deduction for the November 2026 incident.)
- Maintenance & community, Kernel +37: 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.); Kernel 90 (The changelog's latest entry is 16 October 2026 and the MCP server repository has commits on 6 November (30). More than three dated changes in 90 days, scoped keys, memory tiers, GPU tier and card payments among them (20). A closed service with a public changelog, Discord, email support and an open-source MCP server with 210 commits since 8 August (15). Official SDKs in three languages, and the MCP server in the registry as com.onkernel/kernel-mcp-server 1.1.0 (15). CI and tests in the MCP repository (10). 30 + 20 + 15 + 15 + 10 = 90.)
- Schema & documentation, Kernel +27: 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.); Kernel 93 (OpenAPI at kernel.sh/openapi.json and per-endpoint Markdown reference (25). llms.txt with 423 entries and a Markdown twin for each page (10). Endpoint descriptions say when to use alternatives ("For interactive browsing, use GET /audit-logs", pools for bursty traffic) (17). Typed parameters with enums and limits such as memory sizes and timeout maximums (13). Code samples in TypeScript, Python and Go, and documented status codes such as 409 and 204 on pool acquire (13). A dated public changelog and SDK changelogs (15). 25 + 10 + 17 + 13 + 13 + 15 = 93.)
- Agent ergonomics, Kernel +21: 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.); Kernel 84 (Graded mainly on the API, with the MCP server noted. Responses are scoped per resource and the MCP server groups actions into about 32 tools (18). List endpoints page with limit and offset and filter by status (18). Typed SDK errors and documented 409 on concurrent changes, 204 on a pool timeout and 429 (17). Retrying an MPP purchase with the same credential returns the same browser, and the MCP tools carry readOnlyHint where read-only (16). SDKs in TypeScript, Python and Go plus a CLI, with defaults such as a 60-second timeout (15). 18 + 18 + 17 + 16 + 15 = 84.)
- Reliability, Kernel +12: 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.); Kernel 53 (Hosted reading. status.kernel.sh on incident.io with a public incident feed (20). In the 90 days from 8 August it lists browser connection failures on 10 September (54 minutes, major), frozen popups on 1 October (71 minutes, major), elevated API errors on 19 October (4 minutes, critical), proxy failures on 23 October (65 minutes, major) and browser creation errors on 4 November (29 minutes, major), plus minor ones. Several majors, two of them an hour or more (0). Rate limits are per organisation with headers on every response, and concurrency is published per plan, but the create-rate numbers aren't (8). 429 with Retry-After, SDK retries with a typed error, safe retry with the same MPP credential and 409 on concurrent pool changes (15). The terms mention service levels in an order form but no public SLA was found (0). The API and MCP server carry no beta label (10). 20 + 0 + 8 + 15 + 0 + 10 = 53.)
- Transparency & trust, BxPlaywright +9: BxPlaywright 70 (Apache-2.0, OSI approved, in box.json and src/main/resources/LICENSE (30). Local software with no data statement for the module. The source contacts only nodejs.org, Playwright's browser downloads and the pages it is told to open, and Ortus's privacy policy covers its website and customers (15 of 30). The integrations page says a minor release only adds and removals wait for a major release, listed in the changelog. Nothing has been released under it, and the module was renamed from `playwright` to `bxplaywright` on 12 October before any release (10 of 20). No telemetry found in the source and no statement either way in the docs, scored as boxlang-ai was (10 of 20). 30+15+10+10 = 65.); Kernel 61 (The platform is closed under a published master services agreement; the MCP server is MIT (20). The privacy policy names Stripe and Google Analytics and an advertising cookie, and states retention as long as needed, with replay retention per plan and zero data retention on Enterprise (18). Deprecated MCP inputs stay as aliases and the changelog notes removals, but no deprecation policy (10). No sub-processor list found; compliance reports sit behind the trust centre (10). 20 + 18 + 10 + 10 = 58.)