# Kernel vs Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) (slim)

> Kernel scores 66.9 (B) to Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)'s 30.8 (F) for browser automation. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kernel-vs-puppeteer-reference-server-archived.md (~5,150 tokens) · this version ~2,480 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kernel-vs-puppeteer-reference-server-archived.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kernel-vs-puppeteer-reference-server-archived
- 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)

Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) shut down on 2025-05-29. Kernel scores 66.9 (B) on agent readiness against Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)'s 30.8 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) leads on transparency & trust. Both do browser automation.

- Kernel: B 66.9, rank #352 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/kernel.min.md
- Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server): F 30.8, rank retired, not ranked · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/puppeteer-reference-server-archived.min.md
- 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 12; Schema & documentation, 93 against 41; Agent ergonomics, 84 against 47; Security & auth, 81 against 22; Payments & pricing, 65 against 60; Maintenance & community, 90 against 0. Also Still running. Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) has shut down; A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install.
- Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server), good for Nothing new. It shut down on 2025-05-29. Ahead on Transparency & trust, 77 against 61. Also No key needed to call it; Runs on your own machine; Open source.

| Category | Kernel | Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 53 | 12 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 93 | 41 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 84 | 47 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 81 | 22 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 65 | 60 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 90 | 0 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 61 | 77 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Kernel | Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | MCP server |
| Vendor | Kernel Technologies, Inc. | Model Context Protocol (archived) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://mcp.onkernel.com/mcp` | no (local only) |
| Transports | Streamable HTTP | stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | None |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Free |
| Licence | none | MIT |
| Tools exposed | 32 | 7 |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| MCP registry | `com.onkernel/kernel-mcp-server` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-11-06 | 2025-05-12 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-09-01 | 2021-09-08 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-15 | 2023-03-15 |
| Popularity | none | 294 stars, 25k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 1/5 (2) |

Why the edge:
- Maintenance & community, Kernel +90: 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.); Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) 0 (Last release 2025.5.12 on 12 May 2025 (0). No releases in the last 90 days (0). Archived on 29 May 2025 and read-only (0). Not in the official MCP registry (0). Pinned to MCP SDK 1.0.1 and an unsupported Puppeteer major (0).)
- Security & auth, Kernel +59: 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.); Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) 22 (No credentials to leak and nothing to scope, so the middle band (20). The guard against dangerous Chrome flags such as `--no-sandbox` is switched off by `allowDangerous: true` in the `puppeteer_navigate` arguments, so the model or a page that steers it can lift it. The Docker mode always launches with `--no-sandbox --single-process --no-zygote`, and `puppeteer_evaluate` runs any script (2). Page content and console output reach the model unmarked, with no injection guidance. The README's only caution is that the browser can reach local files and internal addresses (0). No call log (0). The archive README says "NO SECURITY GUARANTEES", and the pinned Puppeteer ^23.4.0 is itself deprecated on npm as "< 24.15.0 is no longer supported" (0).)
- Schema & documentation, Kernel +52: 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.); Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) 41 (Seven tools with JSON Schema inputs and `required` lists on every one, but `launchOptions` is a free-form object (20). The README is Markdown on GitHub, no llms.txt (5). Descriptions are three to nine words, "Navigate to a URL", "Execute JavaScript in the browser console", with no when-to-use guidance (4). No enums or constraints. Selectors and scripts are free strings (6). The README shows `launchOptions` examples, and failures come back as `isError` text such as "Script execution failed" (6). No versioning or changelog beyond the date version (0).)
- Reliability, Kernel +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.); Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) 12 (Archived and superseded, so we scored what's left as a local stdio package. @modelcontextprotocol/server-puppeteer 2025.5.12 still installs from npm, deprecated there with a generic message, and no runtime is stated (10). No tests and no CI for it in the archive (0). The repository has been read-only since 29 May 2025, so nobody can file or fix a crash, and console logs collect in an array that never empties (0). A date version and no changelog (2). Never 1.0 and never declared stable (0).)
- Agent ergonomics, Kernel +37: 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.); Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) 47 (Seven compact tools, about 700 tokens in total (25). No snapshot or text extraction, so the agent works from screenshots and `puppeteer_evaluate`. Screenshot `width` and `height` are the only size controls (4). Errors return as tool results with the browser's message (10). No annotations at all (0). One or two required parameters per tool, Node only (8).)
- Transparency & trust, Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) +16: 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.); Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) 77 (MIT, an OSI licence (30). Local software that keeps screenshots and console logs in memory and talks only to the pages it opens (20). The GitHub banner dates the archive to 29 May 2025 and the archive README says no security updates will follow. Neither the archive, the main repository's Archived list nor the npm deprecation message names a successor, where the Brave and Slack entries do (10). No telemetry (20).)