Kernel vs Selenium

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.

Selenium 43

No credential for the bindings. Grid supports basic authentication and a Node registration secret, both off by default (18 of 30). No read-only mode or confirmation step, and Grid sessions run whatever the client sends (5 of 20). Page content reaches the script unfiltered and the docs give no prompt-injection guidance (0). Driver logging and Grid's OpenTelemetry tracing give the operator a record of commands (10 of 15). The organisation's SECURITY.md names security@seleniumhq.org. No bug bounty and no security.txt (404 on 17 October). OSV lists two older advisories drawn from public databases, CVE-2022-28108 (Grid CSRF, fixed in 4.0.0) and CVE-2023-5590 (a null pointer dereference, fixed in 4.14.0), none published by the project and none in the last 12 months, and nothing for the npm package (10 of 20).

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.

Selenium 90

Scored as local software. Official packages at 4.52.0 (29 October 2026) on Maven Central, RubyGems, NuGet and npm, with Python 3.10 stated in pyproject.toml and selenium-webdriver now requiring Node.js 22.23.4, 24.22.1 or 26.12.1 or newer (20). Public CI per binding plus Grid and Selenium Manager jobs, and the 15 most recent runs on trunk on 13 October 2026 succeeded except one cancelled cache job, per the 14 October check, not re-read on 1 November (25). 189 open issues and pull requests across five bindings, labelled by component, with a Grid regression in round-robin slot selection (open since 2 October) and an idle-session issue with 27 comments, per the 14 October check, not re-read on 1 November (21 of 25). The project says it does not follow semver. It usually deprecates before removal and lists removals in each binding's changelog, but 4.52.0 also changed the Ruby binding's certificate handling in the same release that deprecated the old behaviour (9 of 15). 4.x, marked Production/Stable in pyproject.toml (15).

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.

Selenium 77

Apache-2.0, held by Software Freedom Conservancy (30). No privacy page on selenium.dev. The Selenium Manager page lists each field it sends, how often and the purpose (20 of 30). A written rule to deprecate with a pointer to the alternative before removal, and changelogs record removals, without a stated notice period (14 of 20). Telemetry is disclosed with three opt-outs, but on by default (16 of 20).

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.

Selenium 70

A library adds no tool definitions to context. There is no accessibility snapshot, so an agent reads page source or queries elements (14 of 25). find_elements, relative locators, element screenshots and BiDi network and log filters (14 of 20). Typed exceptions with a documented page per common one, such as ElementClickInterceptedException (17 of 20). Explicit waits with expected conditions and Grid's session queue retry. No idempotency concept applies (10 of 20). Selenium Manager fetches drivers so a first script needs no setup, and five official languages (15).

Kernel 65

MPP on POST /mpp/browsers, a 402 challenge paid with a Stripe shared payment token through Link, covering one browser product only, not the API or MCP server (20). Per-second prices public without a login (20). The Developer plan is free with $5 of monthly credit, but whether signup needs a card wasn't stated on the pages read (10). Through MPP an agent gets a browser with no account or key, though a person approves each Link payment (15). 20 + 20 + 10 + 15 = 65.

Selenium 60

Free, self-hosted, nothing to buy, so 20 + 20 + 20 under the self-hosted rule. No payment protocol (0).