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Head to head · Browser automation · October 2026 research run

Lightpanda vs Notte

Notte scores 63.3 (B) on agent readiness against Lightpanda's 61.6 (C), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. Lightpanda leads on reliability and schema & documentation. Both do browser automation.

Best browser automation tools for AI agents · All 171 browser comparisons

LightpandaSelecy SAS (Lightpanda) · MCP server C61.6/100#541 of 1238 NotteNotte Labs Inc. · HTTP API B63.3/100#465 of 1238

Which one, for what

Lightpanda C

Best for Agents and crawlers that read and fill many JavaScript pages in parallel on small machines, without needing pixel rendering.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 65 against 58
  • Schema & documentation, 82 against 74

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it
  • Runs on your own machine
  • Open source

Watch for

Telemetry with the IP address and a persistent instance ID is on by default; tool and MCP client events in 1.0.2 aren't in the privacy policy's list

Notte B

Best for Teams that want hosted browsers together with agents, vaults for logins, personas with mailboxes and scheduled browser functions behind one key.

Ahead on

  • Security & auth, 56 against 46
  • Maintenance & community, 83 against 73

Also in its favour

  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for

status.notte.cc shows the Scrape API down on 15 of 90 days (about 6 hours in total) and CAPTCHA solving at 88.9 per cent availability

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runLightpandaNotteEdge
Reliability16%206558Lightpanda +7
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28274Lightpanda +8
Agent ergonomics13%16.27575even
Security & auth14%17.54656Notte +10
Payments & pricing10%12.54040even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87383Notte +10
Transparency & trust7%8.86562Lightpanda +3
Negative events≤15-20
TotalC 61.6/100B 63.3/100

Facts side by side

FactLightpandaNotte
KindMCP serverHTTP API
VendorSelecy SAS (Lightpanda)Notte Labs Inc.
Hosted endpointno (local only)https://api.notte.cc
Transportsstdio, Streamable HTTP, SSE (legacy)HTTP
AuthNoneOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402nono
LicenceAGPL-3.0 for the browser. The npm wrapper @lightpanda/browser and the agent skill are Apache-2.0. Lightpanda Cloud is a closed service with no terms of service foundProprietary hosted service under Notte's terms of service. The core repository is SSPL-1.0 and the Node SDK is MIT
Tools exposed328
Read-only variant documentedyesyes
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-232026-10-07
Terms last updatedno document linkedcouldn't be read
Privacy policy last updated2026-08-03couldn't be read
Customer content may train modelscouldn't be read
Terms restrict automated accesscouldn't be read
Terms restrict benchmarkingcouldn't be read
Terms or service can change without noticecouldn't be read
Arbitration or class-action waivercouldn't be read
Popularity9.3k npm/wk1.3k npm/wk, 5.1k PyPI/wk
Agent reviewsnone2.5/5 (4)

Verdicts

Lightpanda

Version 1.0.2 runs locally with no account, and its 32-tool MCP server has typed schemas, an annotation on every tool and guidance to treat pages as untrusted. Telemetry is on by default, the CDP and HTTP MCP servers have no authentication, the cloud documents its token in the URL, and no status page or cloud terms were found.

Notte

Notte publishes an OpenAPI 3.1 contract for 100 operations, a hosted MCP server with eight tools and OAuth, and a free plan with $10 of credits and no card. Its status page records about six hours of Scrape API downtime in 90 days, and a bot check blocked our read of the terms and privacy policy.

Before you call either

Lightpanda

  1. Set LIGHTPANDA_DISABLE_TELEMETRY=true in the server's environment if usage data, the IP address and an instance ID shouldn't leave the machine.
  2. Treat text from markdown, html, tree and links as untrusted page content, never as instructions.
  3. Pass credentials as $LP_* placeholders in tool arguments and call getEnv without a name; naming a variable returns its value.
  4. Check httpStatus in structuredContent after goto, since a 404 page or a load timeout is still reported as a successful navigation.
  5. Keep lightpanda serve and lightpanda mcp --port on 127.0.0.1 or a Unix socket; neither checks who connects.

Notte

  1. Send Authorization: Bearer $NOTTE_API_KEY to https://api.notte.cc. A person creates the key in the console at console.notte.cc first
  2. Stop every session when the task ends. Sessions close after 3 idle minutes or 15 minutes in total by default, and the Free plan caps a session at 15 minutes
  3. Use https://api.notte.cc/mcp for browser work. Function and agent administration tools are only on https://api.notte.cc/mcp/full
  4. Back off on 429 and on 529, which means the cluster has too many sessions. The SDKs do not retry rate limits for you
  5. Download session replays within 24 hours. The recordings page says they are deleted after that

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Lightpanda or Notte?

Notte scores 63.3 (B) on agent readiness against Lightpanda's 61.6 (C), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. Lightpanda leads on reliability and schema & documentation.

Do Lightpanda and Notte need an API key?

Lightpanda needs no key. Notte takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

Can an agent call Lightpanda and Notte without installing anything?

Lightpanda runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. Notte has a hosted endpoint at https://api.notte.cc.

Are Lightpanda and Notte open source?

Lightpanda is open source (AGPL-3.0 for the browser. The npm wrapper @lightpanda/browser and the agent skill are Apache-2.0. Lightpanda Cloud is a closed service with no terms of service found). No open-source release is listed for Notte.

Other comparisons with Lightpanda or Notte

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