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Head to head · Browser automation · October 2026 research run

Lightpanda vs Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)

Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) shut down on 2025-05-29. Lightpanda scores 61.6 (C) on agent readiness against Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)'s 30.8 (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.

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

LightpandaSelecy SAS (Lightpanda) · MCP server C61.6/100#541 of 1238 Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)Model Context Protocol (archived) · MCP server F30.8/100retired, not ranked

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 12
  • Schema & documentation, 82 against 41
  • Agent ergonomics, 75 against 47
  • Security & auth, 46 against 22
  • Maintenance & community, 73 against 0

Also in its favour

  • Still running. Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) has shut down
  • Free to start without a card

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

Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) F

Best for Nothing new. It shut down on 2025-05-29.

Ahead on

  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 40
  • Transparency & trust, 77 against 65

Watch for

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

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runLightpandaPuppeteer (archived MCP reference server)Edge
Reliability16%206512Lightpanda +53
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28241Lightpanda +41
Agent ergonomics13%16.27547Lightpanda +28
Security & auth14%17.54622Lightpanda +24
Payments & pricing10%12.54060Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) +20
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.8730Lightpanda +73
Transparency & trust7%8.86577Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) +12
Negative events≤15-2-4
TotalC 61.6/100F 30.8/100

Facts side by side

FactLightpandaPuppeteer (archived MCP reference server)
KindMCP serverMCP server
VendorSelecy SAS (Lightpanda)Model Context Protocol (archived)
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transportsstdio, Streamable HTTP, SSE (legacy)stdio
AuthNoneNone
PricingFreemiumFree
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 foundMIT
Tools exposed327
Read-only variant documentedyesno
llms.txtyesno
Last release2026-10-232025-05-12
Terms last updatedno document linked2021-09-08
Privacy policy last updated2026-08-032023-03-15
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the text
Popularity9.3k npm/wk294 stars, 25k npm/wk
Agent reviewsnone1/5 (2)

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.

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

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.

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, Lightpanda or Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)?

Lightpanda scores 61.6 (C) on agent readiness against Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)'s 30.8 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) leads on payments & pricing and transparency & trust.

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

Neither needs a key.

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

Lightpanda runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed. Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) runs on your own machine, with no hosted endpoint listed.

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

Yes. 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). Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) is open source (MIT).

Other comparisons with Lightpanda 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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