# Playwright MCP vs Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)

> Playwright MCP has a score of 67.6 (B) against Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)'s 30.8 (F). Both do browser automation. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 84 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-04

Playwright MCP has a score of 67.6 (B) against Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)'s 30.8 (F). Both do browser automation. The largest gap is maintenance & community, 84 points.

- Playwright MCP: grade B, 67.6/100, rank #138 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/playwright-mcp.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/playwright-mcp.json
- Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server): grade F, 30.8/100, rank #443 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/puppeteer-reference-server-archived.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/puppeteer-reference-server-archived.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Playwright MCP for reliability (+45), schema & documentation (+29), agent ergonomics (+37), security & auth (+35), maintenance & community (+84).

Pick Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) for transparency & trust (+5).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Playwright MCP | Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 57 | 12 | Playwright MCP +45 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 70 | 41 | Playwright MCP +29 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 84 | 47 | Playwright MCP +37 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 57 | 22 | Playwright MCP +35 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 60 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 84 | 0 | Playwright MCP +84 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 72 | 77 | Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -4 | |
| **Total** | | **67.6 · B** | **30.8 · F** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Playwright MCP | Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | MCP server |
| Vendor | Microsoft | Model Context Protocol (archived) |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | stdio, Streamable HTTP, SSE (legacy) | stdio |
| Auth | None | None |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Tools exposed | 72 | 7 |
| Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a |
| p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| MCP registry | `io.github.microsoft/playwright-mcp` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-28 | 2025-05-12 |
| Popularity | 37k stars, 5.3M npm/wk | 294 stars, 25k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | 1/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Playwright MCP.** Accessibility snapshots with `depth` limits and `browser_find`, so the agent reads less of the page. `browser_run_code_unsafe` runs arbitrary JavaScript in the server process and can't be switched off.

**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

### Playwright MCP

1. Call `browser_find` before `browser_snapshot` when you only need one element's ref
2. Pass `depth` or a `target` to `browser_snapshot` on large pages
3. Run with `--isolated` for untrusted sites. The default profile persists cookies between runs
4. Add `--caps` only for the groups the task needs. Each group adds tools to the schema
5. Pin a version in `npx @playwright/mcp@<version>`. 0.0.x releases can rename tools

### 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

## Other comparisons with Playwright MCP or Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)

- [Browserbase vs Playwright MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserbase-vs-playwright-mcp.md)
- [Browserbase vs Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browserbase-vs-puppeteer-reference-server-archived.md)
- [Chrome DevTools MCP vs Playwright MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/chrome-devtools-mcp-vs-playwright-mcp.md)
- [Chrome DevTools MCP vs Puppeteer (archived MCP reference server)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/chrome-devtools-mcp-vs-puppeteer-reference-server-archived.md)

## 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.