# Playwright MCP vs Steel (slim)

> Steel scores 70.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Playwright MCP's 67.6 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Playwright MCP leads on agent ergonomics and transparency & trust. Both do browser automation. Steel accepts x402. Playwright MCP doesn't. Category scores, facts…

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/playwright-mcp-vs-steel.md (~2,400 tokens) · this version ~830 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/playwright-mcp-vs-steel.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/playwright-mcp-vs-steel
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-08

Steel scores 70.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Playwright MCP's 67.6 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Playwright MCP leads on agent ergonomics and transparency & trust. Both do browser automation. Steel accepts x402. Playwright MCP doesn't.

- Playwright MCP: B 67.6, rank #189 of 629 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/playwright-mcp.min.md
- Steel: BB 70.4, rank #129 of 629 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/steel.min.md
- Playwright MCP, good for The default choice for an agent that drives web pages by structure rather than pixels. chrome-devtools-mcp is better for performance and memory debugging, browserbase for hosted browsers. Ahead on Agent ergonomics, 84 against 79; Transparency & trust, 72 against 64. Also No key needed to call it.
- Steel, good for Agents that need a real cloud browser with persistent profiles, stored logins, CAPTCHA solving and a human takeover path, and teams that want an open-source runtime they can also self-host. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 86 against 70; Payments & pricing, 75 against 60. Also Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better; An agent can pay per call over x402, with no account; A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install; Free to start without a card.

| Category | Playwright MCP | Steel |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 57 | 58 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 70 | 86 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 84 | 79 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 57 | 56 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 75 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 84 | 82 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 72 | 64 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Playwright MCP | Steel |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Microsoft | Nen Labs, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.steel.dev` |
| Transports | stdio, Streamable HTTP, SSE (legacy) | HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| x402 | no | yes, from $0.01/call |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Proprietary cloud service under Steel's terms. steel-browser and the Node and Python SDKs are Apache-2.0. The MCP server and the CLI are MIT |
| Tools exposed | 72 | none |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.github.microsoft/playwright-mcp` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-09-28 | 2026-10-02 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2025-02-05 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-02-05 |
| Customer content may train models |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | yes |
| Popularity | 37k stars, 5.3M npm/wk | 47k npm/wk, 63k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | none |