# Puppeteer vs Skyvern

> Puppeteer scores 70.6 (BB) to Skyvern's 63.1 (B) for browser automation. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/puppeteer-vs-skyvern
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/puppeteer-vs-skyvern.md (~2,650 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/puppeteer-vs-skyvern.min.md (~780 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/puppeteer-vs-skyvern.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-14

Puppeteer scores 70.6 (BB) on agent readiness against Skyvern's 63.1 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Skyvern leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics and security & auth. Both do browser automation.

- Puppeteer: grade BB, 70.6/100, rank #154 of 1076. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/puppeteer.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/puppeteer.json
- Skyvern: grade B, 63.1/100, rank #435 of 1076. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/skyvern.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/skyvern.json
- Best browser automation tools for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/browser/index.md
- All 120 browser comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/browser/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Puppeteer (BB)

Good for: Agents that write and run Node.js scripts against Chrome or Firefox.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 80 against 57
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 32

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- No key needed to call it
- No incidents deducted, where Skyvern loses 3 points for them

Watch for: No MCP server, CLI or llms.txt of its own. The docs point agents to the separate chrome-devtools-mcp project

### Skyvern (B)

Good for: Agents that must finish a multi-step job on sites with logins, 2FA and forms, where stored credentials, saved workflows and cached scripts matter more than raw browser time.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 88 against 81
- Agent ergonomics, 76 against 67
- Security & auth, 59 against 52

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Runs on your own machine
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: Every API key and OAuth token has full organisation authority. The docs state there are no read-only, per-endpoint or per-resource keys


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Puppeteer | Skyvern | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 80 | 57 | Puppeteer +23 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 81 | 88 | Skyvern +7 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 76 | Skyvern +9 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 52 | 59 | Skyvern +7 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 32 | Puppeteer +28 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 89 | 85 | Puppeteer +4 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 70 | 72 | Skyvern +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -3 | |
| **Total** | | **70.6 · BB** | **63.1 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Puppeteer | Skyvern |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | SDK + MCP | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Google | Ikonomos Inc. (Skyvern) |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.skyvern.com/v1` |
| Transports |  | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 for the open-source server, SDKs and MCP server. Skyvern Cloud is a proprietary service under Skyvern's terms, and its anti-bot measures aren't in the repository |
| Tools exposed | none | 114 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `io.github.Skyvern-AI/skyvern` |
| Last release | 2026-10-08 | 2026-10-01 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-02-27 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-10-01 |
| Customer content may train models |  | yes, with an opt-out |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | yes |
| Popularity | 96k stars, 11.5M npm/wk | 23k stars, 3.2k npm/wk, 1.6k PyPI/wk |

## Verdicts

**Puppeteer.** Puppeteer is a stable, Apache-2.0 library on 25.13.0, with ten releases since 27 July 2026, typed APIs, locators that wait and retry, and accessibility snapshots an agent can read. It has no MCP server or llms.txt of its own, and 10 of the 20 most recent CI runs on main failed between 7 and 13 October 2026.

**Skyvern.** The hosted MCP server annotates every tool as read-only or destructive and can advertise a 29 or 32-tool subset in place of 114, and the API has a written six-month deprecation policy. Every key and OAuth token carries full organisation authority, with no read-only or scoped credential, and no request rate limits are documented.

## Before you call either

### Puppeteer

1. Install with `npm i puppeteer`, which downloads a matching Chrome for Testing. Use `puppeteer-core` to bring your own browser
2. Prefer `page.locator()` over `page.$()`. Locators wait for the element to be visible and stable before acting
3. Read pages with `page.accessibility.snapshot({interestingOnly: true})` rather than full HTML to keep output short
4. Catch `TimeoutError` separately from `TargetCloseError`. The first can be retried, the second needs a new page or browser
5. Packages are ESM only since 25.0.0. Use `import puppeteer from 'puppeteer'` rather than `require`

### Skyvern

1. Connect to https://api.skyvern.com/mcp/x/lean or /x/operate, or send `X-Skyvern-Scope`, so the client loads 32 or 29 tools. The scope filters the list and does not limit permissions
2. Use a separate Skyvern organisation for each blast radius. Any key or OAuth token can read and write stored credentials and delete workflows
3. Never pass passwords to `skyvern_act` or `skyvern_type`. Store them as credentials and call `skyvern_login`
4. Set `max_steps` on tasks, or `x-max-steps-override` on agent runs, to cap credits. A run that reaches the cap ends as `timed_out`
5. On 503 from POST /v1/run/agents, wait `Retry-After` seconds. No run was created, so resubmitting is safe

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Puppeteer or Skyvern?

Puppeteer scores 70.6 (BB) on agent readiness against Skyvern's 63.1 (B), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Skyvern leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics and security & auth.

### Can an agent call Puppeteer and Skyvern without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Puppeteer. Skyvern has a hosted endpoint at https://api.skyvern.com/v1.

### Are Puppeteer and Skyvern open source?

Yes. Puppeteer is open source (Apache-2.0). Skyvern is open source (AGPL-3.0 for the open-source server, SDKs and MCP server. Skyvern Cloud is a proprietary service under Skyvern's terms, and its anti-bot measures aren't in the repository).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/puppeteer-vs-skyvern.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/puppeteer-vs-skyvern.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "puppeteer", "b": "skyvern"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare puppeteer skyvern`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/puppeteer.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/skyvern.json

## Other comparisons with Puppeteer or Skyvern

- [agent-browser vs Puppeteer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-browser-vs-puppeteer.md)
- [agent-browser vs Skyvern](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-browser-vs-skyvern.md)
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