Browsers

Alternatives

The best cloud browser alternatives in 2026

Bug0 Browsers vs Browserbase, Browserless, Hyperbrowser, Steel.dev, Anchor Browser, and Cloudflare Browser Rendering.

Picking a cloud browser is mostly a pricing fight. We pulled each vendor's live pricing page, put the numbers in one table, and wrote down what we found. No rigged comparisons.

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Pricing accurate as of April 2026. We update as vendors change.

At a glance

Bug0 BrowsersBrowserbaseBrowserlessHyperbrowserSteel.devAnchor BrowserCloudflare Browser Rendering
Monthly minimum$0$0 free / $20+ paid$0 free / $25+ paidTrial / $30+ paid$0 free / $29+ paid$0 free / $50+ paid$0 free / $5 Workers Paid
Effective hourly rate$0.15$0.10 to $0.12 (overage)~$0.23 equiv. (Prototyping)$0.10 (credit-based)~$0.10 (credit-based)Credit-based, varies$0.09
Billing unitPer minutePer hour30-second unitsCreditsCreditsCredits per taskPer hour (Workers)
Free tier, no credit cardYesYesYes (1 min session cap)Trial onlyYesYesYes (Workers account)
Standard CDP URLYesYesYesYesYesYesYes
Live previewnoVNC on every sessionSession replaySession replaySession recordingLive session viewerLive viewNot documented
Self-host optionNoNoYes (commercial license)NoYes (open source)NoNo
Stealth / captcha built inNoYesYesYesYesYesNot documented
Proxies built inNoYes ($10 to $12/GB)Yes (residential)YesYesYes ($8/GB)Cloudflare network

01

Browserbase

Premium managed Chromium with Stagehand SDK and agent tooling.

Managed cloud Chromium, popular with AI agent builders. Ships a proprietary Stagehand SDK, session replay, stealth, and a Model Gateway.

Strengths

  • Category leader. Stealth, captcha solve, residential proxies, and session replay all work out of the box.
  • Stagehand SDK is well known in the agent community and well documented.
  • Polished dashboard with solid logs and debugging.

Limitations

  • Free tier is capped at 1 browser-hour and a 15-minute session limit.
  • To unlock real usage you pick a $20, $99, or custom plan. There is no pure pay-as-you-go path.
  • Several features (advanced stealth, higher concurrency) are gated behind the Scale plan.

Pricing

Free (1 hr, 3 concurrent, 15 min cap). Developer $20/mo (100 hrs, $0.12/hr overage). Startup $99/mo (500 hrs, $0.10/hr overage). Scale custom. Proxies $10 to $12 per GB.

When Bug0 Browsers is the better pick

  • No monthly plan to pick. You pay per minute from dollar one.
  • Free tier needs no credit card. No 15-minute session cap. Default session is 15 minutes, configurable up to 45.
  • Standard CDP URL. No proprietary SDK to learn. Existing Playwright or Puppeteer code runs unchanged.

Source: browserbase.com

02

Browserless

The original browser-as-a-service. Self-host or cloud, with Playwright, Puppeteer, and BrowserQL endpoints.

The longest-running cloud browser vendor. Managed cloud endpoints, a commercial self-hosting license, and its own BrowserQL automation language.

Strengths

  • Battle-tested. Teams have run production scrapers and screenshot pipelines on it for years.
  • Self-hosting option via commercial license. Useful for air-gapped or compliance-bound deployments.
  • Wide endpoint surface: Playwright, Puppeteer, BrowserQL, REST APIs for PDFs, screenshots, and Lighthouse.

Limitations

  • Billing is in 30-second units per connection. Two reconnects count as two fresh units, which makes costs hard to predict.
  • Free tier caps sessions at one minute, which rules out most real workloads.
  • Entry paid plan starts at $25 per month billed annually. No pure pay-as-you-go.

Pricing

Free (1,000 units/mo, 2 concurrent, 1 min session cap). Prototyping $25/mo annual (20k units). Starter $140/mo (180k units). Scale $350/mo (500k units). Unit = 30 seconds of connection time.

When Bug0 Browsers is the better pick

  • Flat per-minute billing. No 30-second unit math. No reconnect surcharges.
  • No 1-minute session cap on the free tier.
  • No monthly minimum. You stop paying when you stop using.

Source: www.browserless.io

03

Hyperbrowser

AI-agent-focused cloud browsers with proxies, session recording, and Python and Node SDKs.

A newer entrant aimed at AI agent builders. Credit-based billing, Python and Node SDKs.

Strengths

  • Built for AI agents. Session recording and stealth are there by default.
  • Cheap raw rate. Roughly $0.10 per browser-hour equivalent.
  • SDKs for both Python and Node.

Limitations

  • Credits hide the real cost. One browser-hour is 100 credits is $0.10. You end up doing the math to forecast a bill.
  • Entry plan is $30 per month plus usage. No pure pay-as-you-go.
  • Free trial details are not on the pricing page. Harder to evaluate before you sign up.

Pricing

Credit model, 1 credit = $0.001, 1 browser-hour = 100 credits = $0.10. Startup $30/mo plus usage (30k credits, 25 concurrent). Basic $99/mo. Premium $299/mo. Enterprise custom.

When Bug0 Browsers is the better pick

  • No credit system. The price on the page is the price you pay.
  • No monthly commitment to reach the paid tier.
  • Free tier is advertised up front: 10 browser-minutes, no credit card.

Source: www.hyperbrowser.ai

04

Steel.dev

Open-source browser API. Run it yourself with Docker or use the hosted tier.

Open-source cloud browser project with a hosted tier. Works with Puppeteer, Playwright, and Selenium via Python and Node SDKs.

Strengths

  • Open source. Self-host with Docker when compliance or cost demands it.
  • Free tier is unusually generous: $10 of monthly credits, about 100 browser-hours.
  • Sessions run up to 24 hours. Sub-one-second cold starts.

Limitations

  • Self-hosting means you own the ops work. Scaling, patching, observability, all on you.
  • Hosted tiers step up fast: $29, $99, $499 per month once you outgrow free credits.
  • Smaller community and fewer third-party integrations than Browserbase or Browserless.

Pricing

Hobby free ($10 credits, ~100 browser-hours). Starter $29/mo (290 hrs). Developers $99/mo (1,238 hrs). Startups $499/mo (9,980 hrs). Enterprise custom. Self-host is free.

When Bug0 Browsers is the better pick

  • Fully managed with no ops work, no Docker image to maintain.
  • Simple per-minute billing instead of monthly credit buckets.
  • Live noVNC preview on every session by default.

Source: steel.dev

05

Anchor Browser

Identity-first cloud browser for authenticated agent workflows.

Cloud browser built around authenticated agent workflows. Bundles OmniConnect auth and an enterprise VPN.

Strengths

  • OmniConnect handles auth into third-party services. Useful when your agent needs to log in as a human.
  • Cloudflare Web-Bot-Auth verified. Helps agents pass bot checks on supported sites.
  • Ships SDK and MCP integrations for common agent frameworks.

Limitations

  • Billed in credits: $1 per credit overage, 0.1 credits per completed task. Cost per minute is not the headline unit.
  • Paid plans start at $50 per month. Steep for early experiments.
  • Strong auth opinion. If you later want to swap providers, more code to unwind.

Pricing

Free (5 credits, 500 sessions, 5 concurrent). Starter $50/mo (50 credits, 25 concurrent). Team $500/mo. Growth $2,000/mo. Enterprise custom. Proxies $8/GB.

When Bug0 Browsers is the better pick

  • Predictable per-minute pricing instead of credits and tasks.
  • No auth layer lock-in. Bring your own auth strategy in code.
  • Much lower entry point: start free without a credit card, pay by the minute when you scale.

Source: anchorbrowser.io

06

Cloudflare Browser Rendering

Puppeteer-compatible browsers on Cloudflare Workers. Lowest raw hourly rate.

Cloudflare's browser platform, now marketed as Browser Rendering or Browser Run. Tightly wired into Workers and the Cloudflare edge.

Strengths

  • Cheapest raw rate in the list. $0.09 per browser-hour on Workers Paid.
  • Runs on Cloudflare's global network. Low cold starts.
  • CDP is exposed for external connections. You are not forced to run code inside Workers.

Limitations

  • Workers Paid plan at $5/mo is a hard floor. Plus $2 per additional averaged browser.
  • Public docs do not surface session recording or a live noVNC preview.
  • Going all-in pulls you into Workers. That is Cloudflare-specific lock-in on top of the $5/mo floor.

Pricing

Free: 10 min/day, 3 concurrent. Workers Paid $5/mo: 10 hrs/mo included, then $0.09/hr + $2 per additional averaged browser.

When Bug0 Browsers is the better pick

  • No platform lock-in. Connect from any host, any language, any cloud.
  • Live noVNC preview is included, not absent from the product surface.
  • No Workers Paid floor to cross before usage-based pricing kicks in.

Source: developers.cloudflare.com/browser-rendering/

Why teams pick Bug0 Browsers

Not the cheapest hourly rate on this page. The simplest and most predictable bill when the invoice lands.

No monthly minimum

Pay for what you use. No $20 to $500 plan to pick before the meter starts.

Per-minute billing

No credits, no 30-second units, no task counts. One rate: $0.15 per hour, billed per minute.

Free tier, no credit card

10 browser-minutes at sign-up. Fastest path from landing page to a working CDP URL.

Standard CDP, zero lock-in

No Stagehand, no OmniConnect, no Workers runtime. Existing Playwright and Puppeteer code runs unchanged.

Live noVNC preview

Watch every session in real time. Included on every plan, not gated behind a higher tier.

One thing, done well

Real cloud Chromium over CDP. No proxy tables, no credit math, no platform opinions.

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Frequently asked questions

What is the best Browserbase alternative?

Depends on what you care about. Bug0 Browsers if you want per-minute billing and no monthly plan. Steel.dev if you want open source and the option to self-host. Cloudflare Browser Rendering if you are already on Workers and want the cheapest raw rate.

Is there a free alternative to Browserless?

Yes. Bug0 Browsers, Browserbase, Steel.dev, Anchor Browser, and Cloudflare Browser Rendering all offer free tiers without a credit card. Bug0 Browsers gives you 10 browser-minutes at sign-up with no 1-minute session cap.

Can I use Playwright with any cloud browser?

If the provider exposes a standard Chrome DevTools Protocol URL, yes. Bug0 Browsers, Browserbase, Browserless, Hyperbrowser, Steel.dev, and Cloudflare Browser Rendering all do. You connect with chromium.connectOverCDP(url) and your existing Playwright code runs unchanged.

Which cloud browser is cheapest?

On raw hourly rate: Cloudflare Browser Rendering at $0.09/hr. Then Hyperbrowser, Steel.dev, and Browserbase Startup overage around $0.10/hr. Bug0 Browsers is $0.15/hr, but with no monthly minimum, light or spiky workloads often pay less than on a $20 to $50 plan.

What is the best cloud browser for AI agents?

Anchor Browser if you need authenticated agent workflows out of the box. Browserbase and Hyperbrowser both lean agent-focused too. Bug0 Browsers works for MCP and agent use cases through a standard CDP URL, with a live noVNC preview so you can watch the agent browse.

Do I need to rewrite code when moving from Browserbase or Browserless to Bug0 Browsers?

No. Bug0 Browsers exposes a standard CDP URL. The only change in your Playwright or Puppeteer code is the WebSocket endpoint. If you are on a proprietary SDK like Stagehand, you switch back to vanilla Playwright. Usually a small diff.