Alternatives / Browserbase
A Browserbase alternative without the SDK or the plan picker
Standard CDP URL. Pay-per-minute from dollar one. No Stagehand, no plan tiers, same Playwright code.
Browserbase bundles session replay, residential proxies, and the Stagehand SDK. If all three are load-bearing for your workload, that's the bundle's case. This page is for everyone else. You already have Playwright code and you want a cloud Chromium endpoint without learning a new SDK or picking between $20, $99, and Scale tiers up front.
Free tier · $0.15/hour after · No credit card
Side by side
| Bug0 Browsers | Browserbase | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly minimum | $0 | $0 free / $20+ paid |
| Effective hourly rate | $0.15 | $0.10 to $0.12 (overage) |
| Billing unit | Per minute | Per hour |
| Free tier, no credit card | Yes | Yes |
| Standard CDP URL | Yes | Yes |
| Live preview | noVNC on every session | Session replay |
| Self-host option | No | No |
| Stealth / captcha built in | No | Yes |
| Proxies built in | No | Yes ($10 to $12/GB) |
Pricing accurate as of April 2026. We update as Browserbase changes theirs.
Migrate in three lines
If you're on Stagehand, you're already over CDP. The migration is dropping Stagehand-specific calls and using Playwright directly.
Browserbase + Stagehand
import { Stagehand } from "@browserbasehq/stagehand";
const stagehand = new Stagehand({ env: "BROWSERBASE" });
await stagehand.init();
const page = stagehand.page;Bug0 + Playwright
import { Bug0 } from "@bug0/sdk";
import { chromium } from "playwright";
const bug0 = new Bug0({ apiKey: process.env.BUG0_API_KEY });
const { cdpUrl } = await bug0.createBrowser();
const browser = await chromium.connectOverCDP(cdpUrl);
const page = browser.contexts()[0].pages()[0];If your Stagehand code uses act() or extract(), those move to Playwright equivalents. The CDP plumbing underneath is the same.
Where Browserbase wins
- Managed Chromium with session replay, residential proxies, captcha solve, and a Stagehand SDK in the box.
- Stagehand SDK is well known in the agent community and well documented.
- Polished dashboard with solid logs and debugging.
Where Bug0 wins
- 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.
Pricing math
Browserbase Developer is $20/mo for 100 hours, then $0.12/hr overage. Bug0 is $0.15/hr from minute one. Crossover is at ~267 hours/month. Below that, Bug0 is cheaper. Past ~267 hours/month of steady, predictable usage, Browserbase Developer's plan rate gets to a lower bill. That's provided you'll actually hit those hours. The $20/mo is paid whether you do or not, so spiky or seasonal usage pays more on a plan than per minute.
Frequently asked questions
Is Bug0 a true Browserbase alternative?
For the cloud-Chromium-over-CDP slice of Browserbase, yes. Connect with Playwright or Puppeteer the same way. For Stagehand, session replay, or built-in residential proxies, no. Those are Browserbase's territory.
Will my Browserbase Playwright code work on Bug0?
Yes, with one URL change. If you used Browserbase's @browserbasehq/sdk to create a session, swap it for @bug0/sdk and call createBrowser(). The chromium.connectOverCDP line is identical.
What about Stagehand?
Stagehand is Browserbase's act/extract layer for agents. Bug0 doesn't ship an equivalent. If you used it, you swap to vanilla Playwright. If you didn't, nothing to do.
Pricing comparison?
Bug0 is $0.15/hr billed per minute, no minimum. Browserbase Developer is $20/mo + $0.12/hr overage. Below ~267 hr/mo, Bug0 is cheaper. Above, Browserbase Developer is cheaper.
Can I keep my Browserbase account and use both?
Nothing stops you, but two-vendor billing rarely pays off. Once your code talks vanilla Playwright over CDP, Bug0 covers the same browser substrate. The narrow exception: workloads that genuinely depend on Browserbase's residential proxies or stealth bundle, where you'd otherwise add those yourself on Bug0.
Free tier?
10 browser-minutes free, no credit card. Browserbase free is 1 hour but capped at 15-min sessions and 3 concurrent.