---
title: Browserless
slug: browserless
url: "https://toolweight.com/options/browserless"
homepage: "https://www.browserless.io"
categories: browser-automation-apis
last_verified: 2026-07-01
license: CC-BY-4.0
---

# Browserless

> Self-hostable headless Chrome service; BrowserQL for bot-heavy sites

Browserless is the oldest product here and the only one most teams have already run in Docker. The cloud service bills time in short units and exposes the same CDP endpoint as the self-hosted image, so moving between them is a URL change. BrowserQL, its newer GraphQL-style API, is the stealth-first path: declarative navigation with challenge handling and a live takeover URL built in.

## Identity

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| Name | Browserless |
| Company | Browserless |
| One-liner | Self-hostable headless Chrome service; BrowserQL for bot-heavy sites |
| Site | https://www.browserless.io |
| Docs | https://docs.browserless.io |
| Repo | https://github.com/browserless/browserless |
| Founded | 2018 |
| Open source | Yes |
| Compared in | 1 |

## Where it is compared

### [Browser APIs](https://toolweight.com/compare/browser-automation-apis)
Ranked **#7 of 13** on default weights.
| Field | Value | Confidence | Verified | Source | Note |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Anti-bot pass rate | - | Unknown | - | - | Panel not yet run. |
| Stealth mode | ● | Vendor-claimed | 2026-07-01 | https://docs.browserless.io/browserql/start | BrowserQL is the stealth-first API; the classic REST endpoints are weaker. |
| CAPTCHA solving | ● | Vendor-claimed | 2026-07-01 | https://docs.browserless.io/browserql/bot-detection/solving-captchas | Verify/solve mutations in BrowserQL. |
| Residential proxy | metered-extra | Inferred | - | - | - |
| Cold start | - | Unknown | - | - | - |
| CDP endpoint | ● | Vendor-claimed | 2026-07-01 | https://docs.browserless.io | - |
| Playwright | ● | Vendor-claimed | 2026-07-01 | https://docs.browserless.io/examples/playwright-connection | - |
| Puppeteer | ● | Vendor-claimed | 2026-07-01 | https://docs.browserless.io/examples/puppeteer-connection | - |
| Session persistence | ◐ | Inferred | - | - | Reconnect and keep-alive hold a session open; durable named profiles are a self-host concern. |
| Live view | ● | Inferred | - | - | BrowserQL exposes a live URL you can embed for takeover. |
| Session replay | ◐ | Inferred | - | - | Recording is possible via the function API rather than retained automatically. |
| Max concurrency | - | Unknown | - | - | - |
| File downloads | ● | Vendor-claimed | 2026-07-01 | https://docs.browserless.io/baas/features/file-transfers | - |
| Chrome extensions | ◐ | Inferred | - | - | Straightforward when self-hosting; constrained on the shared cloud. |
| Browser regions | us-west, eu-west, eu-central | Inferred | - | - | San Francisco, London and Amsterdam production regions; no AU. |
| Agent API | ○ | Inferred | - | - | - |
| MCP server | ● | Inferred | - | - | Vendor MCP server exists; confirm the package before relying on it. |
| Human handoff | ● | Inferred | - | - | Live URL hands control to a person mid-script and returns it. |
| Pricing model | per-hour | Inferred | - | - | Billed in short time units rather than whole hours. |
| Per browser-hour | - | Unknown | - | - | Unit-based pricing varies enough by plan that a single hourly figure would mislead. |
| Free tier | ◐ | Inferred | - | - | Time-limited trial rather than an ongoing free allowance. |
| GitHub stars | 10,000 | Inferred | - | - | Rounded. |
| Funding stage | bootstrapped | Inferred | - | - | No publicly reported venture round. |
| Open-source core | ● | Vendor-claimed | 2026-07-01 | https://github.com/browserless/browserless | Docker image is the same service the cloud runs; check the current licence terms before commercial self-hosting. |
| Positioning | Headless browser automation you can host yourself | Inferred | - | - | - |
| Launched | 2018 | Inferred | - | - | - |

**Verdict.** The pragmatic choice when you want the option to bring everything in-house later: the cloud and the container speak the same protocol. BrowserQL is a genuinely different product bolted alongside the classic API, and the two have diverging capabilities, which makes the docs harder work than they should be.

## Alternatives

- [Airtop](https://toolweight.com/options/airtop), Natural-language browser API, describe the page, skip the selectors
- [Anchor Browser](https://toolweight.com/options/anchor-browser), Cloud browsers built around authenticated sessions and human takeover
- [Apify](https://toolweight.com/options/apify), Actor platform for scraping and agents, with Crawlee as the open-source core
- [Bright Data Browser API](https://toolweight.com/options/bright-data-browser-api), CDP browsers on a 70M+ residential IP network with challenge handling built in
- [Browserbase](https://toolweight.com/options/browserbase), Managed headless browsers for AI agents, with Stagehand as the SDK
- [Cloudflare Browser Rendering](https://toolweight.com/options/cloudflare-browser-rendering), Puppeteer and Playwright bindings for Workers, plus REST render endpoints
- [Hyperbrowser](https://toolweight.com/options/hyperbrowser), Agent-first browsers with hosted scrape, crawl and CUA endpoints
- [Kernel](https://toolweight.com/options/kernel), Fast-starting browsers plus a runtime for deploying browser agents
- [Self-hosted Playwright](https://toolweight.com/options/playwright-self-hosted), The baseline: run Chromium in your own container and own everything
- [ScrapingBee](https://toolweight.com/options/scrapingbee), One-call HTML API with JavaScript rendering and premium proxy tiers
- [Steel.dev](https://toolweight.com/options/steel-dev), Open-source browser API for AI agents, hosted or self-run
- [ZenRows](https://toolweight.com/options/zenrows), Scraper API plus a CDP scraping browser on a shared residential pool

## Licence and attribution

Data from toolweight (https://toolweight.com), licensed CC-BY-4.0.

- Licence: [CC-BY-4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
- Canonical HTML: https://toolweight.com/options/browserless
- Machine-readable: https://toolweight.com/options/browserless.md · https://toolweight.com/api/v1 · https://toolweight.com/mcp
- toolweight takes no affiliate revenue and sells no placements. Corrections: https://toolweight.com/suggest