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Self-hosted Playwright

The baseline: run Chromium in your own container and own everything

playwright.devplaywright.dev/docs/dockergithub.com/microsoft/playwright
Overall in browser apis
12of 14 · score 63.7
Data coverage
92%
24 of 26 fields sourced

Best for

  • •Internal tools, tests and sites you control
  • •Steady, predictable volume where compute cost dominates
  • •Anyone needing a browser physically in Australia

Strong on

  • +Session replay Yes 1/14
  • +Open-source core Yes 1/14
  • +GitHub stars 73,000 2/10
  • +Funding stage open-source 3/14
  • +Per browser-hour $0.03/browser-hour 3/9

Weak on

  • −Stealth mode No 13/14
    Better: Browserbase: Yes
  • −CAPTCHA solving No 13/14
    Better: Browserbase: Yes
  • −Live view No 11/14
    Better: Browserbase: Yes
  • −Pricing model infrastructure 14/14
    Better: Browserbase: per-hour

vs Bright Data Browser API

  • •Ahead on Open-source core: Yes vs No
  • •Ahead on GitHub stars: 73,000 vs 2,700
  • •Behind on Stealth mode: No vs Yes
  • •Behind on CAPTCHA solving: No vs Yes

How Self-hosted Playwright scores among 14 browser apis24 of 26 fields known

Reliability & anti-bot5

Anti-bot pass rate
—
Stealth mode
No
13/14
Leader: Browserbase · Yes
CAPTCHA solving
No
13/14
Leader: Browserbase · Yes
Residential proxy
byo-only
13/14
Leader: Airtop · included
Cold start
2s
4/4
Leader: Kernel · 30ms

Features10

CDP endpoint1st
Yes
1/14
Playwright1st
Yes
1/14
Puppeteer1st
Yes
1/14
Session persistence1st
Yes
1/14
Live view
No
11/14
Leader: Browserbase · Yes
Session replay1st
Yes
1/14
Max concurrency
—
File downloads1st
Yes
1/14
Chrome extensions1st
Yes
1/12
Browser regions
self-hosted
7/12
Leader: Hyperbrowser · us-central, us-east, us-west, europe-west, asia-south

Agentic3

Agent API
No
9/14
Leader: Hyperbrowser · Yes
MCP server1st
Yes
1/14
github.com · 2026-07-01
Human handoff
No
9/14
Leader: Browserless · Yes

Pricing3

Pricing model
infrastructure
14/14
Leader: Browserbase · per-hour
Per browser-hour3rd
$0.03/browser-hour
3/9
Leader: ZenRows · $0/browser-hour
Free tier1st
Yes
1/14

Traction3

GitHub stars2nd
73,000
2/10
Leader: Browser Use · 120,216
Funding stage3rd
open-source
3/14
Leader: Cloudflare Browser Rendering · public
Open-source core1st
Yes
1/14
github.com · 2026-07-01

Positioning2

Positioning
The reference point every hosted browser is priced against
Launched
2020
11/14
Leader: Browserbase · 2024

Alternatives8

Compare

Sources2