Anchor alternatives, measured.

The main Anchor alternatives are Browser Use Cloud, Kernel, Browserbase, Browserless, Steel and Hyperbrowser. On Stealth Bench V2 (100 bot-protected sites, picked where Browser Use Cloud historically got through and stock Chrome did not), Browser Use Cloud got through on 90.5% of visits vs Anchor 82%, at $0.02 per browser-hour vs $0.05 plus $0.01 per browser created. Anchor's draw is managed logins: it keeps agents signed in to third-party apps.

Create a browser How we measured

PromptQA my website end to end. Test signup, checkout, mobile layout, and console and network errors. Return screenshots and a prioritized fix list.

Side by side

Browser Use Cloud Anchor

Got through, 100 bot-protected sites 90.5% 82%

Price per browser-hour $0.02, pay as you go, billed by the minute, no subscription $0.05, plus $0.01 per browser created; full stealth from the $2,000/month Growth plan

Residential proxies $5/GB, residential, pay as you go $8/GB

Session lifecycle, BrowserArena 386 ms 2,960 ms

Plans No subscription. $1 one-time credit for eligible Google, GitHub, or Microsoft signups, then pay as you go; Enterprise agreements on request Free credits, then $50 or $2,000/month

Self-hosting On-prem for enterprise, through sales. The open-source browser-use library (MIT) runs on your own machine Bring your own cloud or on-prem, on the Enterprise plan

Source: Stealth Bench V2, Anchor pricing, BrowserArena, checked October 24, 2026.

Every provider: stealth, price and speed.

Stealth is our benchmark, with code and raw results public. Prices are from each provider's own page. Session times are from two benchmarks we do not run.

Anchor and its alternatives compared on stealth, price and session latency
Provider	Got through Stealth Bench V2	Price per browser-hour	Session lifecycle BrowserArena	Lifecycle score ComputeSDK
Browser Use Cloud	90.5%	$0.02pay as you go, billed by the minute, no subscription · pricing	386 ms	97.0
Anchor	82%	$0.05plus $0.01 per browser created; full stealth from the $2,000/month Growth plan · source	2,960 ms	Not tested
Kernel	80.5%	$0.06 to $0.48headless to headful, billed per second; plans $0 to $200/month · source	366 ms	97.7
Browserbase	78.5%	$0.10 to $0.12after 100 or 500 hours included in $20 or $99/month plans · source	662 ms	95.0
Browserless	77.5%	$0.18 to $0.24overage, billed in 30-second units; plans $25 to $350/month · source	No result	Not tested
Steel	74.5%	$0.08 to $0.10$0.08 on the $250/month Scale plan; stealth browser on Enterprise · source	1,462 ms	84.8
Hyperbrowser	73.5%	$0.10billed in credits; plans $0 to $100/month, Free includes 5,000 credits · source	1,005 ms	94.3

Browser Use Cloud
Got through
90.5%
Per browser-hour
$0.02
BrowserArena lifecycle
386 ms
ComputeSDK score
97.0
pay as you go, billed by the minute, no subscription · pricing
Anchor
Got through
82%
Per browser-hour
$0.05
BrowserArena lifecycle
2,960 ms
ComputeSDK score
Not tested
plus $0.01 per browser created; full stealth from the $2,000/month Growth plan · source
Kernel
Got through
80.5%
Per browser-hour
$0.06 to $0.48
BrowserArena lifecycle
366 ms
ComputeSDK score
97.7
headless to headful, billed per second; plans $0 to $200/month · source
Browserbase
Got through
78.5%
Per browser-hour
$0.10 to $0.12
BrowserArena lifecycle
662 ms
ComputeSDK score
95.0
after 100 or 500 hours included in $20 or $99/month plans · source
Browserless
Got through
77.5%
Per browser-hour
$0.18 to $0.24
BrowserArena lifecycle
No result
ComputeSDK score
Not tested
overage, billed in 30-second units; plans $25 to $350/month · source
Steel
Got through
74.5%
Per browser-hour
$0.08 to $0.10
BrowserArena lifecycle
1,462 ms
ComputeSDK score
84.8
$0.08 on the $250/month Scale plan; stealth browser on Enterprise · source
Hyperbrowser
Got through
73.5%
Per browser-hour
$0.10
BrowserArena lifecycle
1,005 ms
ComputeSDK score
94.3
billed in credits; plans $0 to $100/month, Free includes 5,000 credits · source

Got through: share of 200 visits (100 bot-protected sites, 2 runs) where a blind judge confirmed the real site loaded, measured September 25, 2026. Every provider ran with its own proxy and CAPTCHA solver, and the stealth setting its standard plans offer (Steel's have none); Browserbase on its standard mode, since Verified needs an Enterprise plan; Hyperbrowser on its standard stealth mode, since Ultra Stealth needs an Enterprise plan. The 100 sites were picked because Browser Use Cloud historically got through where stock Chrome with a US proxy did not. They are hard on purpose and not a balanced sample of the web or of anti-bot vendors. Method and raw results.
Prices: each provider's public pricing page, checked October 24, 2026.
Session lifecycle: Sum of the median times to create a session, connect over CDP, load a page and release it, over 200 sequential runs after 20 warm-ups. Lower is better. Run of October 26, 2026. Browserbase: tested in us-west-2 from a us-east-1 runner. Browserless: all 200 runs failed to connect (401), so there is no number. BrowserArena.
Lifecycle score: Composite lifecycle score from median and tail total latency plus create latency, times success rate. Higher is better. Run of October 23, 2026. ComputeSDK.

Moving a Playwright script takes one connect URL.

Both are Chromium over CDP, so selectors, waits and screenshots carry over. You swap one SDK for the other, and browsers.stop() replaces deleteSession(). Stealth, CAPTCHA solving and residential proxies are on by default. The Anchor code follows its quickstart. Full Playwright guide.

import { chromium } from "playwright-core";import { client, Sessions } from "anchorbrowser"; client.setConfig({ auth: () => process.env.ANCHOR_API_KEY });const session = await Sessions.createSession(); const browser = await chromium.connectOverCDP(  session.data.cdp_url,);const page = browser.contexts()[0].pages()[0];await page.goto("https://example.com"); await Sessions.deleteSession({  path: { session_id: session.data.id },});

before.ts·Playwright over CDP

Open source, and what you can run yourself.

Anchor runs in your own cloud or on-prem only on its Enterprise plan. Its open-source code is the client side: the TypeScript SDK (Apache-2.0) and an MCP server built on Playwright MCP (Apache-2.0). To run a browser server yourself, check these licences:

browser-use, the agent library: MIT. Runs agents on your own Chrome or on Browser Use Cloud. The cloud browsers are hosted, or on-prem for enterprise customers through sales.
steel-browser: Apache-2.0, self-hosted with Docker.
kernel-images: Apache-2.0, runs as a Docker container.
browserless: SSPL-1.0 or a commercial license. Its README says closed-source commercial use needs the commercial license.

When to pick which

Browser Use Cloud: Most sites let you in, lowest price per hour, no subscription. Also a hosted agent when you want the task done, not just a browser. The browser-use agent library is open source (MIT).
Anchor: Your agents sign in to third-party apps. Its managed authentication stores an identity and signs in again before each session, with email OTP, TOTP, 1Password and custom MFA, from the Starter ($50/month) plan. Second on Stealth Bench V2 at 82%, with Extra Stealth on its Growth ($2,000/month) plan.
Kernel: Session start time matters most. Fastest of this group on both third-party lifecycle benchmarks.
Browserbase: Stagehand is central to your stack, you run Selenium, or you want Search, Fetch and Functions from the same vendor.
Browserless: You want to self-host with Docker or Kubernetes, or need Firefox and WebKit next to Chrome.
Steel: You want open-source browser infrastructure you can run yourself.
Hyperbrowser: You want scraping and crawl APIs and sandboxes from the same vendor.

Questions people ask

What are the main Anchor alternatives?

Browser Use Cloud, Kernel, Browserbase, Browserless, Steel and Hyperbrowser. On Stealth Bench V2, 100 sites that block bots, they got through on 90.5%, 80.5%, 78.5%, 77.5%, 74.5%, 73.5% of visits respectively; Anchor got through on 82%.

Is Browser Use Cloud cheaper than Anchor?

Per hour, yes. Browser Use Cloud is $0.02 per browser-hour, pay as you go, billed by the minute, with residential proxies at $5/GB. Anchor is $0.05 per browser-hour plus $0.01 per browser created; full stealth from the $2,000/month Growth plan, with residential proxies at $8/GB, per its pricing page. Its plans are Free credits, then $50 or $2,000/month. Anchor also bills saved automation tasks at $0.10 per run, or the session's browser, proxy and AI-step cost if that is higher.

Is Anchor faster than Browser Use Cloud?

No. On BrowserArena's October 26, 2026 run, the session lifecycle (sum of step medians) was 386 ms for Browser Use Cloud and 2,960 ms for Anchor. ComputeSDK has not tested Anchor. Kernel was fastest in this table (366 ms); Tilion, which is not in the stealth benchmark, was fastest on both.

Can I self-host Anchor, and is it open source?

Anchor runs in your own cloud or on-prem only on its Enterprise plan, per its pricing page. Its SDKs and an MCP server built on Playwright MCP are open source (Apache-2.0). Browser Use Cloud is hosted by default. On-prem deployment of browsers and agents is available to enterprise customers through sales. The browser-use agent library is MIT and runs on your own Chrome. Steel (Apache-2.0) and Kernel (Apache-2.0) publish browser images you can run yourself.

How do I move Playwright code from Anchor?

Swap the anchorbrowser SDK for browser-use-sdk: client.browsers.create() returns a cdpUrl, which goes to connectOverCDP where you passed session.data.cdp_url. Call client.browsers.stop(id) where you called Sessions.deleteSession(); closing the CDP connection does not stop billing. Anchor identities and profiles stay on Anchor; on Browser Use Cloud, sign in again or sync a local login into a profile.

How was stealth measured, and was it fair to Anchor?

Share of 200 scheduled visits (100 sites × 2 runs) where a judge model, shown the page without the provider name, confirmed the real site loaded within 60 seconds. Anchor ran with its residential proxy, CAPTCHA solver and Extra Stealth on; Extra Stealth needs its Growth ($2,000/month) plan. An independent rerun put Anchor at 85% and Browser Use Cloud at 90%. The 100 sites were picked because Browser Use Cloud historically got through where stock Chrome with a US proxy did not. They are hard on purpose and not a balanced sample of the web or of anti-bot vendors. Runner, encrypted site list and raw results are public.