Browser Use

Comparison

Hyperbrowser alternatives, measured.

The main Hyperbrowser alternatives are Browser Use Cloud, Anchor, Kernel, Browserbase, Browserless and Steel. 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 Hyperbrowser 73.5%, at $0.02 per browser-hour vs $0.10. Hyperbrowser also sells sandboxes and fetch, crawl and search APIs; to run the browser server yourself, look at Steel or Browserless.

Create a browserHow we measured

Browser Use Cloud: 90.5% got through. 8.5 points ahead of Anchor, the next best.

  • Browser Use Cloud90.5%
  • Anchor82%
  • Kernel80.5%
  • Browserbase78.5%
  • Browserless77.5%
  • Steel74.5%
  • Hyperbrowser73.5%

Got through · longer is better · scale 0–100%

Stealth Bench V2 · updated 2026-09-25 · all benchmarks

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.

90.5%
got through on 100 bot-protected sites; Hyperbrowser 73.5%
$0.02 / hour
pay as you go; Hyperbrowser $0.10, paid in credits
493 ms
median session lifecycle on BrowserArena; Hyperbrowser 1,417 ms

Stealth, price and speed, side by side.

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.

  • Browser Use Cloud

    Got through
    90.5%
    Per browser-hour
    $0.02
    BrowserArena median
    493 ms
    ComputeSDK score
    95.2

    pay as you go, billed by the minute, no subscription · pricing

  • Anchor

    Got through
    82%
    Per browser-hour
    $0.05
    BrowserArena median
    2,800 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 median
    318 ms
    ComputeSDK score
    96.4

    headless to headful, billed per GB-second; plans $0 to $200/month · source

  • Browserbase

    Got through
    78.5%
    Per browser-hour
    $0.10 to $0.12
    BrowserArena median
    877 ms
    ComputeSDK score
    92.8

    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 median
    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 median
    3,509 ms
    ComputeSDK score
    77.2

    $0.08 on the $250/month Scale plan; stealth browser on Enterprise · source

  • Hyperbrowser

    Got through
    73.5%
    Per browser-hour
    $0.10
    BrowserArena median
    1,417 ms
    ComputeSDK score
    94.0

    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 15, 2026.
  • Session lifecycle: Median time to create a session, connect over CDP, load a page and release it, over 100 sequential runs. Lower is better. Run of October 14, 2026. Browserless: all 100 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 9, 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 sessions.stop(). Stealth, CAPTCHA solving and residential proxies are on by default. The Hyperbrowser code follows its Playwright docs. Full Playwright guide.
import { chromium } from "playwright-core";import { Hyperbrowser } from "@hyperbrowser/sdk"; const client = new Hyperbrowser({ apiKey: process.env.HYPERBROWSER_API_KEY });const session = await client.sessions.create(); const browser = await chromium.connectOverCDP(session.wsEndpoint);const page = browser.contexts()[0].pages()[0];await page.goto("https://example.com"); await client.sessions.stop(session.id);
before.tsPlaywright over CDP

Open source, and what you can run yourself.

Hyperbrowser's docs list no self-hosted option for its browsers. Its agent framework, HyperAgent, is AGPL-3.0. If you want to run the 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 themselves are a hosted service.
  • 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).
Hyperbrowser
You want sandboxes for agents and fetch, crawl and search APIs on the same account and credits as your browsers. Its browsers are hosted only; to run them yourself, pick Steel or Browserless.
Anchor
Second on Stealth Bench V2 at 82%, with managed logins for agents that sign in to third-party apps.
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.

Questions people ask

What are the main Hyperbrowser alternatives?

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

Is Browser Use Cloud cheaper than Hyperbrowser?

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. Hyperbrowser is $0.10 per browser-hour, paid in credits at the same rate on every plan, with proxy data at $10/GB, per its pricing page. Its plans run from $0 to $100/month, and the Free plan's 5,000 credits cover about 50 browser hours. Its sandboxes and fetch, scrape and search calls are billed from the same credits.

Is Hyperbrowser faster than Browser Use Cloud?

No. On BrowserArena's October 14, 2026 run, the median time to create, connect, load and release a session was 493 ms for Browser Use Cloud and 1,417 ms for Hyperbrowser. ComputeSDK's October 9, 2026 lifecycle scores are closer: Browser Use Cloud 95.2, Hyperbrowser 94.0. Kernel was fastest in this table (318 ms); Tilion, which is not in the stealth benchmark, was fastest on both.

Can I self-host Hyperbrowser?

Its docs list no self-hosted option for the browsers. Its agent framework, HyperAgent, is open source (AGPL-3.0). To run the browser server yourself, Steel's steel-browser (Apache-2.0) and Browserless (SSPL-1.0 or a commercial license) run in Docker. Browser Use Cloud is hosted only; the browser-use agent library is MIT and runs on your own Chrome.

How do I move Playwright code from Hyperbrowser?

Swap @hyperbrowser/sdk for browser-use-sdk: client.browsers.create() returns a cdpUrl, which goes to connectOverCDP where you passed session.wsEndpoint. Call client.browsers.stop(id) where you called client.sessions.stop(session.id); closing the CDP connection does not stop billing.

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

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. Every provider ran with its own proxy and CAPTCHA solver, and with the stealth setting its standard plans offer; Steel's standard plans have none, and Browserbase ran its standard mode because its Verified mode needs an Enterprise plan. Hyperbrowser ran on its standard stealth mode; its Ultra Stealth mode needs an Enterprise plan and was not tested. 2 of Hyperbrowser's 200 visits were unresolved and count as not through; had all of them got through, it would be 74.5%. An independent rerun put Hyperbrowser at 72% 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.