Every option here hands your agent a real browser in the cloud. The differences that survive production are structural: how much of your code stays portable, how much of the runtime you can read, which state and evidence primitives arrive by default, and what the meter counts. Feature checklists blur those four together.
Summary
| Option | The model you buy into | What you accept |
|---|---|---|
| Steel | Browser and computer infrastructure, standard CDP/Playwright code, open-source runtime | No planner; you own orchestration |
| Browserbase | Bundled agent platform behind one API key | Managed-only; top features on higher tiers |
| Kernel | Serverless platform; you deploy agent code beside the browser | Its deployment primitives become yours |
| Browserless | Low-level browser API plus self-hostable Docker images | You assemble identity, evidence, and review |
| Smooth | Task-level agent API priced per task | Its agent decides the work |
The five options
Steel
A Steel session is a real browser inside a full computer environment for agents, driven by your own loop over a CDP URL. Browser Use, Stagehand, computer use models, and plain scripts all drive it. State gets first-class primitives instead of conventions you invent: Profiles for reusable auth, the Credentials API to keep secrets out of the agent, the Files API for downloads. Every run carries evidence through the live session viewer, replay, and Agent Traces. The runtime is open source, so security can audit what the browser layer does with credentials, and your scripts can leave without a rewrite. Steel Cloud is the deployment to run; the open code is the exit guarantee behind it. Launch starts with $30 in credits; a $10 top-up unlocks CAPTCHA solving, proxies, and advanced features on the entry plan. Steel pricing verified 2026-08-13.
Browserbase
Browserbase sells the whole stack under one key: Stagehand for authoring, Director for orchestration, session recordings for review, plus published SOC 2 and HIPAA compliance. Deployment is managed only. Plans meter browser hours and proxy bandwidth, with CAPTCHA solving from the paid tier and advanced stealth held for Scale.
Kernel
Kernel runs your agent code on its own platform, colocated with the browser. It ships live view, MP4 replays, profiles, managed auth, proxies, and ISO 27001 certification. The trade is architectural: you deploy inside Kernel's model, so its primitives become yours.
Browserless
Browserless is the low-level choice: Playwright and Puppeteer over managed browsers, a BrowserQL endpoint, a reconnect API, and Docker images you can host yourself. Billing counts units: one per 30 seconds of browser time, with proxies and CAPTCHA solves priced in units too. Human review, artifacts, and credential boundaries are yours to design.
Smooth
Smooth exposes browser work at the task level and prices per task, with free starting credits and on-prem deployment on request. The unit is easy to quote and hard to tune, because its agent decides how much work a task takes.
How to decide
Start with lock-in. Ordinary automation code against a CDP endpoint travels; workflows authored in a vendor's format stay where they were written.
Then transparency. When a browser handles logins, security will eventually ask what the runtime does with them, and an inspectable runtime answers by being read.
Then state and evidence. Reusable identity, managed secrets, file handling, live view, replay, and traces are either primitives you inherit or glue you maintain forever.
Pricing last, and read the unit before the number. Metered browser time is auditable; per-task billing hides how much work the vendor chose to do.
When Steel is a good fit
- You are building your own agents and want the browser and computer layer handled without someone else's planner.
- Portability and inspectability are procurement requirements.
- You want CAPTCHA, proxies, and stealth on the entry plan instead of an enterprise negotiation.
- You need evidence that outlives any single agent; replays and Agent Traces survive whatever you swap in.
Next steps
Point your existing Playwright or Puppeteer code at Steel Cloud. The code you have is the integration.
Humans use Chrome. Agents use Steel.