Browserless vs Skyvern (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Browserless and Skyvern share a 2.2 GPA, both have a free plan, and Browserless starts cheaper, at $25 a month against $29 a month.
Checked Oct 6, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 10, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Browserless grades higher on value for money and features. Skyvern grades higher on the free plan and ease of use. They get the same grade on platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Browserless
Hosted headless browsers for scraping and automation
Skyvern
Open-source AI agents that automate workflows in the browser
Which one is for you
Pick Browserless if
- Fits if you write scrapers or tests and do not want to run browsers
- Works for jobs that fit 2-minute sessions on the free plan
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you do not write code, as there is no point-and-click builder
- Tight if you stay free: 1k units a month and 2-minute sessions
- Watch out: residential proxies cost 6 units per MB and each captcha 10 units
- Pricey if sessions run long, as a unit is only up to 30 seconds of browser time
Pick Skyvern if
- Fits if your team collects invoices or reports from vendor portals that have no API
- Works for teams that need to host their browser automation themselves
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if your portals need 2FA, because TOTP support starts on Pro at $149 a month
- Tight if you're staying on the cloud Free plan: 5,000 credits, about 170 actions, not shown as renewing monthly
- Not for you if you want custom code blocks, human-in-the-loop steps or HIPAA, which are Enterprise only
- Watch out: self-hosting needs your own LLM provider, and proxies, anti-bot measures and CAPTCHA solving are cloud features
- Tight if one run at a time won't do, as the free cloud plan allows 1 concurrent run and Hobby 10
How we grade them
| 2.2GPABrowserlessFair | 2.2GPASkyvernFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CPrototyping is $25 a month on annual billing, between the cheaper quarter ($10) and the dearer quarter ($29) of automation tools. | DHobby is $29 a month for about 1,200 actions, past the $25 where this category's dearer quarter starts. Worse, the bits a real portal job needs sit on Pro at $149 against a category middle of $19: 2FA and TOTP, residential proxies, team workspaces. Self-hosting is free, but then you pay an LLM provider. |
| Free plan and trial | CA free plan with no card: 1k units a month, 2 concurrent browsers and 2-minute sessions. Bigger jobs will outgrow it. | BYou can run the AGPL edition on your own machine with pip or Docker and pay Skyvern nothing, a free route one person could live on. The cloud Free plan is thinner than it sounds: 5,000 credits, about 170 actions, and the pricing page doesn't show it coming back each month. |
| Features | BHosted browsers, BrowserQL, session replays, proxies, captcha solving and a self-hosting option. Nothing in the listing shows a gap in the core work. | CBrowser work: vision instead of selectors, a credential vault that keeps passwords away from the model, TOTP prompts, CAPTCHAs, data back in your own schema, and four ways to build a run. But that's a smaller job than this category's job. Nothing here connects your apps to each other. |
| Ease of use | DYou drive it with code through Playwright, Puppeteer or its own query language, so it needs programming. | CNo rating on record, and there's a curve: credentials to vault, proxies to pick, workflows to build, and pip or Docker if you host it. Describing the task to a copilot or recording yourself once is the easy end of it, not the whole of it. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb service that works with Playwright and Puppeteer. No desktop or phone app. | BWeb only, no phone or desktop app on the listing. It has a REST API, Python and TypeScript SDKs, webhooks, an MCP server for clients like Claude and Cursor, and hooks into Zapier, Make and n8n. |
| Best for | hosted headless browsers for developers | fetching documents from portals that have no API |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Browserless and Skyvern. How we grade
Price against what you get
Browserless starts at $25 a month and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Skyvern starts at $29 a month and scores 2.3.
They score the same, and Browserless starts $4 a month lower. Of the other automation tools on the chart, 13 score higher than Browserless for less, and 15 score higher than Skyvern for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Browserless also covers screenshots.
- Skyvern also covers AI agents and no-code.
At a glance
| Browserless | Skyvern | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | $25 per month, billed annually | $29 / month for 30,000 credits (Hobby) |
| Free plan | Free plan, no card required: 1k units a month, 2 concurrent browsers and a 2-minute maximum session. | The open-source edition (AGPL-3.0) is free to self-host with pip or Docker. Skyvern Cloud's Free plan gives 5,000 credits, about 170 actions, which the pricing page does not show as renewing monthly. |
| Free trial | None listed | Skyvern Cloud Free plan: 5,000 credits with API access, no credit card required |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Browserless | Ikonomos Inc. |
| Price read from | browserless.io | skyvern.com |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Oct 6, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Browserless
- A unit is up to 30 seconds of browser time, and longer sessions use another unit per 30 seconds.
- Residential proxies cost 6 units per MB, datacenter proxies 2 units per MB and each solved captcha 10 units.
- Listed prices are the annual-billing view; monthly billing is offered but its prices were not readable.
- The free plan has 1k units a month and 2-minute sessions, so larger jobs need a paid plan.
Skyvern
- The cloud Free plan is 5,000 credits, about 170 actions, and the pricing page does not show it renewing each month.
- 2FA and TOTP support, team workspaces, residential proxies and state or city targeting start on Pro at $149 a month.
- Custom code blocks, human-in-the-loop steps and HIPAA compliance are listed only under Enterprise.
- The self-hosted edition is AGPL-3.0 and needs your own LLM provider; proxies, anti-bot measures and CAPTCHA solving are described as part of Skyvern Cloud.
Key features
Browserless
- Hosted headless browsers
- Remote Chrome, WebKit and Firefox sessions that connect to existing Playwright or Puppeteer scripts by changing the endpoint.
- BrowserQL
- A query language and editor for describing browser tasks, available on every plan including Free.
- APIs for common jobs
- REST endpoints for PDFs, screenshots and downloads, along with a search API and an MCP server for AI agents.
- Sessions and replays
- Session reconnects, persisted sessions, replays and log search, with retention that grows from 1 day on Free to 90 days on Scale.
- Proxies and captcha solving
- Residential and datacenter proxies and automatic captcha solving are metered in units; bring-your-own proxies start on Prototyping.
- Self-hosting
- Open-source and private Docker versions can be self-hosted, and Enterprise adds a commercial license with Kubernetes and GPU options.
Skyvern
- Vision-based browser agents
- Agents combine computer vision with LLM reasoning to read a page, so a workflow keeps working after a site changes its layout. Each run has a summary of the actions taken and why.
- Several ways to build a workflow
- Describe the task to a copilot in plain English, upload a written procedure, record yourself doing it in a browser, or assemble blocks in a visual editor.
- Logins, 2FA and CAPTCHAs
- A credential vault stores passwords and 2FA codes without exposing them to the LLM, and connects to 1Password and Bitwarden. Runs can pass TOTP prompts and solve CAPTCHAs.
- Structured data extraction
- Data pulled from a site is returned in a schema you define, as JSON or CSV, and documents can be downloaded from portals that sit behind a login.
- Proxies and geo-targeting
- Cloud runs go through datacenter or residential proxies, with targeting by country on the lower plans and by state or city on Pro and Enterprise.
- API, SDKs and MCP
- Workflows can be triggered through a REST API, Python and TypeScript SDKs or webhooks, and Skyvern can act as a tool for MCP-compatible clients such as Claude and Cursor.
Plans
Browserless
Free$0
1k units a month, 2 concurrent browsers, 2-minute sessions and BrowserQL. Includes captcha solving and Chrome extensions.
Prototyping$25
per month, billed annually
20k units a month, 10 concurrent browsers (+5 on annual billing), 15-minute sessions, overage at $0.0020 per unit.
Starter$140
per month, billed annually
180k units a month, 40 concurrent browsers (+10 on annual billing), 30-minute sessions, overage at $0.0017 per unit.
Scale$350
per month, billed annually
500k units a month, 100 concurrent browsers (+20 on annual billing), 60-minute sessions, overage at $0.0015 per unit.
EnterpriseCustom
Private deployments or licensed self-hosting, SSO, user roles, GPU infrastructure and a dedicated account manager.
Skyvern
Open source (self-hosted)$0
The AGPL-3.0 project from GitHub, installed with pip or Docker Compose and run on your own machine or server with your own LLM provider.
Free$0
Skyvern Cloud with 5,000 credits (about 170 actions), 1 concurrent run, datacenter proxies, webhooks and community support.
Hobby$29
per month
30,000 credits a month (about 1,200 actions), 10 concurrent runs, a basic CAPTCHA solver, stored credentials and email support.
Pro$149
per month
150,000 credits a month (about 6,200 actions), 25 concurrent runs, team workspaces, 2FA and TOTP support, residential proxies and priority support.
EnterpriseCustom
Custom credits, 100 concurrent runs, HIPAA compliance, a SOC 2 report, custom code blocks, human-in-the-loop steps and a dedicated Slack channel.
Ways to pay less
Browserless
- Annual discount
Save 30% with annual billing
The pricing page says annual billing saves 30% and adds concurrency on the Prototyping, Starter and Scale plans.
Skyvern
No public discounts listed.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Browserless or Skyvern?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Browserless is cheaper to start with: $25 a month, against $29 a month for Skyvern. Browserless starts at $25 per month, billed annually, and Skyvern starts at $29 / month for 30,000 credits (Hobby).
Which has a free plan, Browserless or Skyvern?
As of Nov 12, 2026, both Browserless and Skyvern have a free plan.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.