Browserbase alternatives: 6 options compared on published price
Cloud headless browsers for agents, with Fetch and Search APIs. Looking for something different? These are the vendors in our data closest to Browserbase by product type and shared price metrics, compared on published prices checked . Prices only, not quality.
full verification from $20/mo MCP: Yes · Browserbase full pricing page
What to weigh about Browserbase first
Drawn from the Browserbase record on this site: its published watch-outs and the figures we could not verify.
Watch-outs
- Pay for browser time, not pages: slow pages cost more.
- Proxy GB, captcha and model tokens bill on top of hours.
Could not verify
- Stealth and captcha handling are plan features without a separate per-page price.
Alternatives at a glance
How these were chosen: a fixed rule counts the price metrics both vendors publish plus category overlap. The order is by that score. It is not by price, popularity or commercial relationship; FetchIndex has an affiliate relationship with Firecrawl only (disclosure).
| Alternative | Category | Shared price metrics | Free tier | MCP / agent support | Verification | Head-to-head |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hyperbrowser alternatives to Hyperbrowser | Browser infrastructure | Basic page fetch, AI/agent search query, Remote browser hour | 5,000 credits included with a free account (~50 browser hours or 5,000 fetched pages). | Yes | full verification | Browserbase vs Hyperbrowser |
| Firecrawl alternatives to Firecrawl | Scraping APIs | Basic page fetch, AI/agent search query | 1,000 credits/month, no card (about 1,000 pages or 500 searches), 2 concurrent requests. | Yes | full verification | no head-to-head page |
| Steel alternatives to Steel | Browser infrastructure | Remote browser hour | $30 one-time usage credit on Launch; no card needed. | Not confirmed | partial verification | Browserbase vs Steel |
| Bright Data alternatives to Bright Data | Proxies & unblockers | Basic page fetch | Unlocker and SERP APIs: 5K requests/month free, no card (as stated on their pricing pages). Browser API page lists a 1 GB monthly free tier. | Yes | full verification | no head-to-head page |
| Oxylabs alternatives to Oxylabs | Proxies & unblockers | Basic page fetch | $5 welcome credit toward any product (one-time as described), no ongoing free tier stated. | Yes | full verification | no head-to-head page |
| Brave Search API alternatives to Brave Search API | Search & SERP APIs | AI/agent search query | $5 in free credits each month (about 1,000 searches); card required for verification. | Yes | full verification | no head-to-head page |
Price comparison by use case
Basic page fetch
| Vendor | Lowest published price | Plan / rate | Monthly spend needed | Compared with Browserbase |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Browserbase | $0.50 per 1,000 | Startup (Fetch API) | $99/mo | this vendor |
| Firecrawl | $0.599 per 1,000 | Scale | $599/mo | 1.2x more expensive |
| Oxylabs | $0.80 per 1,000 | Flexible - custom domain non-JS | $500/mo | 1.6x more expensive |
| Bright Data | $0.9995 per 1,000 | Crawl API $1,999 | $1999/mo | 2.0x more expensive |
| Hyperbrowser | $1.00 per 1,000 | All plans (Fetch) | none | 2.0x more expensive |
AI/agent search query
| Vendor | Lowest published price | Plan / rate | Monthly spend needed | Compared with Browserbase |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Browserbase | $1.00 per 1,000 | Parallel Fast | $20/mo | this vendor |
| Firecrawl | $1.66 per 1,000 | Standard | $83/mo | 1.7x more expensive |
| Brave Search API | $5.00 per 1,000 | Search | none | 5.0x more expensive |
| Hyperbrowser | $5.00 per 1,000 | All plans | none | 5.0x more expensive |
Remote browser hour
| Vendor | Lowest published price | Plan / rate | Monthly spend needed | Compared with Browserbase |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steel | $0.08 per hour | Scale | $250/mo | 2.5x cheaper |
| Hyperbrowser | $0.10 per hour | All plans | none | 2.0x cheaper |
| Browserbase | $0.198 per hour | Startup (included hours) | $99/mo | this vendor |
Estimated monthly cost at example volumes
Basic page fetch, using the cost calculator model: cheapest published plan that covers each volume, including published overage rates. Free tiers are not subtracted. Open the calculator with these inputs.
| Requests / month | Browserbase | Hyperbrowser | Firecrawl | Bright Data | Oxylabs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10,000 | $29.00 Developer (Fetch API) | $10.00 All plans (Fetch) | $41.00 Hobby (annual billing) | $15.00 Crawl API PAYG | $30.00 Starter - custom domain non-JS |
| 100,000 | $119 Developer (Fetch API) | $100 All plans (Fetch) | $83.00 Standard (annual billing) | $150 Crawl API PAYG | $500 Flexible - custom domain non-JS |
| 1,000,000 | $594 Startup (Fetch API) | $1,000 All plans (Fetch) | $599 Scale (annual billing) | $1,500 Crawl API PAYG | not enough data |
Which alternative fits which job
- Hyperbrowser: Cloud browsers, sandboxes, a Fetch/Search web API and agent runners on a shared credit balance. Tends to fit: Cheap browser hours and a built-in Fetch API. Watch-out: Proxy data at $10/GB bills on top of browser time.
- Firecrawl: Scrape, crawl, map and search the web into LLM-ready markdown/JSON. Tends to fit: RAG ingestion of whole sites. Watch-out: Credits are shared across endpoints, so JSON-format extraction (+4 credits) can quintuple the per-page cost.
- Steel: Open-source browser API for AI agents with hosted cloud sessions. Tends to fit: Self-hostable browser sessions. Watch-out: Monthly $250 Scale fee on top of usage.
- Bright Data: Large proxy networks plus Web Unlocker, SERP, Crawl and Browser APIs, datasets and scrapers. Tends to fit: Hard anti-bot targets at scale. Watch-out: Many products with separate pricing pages; check which one you need.
- Oxylabs: Proxy networks and Web Scraper/Search APIs on one subscription with volume tiers. Tends to fit: SERP + scraping + proxies under one subscription. Watch-out: Generic '/Scrape from $0.50' is a starting rate; target-specific rows differ. This site uses the conservative custom-domain rows.
- Brave Search API: Independent web index API for agents and RAG, with an Answers endpoint. Tends to fit: Agent grounding with an independent index. Watch-out: Card required for the free plan.
When Browserbase is still the better choice
- Agents that must click, log in and fill forms
- Teams already using Playwright/Puppeteer/Stagehand
Frequently asked questions
What is the cheapest alternative to Browserbase?
For remote browser hour, Steel has the lowest published price among the alternatives listed: $0.08 per hour (Scale) versus $0.198 for Browserbase (Startup (included hours)). That is price only: check reliability on your own targets, and note the cheapest plan can require a larger monthly spend.
Is there a free alternative to Browserbase?
Alternatives with a recurring free tier in our data: Firecrawl (1,000 credits/month, no card (about 1,000 pages or 500 searches), 2 concurrent requests); Bright Data (Unlocker and SERP APIs: 5K requests/month free, no card (as stated on their pricing pages). Browser API page lists a 1 GB monthly free tier); Brave Search API ($5 in free credits each month (about 1,000 searches); card required for verification). Free-tier limits change often; check the vendor page.
Which Browserbase alternatives support MCP?
Browserbase: yes. Alternatives with a documented MCP server in our data: Hyperbrowser, Firecrawl, Bright Data, Oxylabs, Brave Search API.
Keep exploring
- Browserbase pricing
- Browser infrastructure
- Cost calculator
- Which tool?
- Browserbase vs Hyperbrowser
- Browserbase vs Steel
Use-case guides
Corrections welcome: [email protected]. Each vendor page lists the official sources used.