Browserbase alternatives for agents that have to log in
· Avi Agola, The Seattle Compute Company
If you search "Browserbase alternatives", you're probably building an agent and need a browser for it to use. This page compares the cloud browser providers, and says plainly when you should pick one of them over Smith.
We make Smith, so weigh that. What we say about the others comes from their own pages, read on 2026-10-29. Where a page doesn't say, we write "Not stated."
Two different things
Browser infrastructure gives your code a browser in the cloud. You write the agent, pick the model, decide how it signs in, and keep the logs. Browserbase, Steel, Browser Use and Hyperbrowser sit here. They differ on price, open source, session recording and how hard they work to get past bot checks.
Smith is the agent that uses a browser. Each agent has its own identity (a Slack handle, an email address and accounts), its own VM with a real browser, and a trace of every action. You hire it. You don't assemble it.
Neither is better in the abstract. They answer different questions.
Side by side
| Criterion | Smith | Browserbase | Steel | Browser Use | Hyperbrowser |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Built for | Teams | Developers building agents that browse. Not named explicitly, but onboarding is API and SDK led[1] | Developers building agents and browser automation[3] | Not stated. Developer-oriented, with an enterprise section[5] | Not stated. SDK and API examples suggest developers[7] |
| Whose identity the agent uses | Delegated or agent-owned accounts, audited | "Agent Identity" helps agents past anti-bot checks and authentication walls. Account model not stated[1] | Persistent profiles let each agent stay signed in as itself across runs[3] | Not stated[5] | Saved cookies and logins can be reused between runs[7] |
| Where you talk to it | Slack handle + email | API key, SDKs and Stagehand[1] | Sessions API, Node and Python SDKs, REST, MCP and CLI[3] | Playwright and Puppeteer over CDP, MCP, and a Python library[5] | Playwright, Puppeteer, Node and Python SDKs, CLI and MCP[7] |
| Has its own computer/browser | Own VM + browser per agent | Cloud browsers, with thousands of concurrent sessions[1] | An isolated Chromium session with its own proxy, cookies and storage[3] | Cloud browsers built to pass bot checks[5] | Cloud Chrome and isolated VMs[7] |
| Audit trail of actions | Every action traced to the agent | Session recording and observability tools[2] | Step traces, a live viewer, recordings and replays[3] | Not stated[5] | Live watching and replay of sessions[7] |
| Models (BYOM?) | Any provider (BYOM) | You pick a model and connect it. Offers a model gateway, pay as you go[2] | Not stated[3] | Runs on named models. Offers bring-your-own API key at 20% of published token rates[6] | Runs its own agent, Browser Use or computer-use models. Bring-your-own not stated[7] |
| Runs on your compute (BYOC?) | Yes (BYOC) | No on-prem option. Private cloud and VPC connectivity for large enterprise[2] | Open source and self-hostable with Docker[3] | Open-source library is self-hostable. Pricing mentions on-prem with no price[6] | Not stated[7] |
| Pricing model | Free to start; custom plans for teams | Browser hours: a free tier, $20/month, $99/month, then custom[2] | A free launch tier plus usage, a $250/month scale tier plus usage, then enterprise[4] | Pay as you go, no subscription: cloud browsers from $0.02/hour plus usage[6] | Credit plans: a free tier, $30/month and $100/month, higher tiers through sales[7] |
Competitor cells come from each product's own pages, as of 2026-10-29. Smith's column is how Smith works today. "Not stated" means the page we read doesn't say.
- Browserbase home page (accessed 2026-10-29)
- Browserbase pricing (accessed 2026-10-29)
- Steel home page (accessed 2026-10-29)
- Steel pricing (accessed 2026-10-29)
- Browser Use home page (accessed 2026-10-29)
- Browser Use pricing (accessed 2026-10-29)
- Hyperbrowser home page (accessed 2026-10-29)
When one of the browser providers is the right pick
Choose a browser provider when:
- You're building your own agent and want to control the model, the prompts and the code. A browser API is the right size.
- You need scale. Browserbase says it supports thousands of concurrent sessions.
- You want open source or to self-host. Steel is open source and self-hostable. Browser Use has an open-source library too.
- You want to pay by usage. Browser Use is pay as you go, with no subscription.
When Smith is the right pick
Choose Smith when the hard part isn't getting a browser. It's getting the agent to log in as someone, do the job, and leave a record.
- Whose account? A browser doesn't answer that. Smith does: delegated or agent-owned, with credentials held in a vault the agent never reads.
- Who did what? Every action is traced to the agent that took it and the account it used.
- A person in the loop. You can stop an agent or take over its live screen.
- No assembly. The agent already works in Slack and email. See what a computer use agent is for how that works, and keeping AI agents safe for the controls.
Smith is free to start with custom plans for teams, see pricing.
Email acme@agents.seattlecompute.com and an agent writes back.