Alternatives / Browserbase
Looking for an open source Browserbase alternative? We compared 8 open source browser automation, scraping, and headless browser tools by license, self-hosting, AI features, and cloud-only parts. They range from browser infrastructure to scraping APIs and agent libraries, and several keep features in a paid cloud.
Written by Maxime DERAME
Last updated:
| Alternative | Best for | License |
|---|---|---|
| Steel | Closest self-hosted browser sessions API | Apache-2.0 |
| Firecrawl | Turning web pages into data for AI (cloud adds features) | AGPL-3.0 |
| Browser Use | Python agents that control a browser | MIT |
| Crawl4AI | LLM-ready crawling and extraction | Apache-2.0 |
| Lightpanda | Fast, lightweight headless browser | AGPL-3.0 |
| Skyvern | AI workflow automation (anti-bot is cloud only) | AGPL-3.0 (anti-bot features are cloud only) |
| ego lite | Agents using your logged-in sessions | MIT |
| Browser Operator | AI browser for professional workflows (young project) | BSD-3-Clause |
We looked for open-source tools that overlap with Browserbase's core: running browsers for AI agents and web automation without managing the infrastructure yourself. We verified each project's license, recent activity, stars, and self-hosting in its repository. Browserbase is hosted browser infrastructure, so the list mixes browser APIs, scraping tools, agent libraries, and AI browsers, and we flag which features exist only in a vendor cloud. See our methodology for the full criteria.
Steel and Lightpanda are browser infrastructure, closest to what Browserbase provides. Firecrawl and Crawl4AI turn web pages into Markdown or structured data for AI. Browser Use and Skyvern are agent layers that decide what to do in a browser. ego lite and Browser Operator are AI browsers for people rather than headless services.
Firecrawl's self-hostable version is AGPL-3.0, but its hosted service adds proprietary proxy and rendering infrastructure. Skyvern's anti-bot measures are only in its managed cloud. Browser Use's hosted browsers and inference are paid, and Steel Cloud adds a hosted option. Self-hosting means handling proxies, scaling, and CAPTCHA yourself.
Steel is the closest: an Apache-2.0 browser API with sessions, proxy controls, and CAPTCHA solving that you can self-host with Docker. Lightpanda is a fast headless browser built from scratch, but it does not support every web feature yet. Pair either with Browser Use or Skyvern if you need an agent on top.
Browser Use is MIT, Steel and Crawl4AI are Apache-2.0, ego lite is MIT, and Browser Operator is BSD-3-Clause. Firecrawl, Lightpanda, and Skyvern are AGPL-3.0, so modified network deployments must share their source.
Firecrawl, Browser Use, Crawl4AI, Lightpanda, Skyvern, Steel, and ego lite were updated within days of this update. Browser Operator is a young project with about 500 stars, and its development is slower.
Browserbase is a proprietary hosted service billed by browser time and sessions, so costs scale with usage, and your automation runs in its cloud. Open-source alternatives let you run browsers on your own infrastructure, avoid per-session pricing, control proxies and data, and customize the stack, at the cost of managing scaling, anti-bot measures, and CAPTCHA handling yourself.
Firecrawl converts JavaScript-heavy web content into clean Markdown or structured data for AI systems, with search, scrape, crawl, and browser interaction such as click, scroll, and type. It handles PDFs and DOCX files, offers an MCP server, and has SDKs for Python, Node.js, Go, Rust, Java, and Elixir. The code is AGPL-3.0, and the hosted cloud includes additional features that the open-source version lacks.
Pricing: Free to self-host; hosted free tier of 1,000 pages per month and paid plans.
Browser Use is an MIT-licensed Python library that gives AI agents control of a real browser, so they can navigate pages, click, type, and extract data. The library is free, while model inference and hosted browsers through Browser Use Cloud are separate paid services, and you can also use a local browser and a local model.
Pricing: Free library; Browser Use Cloud and hosted inference are paid.
Crawl4AI is an open-source web crawler and scraper that produces clean, structured output for LLMs, RAG pipelines, and agents. It offers Markdown generation, CSS, XPath, and LLM-based extraction, adaptive crawling, chunking, and browser control with hooks, proxies, and stealth modes, through a Python async API or Docker.
Pricing: Free and open source, with no forced API keys.
Lightpanda is a headless browser written in Zig from scratch, designed for AI agents and automation, with a focus on low memory use and fast startup. It is AGPL-3.0. Its speed and compatibility figures are the vendor's own claims, and it does not yet support every web feature.
Pricing: Free and open source; a hosted cloud is offered.
Skyvern automates browser-based workflows with AI and computer vision, handling tasks such as forms, logins, and data extraction. The core logic is AGPL-3.0 in the open-source repository, except for anti-bot measures that are only available in the managed cloud, and it can be self-hosted with your own LLM keys.
Pricing: Free to self-host; the managed cloud is paid.
ego lite is a Chromium-based browser that lets AI agents and humans share the same browser instance, so agents use your existing cookies and logged-in sessions instead of a separate headless browser. It offers isolated workspaces for agent tasks, parallel execution, batch JavaScript actions, semantic snapshots, and Chrome profile migration. It runs on macOS today, with Windows in closed beta and Linux planned.
Pricing: Free and open source.
Steel Browser is an Apache-2.0, batteries-included browser sandbox with a Sessions API, CAPTCHA solving, and proxy controls, so you can automate the web without managing browser infrastructure. It can be self-hosted with Docker, and Steel Cloud offers a hosted option with a free tier. SDKs work with both.
Pricing: Free to self-host; Steel Cloud has a free tier and paid plans.
Browser Operator is a privacy-focused AI browser with built-in Search, Deep Wide Research, and Workflow agents, unified memory, compliance guardrails, and MCP integrations with tools such as Jira, Confluence, GitHub, and Slack. It is positioned as an open-source alternative to AI browsers such as ChatGPT Atlas. You provide LLM API keys from providers such as OpenAI or Groq.
Pricing: Free and open source; LLM provider API costs apply.
| Alternative | Type | License | Self-hosted | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steel | Browser API | Apache-2.0 | Yes | Browser sessions |
| Firecrawl | Web data API | AGPL-3.0 | Yes (cloud adds features) | AI data pipelines |
| Browser Use | Agent library | MIT | Library | Python agents |
| Crawl4AI | Crawler | Apache-2.0 | Yes | LLM-ready extraction |
| Lightpanda | Headless browser | AGPL-3.0 | Yes | Speed and low memory |
| Skyvern | AI automation | AGPL-3.0 (anti-bot is cloud) | Yes | Workflow automation |
| ego lite | AI browser | MIT | Desktop app | Logged-in sessions |
| Browser Operator | AI browser | BSD-3-Clause | Desktop app | Professional workflows |
Want to self-host browser sessions for agents
Steel provides a sessions API with proxy controls and CAPTCHA solving under Apache-2.0, self-hosted with Docker.
Want clean web data for AI
Firecrawl turns pages into Markdown, JSON, or screenshots, though its hosted version adds proprietary infrastructure.
Want a Python agent that controls a browser
Browser Use is an MIT library that gives AI agents control of a real browser, with local or cloud models.
Want to crawl for LLMs without usage limits
Crawl4AI produces LLM-ready Markdown and structured data under Apache-2.0, with no metering in the open-source version.
Want the lightest headless browser
Lightpanda is built from scratch in Zig for low memory use, but compatibility is not complete.
Want AI to automate forms and logins
Skyvern automates browser workflows with AI under AGPL-3.0, with anti-bot features only in its cloud.