The deciding difference is operational: Playwright MCP can run on infrastructure you control, Browserbase cannot. If that constraint is real for you, it settles the choice before anything else is considered.
Managed headless browsers with stealth and session replay, plus Stagehand.
Drive a real local browser over MCP, using the accessibility tree.
| Browserbase | Playwright MCP | |
|---|---|---|
| Licence | Proprietary | Open source |
| Pricing | freemium | open source |
| Self-hostable | No | Yes |
| Languages | TypeScript, Python | TypeScript |
| Install | — | npm install -g @playwright/mcp |
| Keys required | BROWSERBASE_API_KEY, BROWSERBASE_PROJECT_ID | None |
The deciding difference is operational: Playwright MCP can run on infrastructure you control, Browserbase cannot. If that constraint is real for you, it settles the choice before anything else is considered. Browserbase: Managed headless browsers with stealth and session replay, plus Stagehand. Playwright MCP: Drive a real local browser over MCP, using the accessibility tree.
Browserbase is a hosted service only. Playwright MCP can run on your own infrastructure.
Browserbase is proprietary (freemium). Playwright MCP is open source (open source).
Every page here answers to Accept: text/markdown and returns the same content at roughly a tenth the tokens. No separate site, no toggle — same URL.
curl -s -H "Accept: text/markdown" https://newagent.build/compare/browserbase-vs-playwright-mcp