Browserless
Headless browsers as a service for scraping, PDFs, and automation
About Browserless
Browserless is a cloud platform that runs managed Chrome and Chromium browsers behind a simple API, Puppeteer, or Playwright connection. Teams use it for web scraping, PDF and screenshot generation, captcha bypass, and end-to-end QA testing without operating their own browser fleet.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Drop-in replacement for self-managed Puppeteer or Playwright clusters
- Free tier and self-host Docker image for non-commercial use
- BrowserQL tackles anti-bot and captcha challenges out of the box
- Pay-by-unit pricing scales with actual usage, not seats
- Strong docs and Playwright/Puppeteer parity
Cons
- Unit-based pricing can surprise teams with long-running automations
- Session replay and persistent sessions are only on higher tiers
- Commercial self-hosting requires a paid license
- Debugging cloud failures still needs session replay credits
Key Features
Managed Headless Chrome
Run Puppeteer, Playwright, or raw Chrome sessions on autoscaling infrastructure.
BrowserQL
Purpose-built query language for scraping with built-in captcha solving and bot-detection bypass.
Persistent Sessions
Keep cookies, cache, and localStorage alive across jobs for up to 90 days.
Session Replay
Record browser sessions and replay them to debug flaky scripts.
Hybrid Automations
Stream live browser sessions while scripts run for supervised workflows.
Chrome Extension Support
Load custom extensions including ad blockers and captcha solvers into sessions.
PDF and Screenshot APIs
REST endpoints for HTML-to-PDF and full-page screenshot generation.
Stealth Mode
Fingerprint and navigator patches to reduce detection by anti-bot services.
Self-Hosted Option
Official Docker images for running Browserless inside your own infrastructure.
Pricing
- 1,000 units
- All API endpoints
- Captcha solving (limited)
- Community support
- Higher unit allocation
- Puppeteer and Playwright
- Session management
- Email support
- High-volume units
- Persistent sessions
- Session replay
- Priority support
- Dedicated capacity
- SLA and security review
- Custom integrations
- Support via Slack
Best For
Web Scraping at Scale
Run BrowserQL jobs with built-in captcha and fingerprint handling.
PDF Generation
Turn HTML templates into styled PDFs via a single API call.
Screenshots as a Service
Generate on-demand screenshots for OG images, monitoring, and reports.
E2E Testing
Run Playwright or Puppeteer test suites without operating browser infrastructure.
