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HeadlessFleet costs less than Browserbase, Steel, Hyperbrowser and Browserless in every worked example.

Every session exits through Verizon, AT&T or T-Mobile. Free, Starter and Growth include 5–25 GB of mobile data a month, then $1 per GB. Browserbase, Steel and Hyperbrowser list $6–12 per GB for residential data.

Load a worked exampleExamples

Browser-hours a month100 h

Running time across all sessions, added up.

GB a month20 GB

Proxy data, upload plus download.

Peak concurrent browsers10

Longest session10 min

Longer sessions can need a bigger plan.

HeadlessFleet Starter

$50a month

$29 plan + 60 extra h × $0.10 + 15 extra GB × $1.00

Same usage at list prices

Browserbase Developer$248
Steel Launch$210
Hyperbrowser Startup$210

List prices as of 2026-10-05. Their proxy data is residential; ours is US mobile. Kernel, Browser Use and Browserless are in the worked examples. How we calculate

Worked examples

What a month costs

Monthly cost of three workloads at each vendor’s list prices, as of 2026-10-05 (Browserless 2026-10-11). Our arithmetic.
Monthly usage	HeadlessFleet	Browserbase	Steel	Hyperbrowser	Kernel headful / headless	Browser Use	Browserless
A 100 browser-hours, 20 GB, up to 10 concurrent	$50Starter	$248Developer	$210Launch¹	$210Startup	$68 / $30Hobbyist	$102Prepaid usage	$200Starter²
B 200 browser-hours, 25 GB, up to 50 concurrent	$99Growth	$299Startup	$316Scale	$270Scale	$246 / $200Start-up	$129Prepaid usage³	$500Scale²
C 300 browser-hours, 5 GB, up to 10 concurrent	$55Starter	$92Developer	$80Launch¹	$80Startup	$164 / $38Hobbyist	$31Prepaid usage	$200Starter²
Sources	source	source	source	sources 1 2	sources 1 2	sources 1 2	sources 1 2

What this shows

HeadlessFleet costs less than Browserbase, Steel, Hyperbrowser and Browserless in all three examples, and in A and B less than 40% of what they charge. In B it costs less than all six.

How we calculate

Each vendor uses whichever self-serve plan costs less on monthly billing and allows the required concurrency, assuming sessions of 15 minutes or less.
Monthly credits pay for usage only (Steel Scale $100, Kernel $10 and $50, Hyperbrowser’s plan fee). Browserless’s monthly units cover browser time and proxy data alike. One-time credits don’t count (Steel $30, Browser Use $1).
Per-minute and 30-second rounding, per-session minimums, taxes and failed sessions are left out. Browserbase, Steel and Browser Use bill by the minute, and Browserless in 30-second increments, so their real cost can be higher than shown. HeadlessFleet bills per second.
HeadlessFleet’s Free plan includes 20 browser-hours and 10 GB a month, with 5 concurrent browsers, at $0. These examples need more, so they use paid plans. The estimator shows Free when your usage fits.
Kernel bills only active time and doesn’t meter proxies, so its figures are an upper bound.

¹ Steel Launch caps sessions at 15 minutes. Longer sessions need Scale, which makes A $278 and C $250. source

² Billed annually, Browserless costs $140 in A, $350 in B and $117 in C, on Starter, Scale and Prototyping. We count 120 units per browser-hour and 6,000 units per GB of residential data, taking 1 GB as 1,000 MB. sources 1 2

³ Browser Use allows 50 concurrent browsers after $200 of lifetime spend. Its docs say $100. sources 1 2

Feature by feature

Published list prices and documented features, as of 2026-10-05 (Browserless 2026-10-11). Competitor proxy data is residential, except at Kernel (any type, unmetered) and Browserless (also datacenter); ours is US mobile. “Not published” means the vendor’s public pages didn’t state it on that date. Self-serve plans unless noted.

Plans and price

Plans and price. Published list prices and documented features, as of 2026-10-05 (Browserless 2026-10-11). Competitor proxy data is residential, except at Kernel (any type, unmetered) and Browserless (also datacenter); ours is US mobile. “Not published” means the vendor’s public pages didn’t state it on that date. Self-serve plans unless noted.
Feature	HeadlessFleet	Browserbase	Steel	Hyperbrowser	Kernel	Browser Use	Browserless
Free plan	$0, no card: 20 browser-h and 10 GB mobile data a month; 5 concurrent; 6 h sessions source	$0: 1 browser-h; 3 concurrent; 15-min sessions; no proxy data source	Launch: one-time $30 credit (90 days); proxies and CAPTCHA need a $10 deposit source	$0: 5,000 credits ($5); 1 concurrent; no proxies sources 1 2	$0 plus $5/mo usage credit; 5 concurrent; managed proxy in stealth mode source	One-time $1 credit; 10 concurrent source	$0, no card: 1,000 units a month; 2 concurrent; 2-min sessions; managed proxies metered in units sources 1 2
Paid plans (concurrent browsers)	Starter $29 (10) · Growth $99 (50) · Scale custom source	Developer $20 (25) · Startup $99 (100) · Scale custom (250+) source	Launch $0 base + usage (10) · Scale $250 + usage (100) · Enterprise custom (1,000+) source	Startup $30 (25) · Scale $100 (100) · Enterprise custom (1000+) source	Hobbyist $30 (10) · Start-up $200 (150) · Enterprise custom source	No plans: prepaid usage; concurrency rises from 10 to 1,000 with lifetime spend source	Prototyping $35 (5) · Starter $200 (30) · Scale $500 (80) · Enterprise custom; billed annually, $25 (10), $140 (40) and $350 (100) a month sources 1 2
Included usage	Starter 40 h + 5 GB · Growth 200 h + 25 GB source	Developer 100 h + 1 GB · Startup 500 h + 5 GB source	Scale: $100/mo usage credit source	Plan fee becomes usage credit: $30, $100 source	Usage credit: $10/mo (Hobbyist), $50/mo (Start-up) source	None; $5 minimum top-up source	Units a month: 20,000 (Prototyping) · 180,000 (Starter) · 500,000 (Scale); browser time, proxies and CAPTCHAs share them sources 1 2
Browser time	$0.10/h (Free, Starter) · $0.09/h (Growth) source	$0.12/h (Developer) · $0.10/h (Startup) source	$0.10/h (Launch) · $0.08/h (Scale) source	$0.10/h source	$0.48/h headful · $0.06/h headless sources 1 2	$0.02/h source	1 unit per 30 seconds; overage $0.0020 (Prototyping) · $0.0017 (Starter) · $0.0015 (Scale) per unit source
How time is counted	Per second from ready to stop; queue and boot time free; idle billed (closes after 120 s idle by default) sources 1 2	Per minute; 1-minute minimum per session source	Per minute, rounded up; idle billed unless an inactivity timeout is set sources 1 2	Per second source	Per second of activity; idle over 5 s not billed source	Per minute, 1-minute minimum; requested timeout reserved up front, unused part refunded source	30-second increments, rounded up; idle billed; each reconnect bills a new unit sources 1 2

Network

Network. Published list prices and documented features, as of 2026-10-05 (Browserless 2026-10-11). Competitor proxy data is residential, except at Kernel (any type, unmetered) and Browserless (also datacenter); ours is US mobile. “Not published” means the vendor’s public pages didn’t state it on that date. Self-serve plans unless noted.
Feature	HeadlessFleet	Browserbase	Steel	Hyperbrowser	Kernel	Browser Use	Browserless
Managed proxy type	US mobile carrier (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile), on every session source	Residential source	Residential; the default with no proxy is datacenter source	Residential; Premium Residential on Scale source	Datacenter, ISP, residential, mobile source	Residential source	Residential or datacenter source
Managed proxy data	Included: 10 GB (Free), 5 GB (Starter), 25 GB (Growth). Then $1/GB on every plan source	Included: 1 GB (Developer), 5 GB (Startup). Then $12/GB · $10/GB source	$10/GB (Launch) · $6/GB (Scale) source	$10/GB source	$0: unmetered; fair use; restricted destinations source	$5/GB source	6 units per MB residential · 2 per MB datacenter, from the monthly units sources 1 2
Managed mobile-carrier IPs	Yes, on all plans source	Not published source	Not published; mobile only through your own proxy source	Not published source	Yes; Kernel’s pricing docs list Hobbyist and up sources 1 2	Not published source	No; datacenter and residential only sources 1 2
Bring your own proxy	No	HTTP/HTTPS (no SOCKS5), Developer and up sources 1 2	HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS5, any type, all plans; no charge from Steel source	Enterprise only source	Start-up and up source	All accounts; $0.20/GB egress sources 1 2	HTTP/HTTPS, Prototyping and up; SOCKS5 through a Chrome launch flag; no proxy units charged sources 1 2 3
Exit locations	US only: by state; by city where available; by carrier where the provider reports it sources 1 2	200+ countries; US state and city, best effort source	200+ countries; US states; major cities source	100+ countries; US state and city source	By country code; state and city for mobile, best effort source	195+ countries, country level source	“Over 180 countries”; state and city on Scale sources 1 2

Platform

Platform. Published list prices and documented features, as of 2026-10-05 (Browserless 2026-10-11). Competitor proxy data is residential, except at Kernel (any type, unmetered) and Browserless (also datacenter); ours is US mobile. “Not published” means the vendor’s public pages didn’t state it on that date. Self-serve plans unless noted.
Feature	HeadlessFleet	Browserbase	Steel	Hyperbrowser	Kernel	Browser Use	Browserless
Isolation	Own Firecracker microVM per session; destroyed when it stops; never reused source	“1 browser per VM”; VM killed and recreated after each session source	Chromium “in a VM”; technology and per-session guarantee not published source	“Isolated browser instances”; VM or container not published source	VM-level, on Firecracker-based Hypeman; pooled browsers with reuse turned on keep state sources 1 2	Firecracker microVM per session source	“Isolated environments”, containerized; per-session isolation not published; “isolated VMs” on Enterprise Private Deployment sources 1 2
Where browsers run	One location: US central	us-west-2, us-east-1, eu-central-1, ap-southeast-1 source	One region: us-east source	us-central, us-east, us-west, europe-west; asia-south on Enterprise and Select plans source	us-east; eu-west and ap-southeast on Start-up and up source	US (region not published) and EU (Frankfurt) source	San Francisco, London, Amsterdam; New York on Enterprise Private Deployment sources 1 2 3
Max session length	6 h (Free, Starter) · 12 h (Growth) · 24 h (Scale) source	15 min (Free) · 6 h (Developer, Startup) source	15 min (Launch) · 1 h (Scale) · 24 h (Enterprise) source	12 h source	Idle timeout up to 72 h source	4 h source	2 min (Free) · 15 min (Prototyping) · 30 min (Starter) · 60 min (Scale) · custom (Enterprise) sources 1 2
CAPTCHA solving	None	Automatic, Developer and up source	$3 per 1,000 (Launch) · $1 per 1,000 (Scale) source	Automatic, paid plans source	Automatic in stealth mode, all plans; no separate charge listed sources 1 2	Included, on by default source	Automatic, all plans; 10 units per successful solve sources 1 2
Fingerprint management	None	Basic stealth (Developer, Startup); Verified on Scale source	Fingerprinting on every session; Stealth Browser on Enterprise sources 1 2	Basic stealth (Startup, Scale); Ultra (Enterprise) source	Anti-detection configuration on every browser; stealth mode source	On by default; fingerprints randomized per session source	Stealth routes with fingerprint mitigations, opt-in over CDP and built into BrowserQL; Linux by default, Windows, macOS or Android through OS emulation sources 1 2 3
Live view	Yes, on headful sessions	Yes source	Yes source	Yes source	Yes, on all plans; not in headless mode sources 1 2	Yes source	Yes, on all plans sources 1 2
Session recording	None (CDP traffic and live view aren’t recorded) source	Replay and MP4 downloads source	Every session recorded (MP4/HLS) source	rrweb on by default; MP4 optional source	MP4 replays source	MP4, off by default source	rrweb replay and WebM video, both off by default sources 1 2
Frameworks	Playwright over CDP · no Selenium	Playwright, Puppeteer, Selenium, Stagehand source	Playwright, Puppeteer, Selenium sources 1 2	Playwright, Puppeteer (Node); Selenium on request source	CDP (Playwright, Puppeteer), WebDriver BiDi source	Playwright, Puppeteer, any CDP client; no Selenium source	Playwright, Puppeteer, other CDP clients, BrowserQL; no Selenium sources 1 2
Official SDKs	Not yet published source	Node, Python source	Node, Python, Rust, Go source	Node, Python source	TypeScript, Python, Go source	Python, TypeScript source	TypeScript, Python source

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