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HeadlessFleet vs Kernel

Kernel charges $0.48 per headful browser-hour, and $200 a month above 10 concurrent browsers. HeadlessFleet charges $0.10 or less per browser-hour, allows 50 concurrent browsers for $99 and sends every session through a US mobile carrier.

As of 2026-10-05.

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US mobile IPs
Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile
Billed per second
Playwright over CDP

At a glance

$99 vs $200
Worked example B, headless, at up to 50 concurrent. Growth vs Start-up. Headful costs $246 on Kernel.
Sources: HeadlessFleet, Kernel 1 2
$0.10 vs $0.48
Per headful browser-hour, Starter vs Hobbyist.
Sources: HeadlessFleet, Kernel
$55 vs $164
Worked example C, headful, 300 browser-hours at up to 10 concurrent. Starter vs Hobbyist.
Sources: HeadlessFleet, Kernel

Figures as of 2026-10-05. Worked examples are our arithmetic.

Choose HeadlessFleet if

You run more than 10 concurrent browsers. Growth allows 50 for $99; Kernel’s next plan after Hobbyist costs $200.
You run headful browsers for many hours. Kernel charges $0.48 per browser-hour for headful; we charge $0.10 or $0.09 for either mode.

As of 2026-10-05, with sources in the tables below.

What a month costs

Our arithmetic from list prices as of 2026-10-05. How we calculate

Monthly cost of three workloads at each vendor’s list prices, as of 2026-10-05. Our arithmetic.
Monthly usage	HeadlessFleet	Kernel headful / headless
A 100 browser-hours, 20 GB, up to 10 concurrent	$50Starter	$68 / $30Hobbyist
B 200 browser-hours, 25 GB, up to 50 concurrent	$99Growth	$246 / $200Start-up
C 300 browser-hours, 5 GB, up to 10 concurrent	$55Starter	$164 / $38Hobbyist
Sources	source	sources 1 2

Feature by feature

Published list prices and documented features, as of 2026-10-05. Kernel’s managed proxy data can be any type and is unmetered; ours is US mobile. “Not published” means the vendor’s public pages didn’t state it on 2026-10-05. Self-serve plans unless noted.
Feature	HeadlessFleet	Kernel
Plans and price
Free plan	$0, no card: 20 browser-h and 10 GB mobile data a month; 5 concurrent; 6 h sessions source	$0 plus $5/mo usage credit; 5 concurrent; managed proxy in stealth mode source
Paid plans (concurrent browsers)	Starter $29 (10) · Growth $99 (50) · Scale custom source	Hobbyist $30 (10) · Start-up $200 (150) · Enterprise custom source
Included usage	Starter 40 h + 5 GB · Growth 200 h + 25 GB source	Usage credit: $10/mo (Hobbyist), $50/mo (Start-up) source
Browser time	$0.10/h (Free, Starter) · $0.09/h (Growth) source	$0.48/h headful · $0.06/h headless sources 1 2
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 second of activity; idle over 5 s not billed source
Network
Managed proxy type	US mobile carrier (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile), on every session source	Datacenter, ISP, residential, mobile source
Managed proxy data	Included: 10 GB (Free), 5 GB (Starter), 25 GB (Growth). Then $1/GB on every plan source	$0: unmetered; fair use; restricted destinations source
Managed mobile-carrier IPs	Yes, on all plans source	Yes; Kernel’s pricing docs list Hobbyist and up sources 1 2
Bring your own proxy	No	Start-up and up source
Exit locations	US only: by state; by city where available; by carrier where the provider reports it sources 1 2	By country code; state and city for mobile, best effort source
Platform
Isolation	Own Firecracker microVM per session; destroyed when it stops; never reused source	VM-level, on Firecracker-based Hypeman; pooled browsers with reuse turned on keep state sources 1 2
Where browsers run	One location: US central	us-east; eu-west and ap-southeast on Start-up and up source
Max session length	6 h (Free, Starter) · 12 h (Growth) · 24 h (Scale) source	Idle timeout up to 72 h source
CAPTCHA solving	None	Automatic in stealth mode, all plans; no separate charge listed sources 1 2
Fingerprint management	None	Anti-detection configuration on every browser; stealth mode source
Live view	Yes, on headful sessions	Yes, on all plans; not in headless mode sources 1 2
Session recording	None (CDP traffic and live view aren’t recorded) source	MP4 replays source
Frameworks	Playwright over CDP · no Selenium	CDP (Playwright, Puppeteer), WebDriver BiDi source
Official SDKs	Not yet published source	TypeScript, Python, Go source

Switching from Kernel

If your code already uses connectOverCDP, only session creation changes. One POST creates a session in its own microVM, with no SDK to install.

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Get 20 browser-hours and 10 GB of US mobile data a month, free.

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