Compare

HeadlessFleet vs Steel

Steel caps sessions at 15 minutes on Launch and 1 hour on Scale, and sells residential proxy data. HeadlessFleet runs sessions up to 6 or 12 hours and sends each one through a US mobile carrier.

As of 2026-10-05.

Start free, no card See all comparisons

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

At a glance

6 h vs 15 min
Longest session, Starter vs Launch.
Sources: HeadlessFleet, Steel
$1 vs $10
Per GB, Starter overage vs Launch. Ours is US mobile; theirs is residential.
Sources: HeadlessFleet, Steel 1 2
$99 vs $316
Worked example B, 200 browser-hours and 25 GB at up to 50 concurrent. Growth vs Scale.
Sources: HeadlessFleet, Steel

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

Choose HeadlessFleet if

Your sessions run longer than an hour. Starter allows 6 hours; Steel needs Enterprise past 1 hour.
You need mobile IPs without bringing your own proxy. Steel offers mobile only through a proxy you supply.
You want data included and a lower bill. Starter includes 5 GB and Growth 25 GB of US mobile data, and we cost less in all three worked examples.
You want per-second billing with queue and boot time free. Steel bills per minute, rounded up.

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	Steel
A 100 browser-hours, 20 GB, up to 10 concurrent	$50Starter	$210Launch¹
B 200 browser-hours, 25 GB, up to 50 concurrent	$99Growth	$316Scale
C 300 browser-hours, 5 GB, up to 10 concurrent	$55Starter	$80Launch¹
Sources	source	source

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

Feature by feature

Published list prices and documented features, as of 2026-10-05. Steel’s managed proxy data is residential; 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	Steel
Plans and price
Free plan	$0, no card: 20 browser-h and 10 GB mobile data a month; 5 concurrent; 6 h sessions source	Launch: one-time $30 credit (90 days); proxies and CAPTCHA need a $10 deposit source
Paid plans (concurrent browsers)	Starter $29 (10) · Growth $99 (50) · Scale custom source	Launch $0 base + usage (10) · Scale $250 + usage (100) · Enterprise custom (1,000+) source
Included usage	Starter 40 h + 5 GB · Growth 200 h + 25 GB source	Scale: $100/mo usage credit source
Browser time	$0.10/h (Free, Starter) · $0.09/h (Growth) source	$0.10/h (Launch) · $0.08/h (Scale) 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, rounded up; idle billed unless an inactivity timeout is set sources 1 2
Network
Managed proxy type	US mobile carrier (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile), on every session source	Residential; the default with no proxy is datacenter source
Managed proxy data	Included: 10 GB (Free), 5 GB (Starter), 25 GB (Growth). Then $1/GB on every plan source	$10/GB (Launch) · $6/GB (Scale) source
Managed mobile-carrier IPs	Yes, on all plans source	Not published; mobile only through your own proxy source
Bring your own proxy	No	HTTP/HTTPS/SOCKS5, any type, all plans; no charge from Steel source
Exit locations	US only: by state; by city where available; by carrier where the provider reports it sources 1 2	200+ countries; US states; major cities source
Platform
Isolation	Own Firecracker microVM per session; destroyed when it stops; never reused source	Chromium “in a VM”; technology and per-session guarantee not published source
Where browsers run	One location: US central	One region: us-east source
Max session length	6 h (Free, Starter) · 12 h (Growth) · 24 h (Scale) source	15 min (Launch) · 1 h (Scale) · 24 h (Enterprise) source
CAPTCHA solving	None	$3 per 1,000 (Launch) · $1 per 1,000 (Scale) source
Fingerprint management	None	Fingerprinting on every session; Stealth Browser on Enterprise sources 1 2
Live view	Yes, on headful sessions	Yes source
Session recording	None (CDP traffic and live view aren’t recorded) source	Every session recorded (MP4/HLS) source
Frameworks	Playwright over CDP · no Selenium	Playwright, Puppeteer, Selenium sources 1 2
Official SDKs	Not yet published source	Node, Python, Rust, Go source

Switching from Steel

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

Read the quickstart

More comparisons

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

Start free, no card Read the quickstart