Anchor Browser alternatives
The 6 alternatives below are grouped by kind of sandbox, and each says what it does differently from Anchor Browser. Start from whatever made you look: missing GPUs, session limits, self-hosting, pricing or isolation.
Why teams look beyond Anchor Browser
The strongest isolation story in this group, a dedicated VM per browser, paired with managed authentication for enterprise agents.
- Pricing is in credits, so browser-hour cost is harder to compare
- Compliance certifications are tied to the $2,000/month Growth tier and above
- The platform is closed source with no self-hosting below Enterprise
- No documented startup-time figure
Anchor Browser alternatives, by kind
Browser and desktop sandboxes
Hosted browsers and full desktops that computer-use agents click, type and browse in.
Browser Use Cloud
Stealth cloud Chromium at $0.02 per browser hour from the makers of the MIT-licensed Browser Use agent library, with profiles, live view, an EU deployment and a hosted agent API.
- Isolated browser per run
How it differs: Cheap stealth browser hours for agents built on the Browser Use library or any CDP client. Inexpensive stealth browsers with audited compliance and an EU option, best suited to teams already on the Browser Use library.
Browserbase
Hosted headless Chromium sessions for web agents, driven over CDP with Playwright, Puppeteer, Selenium or the Stagehand SDK, with Contexts for persisted logins and four regions.
- Isolated Chromium session
How it differs: Web agents that need managed Chromium at scale with persisted logins and stealth. A mature managed-Chromium service for web agents, with strong SDK and framework coverage but an undocumented isolation boundary.
Hyperbrowser
Credit-billed cloud Chrome sessions with profiles, stealth and captcha solving, plus one-shot agent runs (Claude Computer Use, OpenAI CUA, Browser Use) and separate VM-based code sandboxes.
- Isolated browser instance
How it differs: Agents that need cheap browser hours with a built-in path to run computer-use models as one-shot tasks. A credit-priced browser cloud with the broadest built-in agent-model support, held back by thin isolation and compliance documentation.
Kernel
Browsers for agents where each Chromium runs in its own Unikraft unikernel VM, with standby that stops billing, profiles, and open-source images under Apache-2.0.
- Unikernel VM per browser
- Open source
- Self-hostable
- GPU
- Pause/resume
How it differs: Agents that need fast, hypervisor-isolated browsers with pay-only-while-active billing. Hypervisor-isolated browsers with standby billing and open images, the most transparent isolation story among the closed clouds.
Notte
Cloud browser sessions at $0.01 per hour with stealth, proxies, profiles, secret vaults and personas, a hosted MCP server and serverless browser functions; SSPL-licensed core.
- Isolated browser instance
- Open source
How it differs: Agents that need cheap browser sessions with credential vaults and synthetic identities for sign-ups and logins. A low-cost browser cloud whose identity and credential tooling stands out, with isolation left undocumented.
Steel
Open-source browser API for agents (Apache-2.0, self-hostable with Docker) with a managed Steel Cloud adding stealth, captcha solving, profiles and a hosted MCP server.
- Isolated Chromium session
- Open source
- Self-hostable
How it differs: Teams that want an open-source browser API they can run themselves or scale on a managed cloud. The open-source choice among hosted browser APIs: self-host for free, move to Steel Cloud for stealth, captchas and concurrency.
Anchor Browser vs alternatives
| Sandbox | Isolation | Open source | Self-host / BYOC | Cold start (vendor) | Max session | Snapshots / pause | GPU | SDKs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anchor Browser | Dedicated VM per browser | No | No / Yes | Not documented | 3 h default, configurable | No / No | No | Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, REST API, MCP server |
| Browser Use Cloud | Isolated browser per run | No | No / No | Not documented | 1 h default, 4 h max | No / No | No | Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, REST API |
| Browserbase | Isolated Chromium session | No | No / No | <2 s (claim) | 6 h (15 min Free) | No / No | No | Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, REST API, MCP server |
| Hyperbrowser | Isolated browser instance | No | No / No | <500 ms (claim) | Up to 12 h | No / No | No | Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, CLI, REST API, MCP server |
| Kernel | Unikernel VM per browser | Yes | Yes / No | ~30 ms p50 (claim) | Up to 72 h | Yes / Yes | Yes | JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, Go, CLI, REST API, MCP server |
| Notte | Isolated browser instance | Yes | No / No | Not documented | 15 min to 5 h by plan | No / No | No | Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, CLI, REST API, MCP server |
| Steel | Isolated Chromium session | Yes | Yes / No | Not documented | 15 min / 1 h / 24 h | No / No | No | Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, Go, Rust, CLI, REST API, MCP server |
Frequently asked questions
What are the main alternatives to Anchor Browser?
Cite this page
Agent Sandboxes. (2026). Anchor Browser alternatives. agentsandboxes.org. Last reviewed November 9, 2026. https://agentsandboxes.org/alternatives/anchor-browser/
Found an error or a missing sandbox? Submit a correction — every entry links to the sources it relies on.