Browserbase vs Selenium
Browserbase
browserbase.com
Selenium
selenium.devSide by side
| Figure | Browserbase | Selenium |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $20/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 5 | 1 |
| Spec score · Browser Automation Tools | 9.1 (#2) | 8.5 (#14) |
| Deployment | cloud | Grid can run in Standalone, Hub and Node, or Distributed configurations; the downloads page also links to Docker and Kubernetes deployment resources. |
| Documentation depth | The documentation site includes quickstarts, tutorials, 30-plus templates, SDK references, API references and integration guides. | The documentation includes getting started guides, driver sessions, browser support, waits, elements, interactions, BiDi, Grid and troubleshooting. |
| Founded | A 2025 company release states that Paul Klein founded Browserbase in 2024. | 2004 |
| Security | The browser page states that Browserbase is SOC-2 Type II compliant and that sessions are isolated, connections encrypted, and data does not persist between runs. | The Grid guide warns that Grid must be protected from external access with appropriate firewall permissions because exposure can allow access to infrastructure, internal apps and files, or custom binary execution. |
| Self-hosting | Browserbase says it is cloud-first and does not offer on-premise deployment, although it advertises private-cloud and VPC options for enterprise customers. | Users can run Selenium Server locally in standalone, hub-node or distributed Grid modes. |
| What it does | Browserbase provides cloud infrastructure for agents to browse and interact with websites through browsers, search, fetching, runtime, identity and model services. | Selenium is a collection of tools and libraries for controlling web browsers and automating web applications. |
Plans
Browserbase
- Free PlanFree
- Free PlanFree
- Developer Plan$20 a month
- Startup Plan$99 a month
- Scale PlanPriced on request
In their own words
Browserbase
Browserbase has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
Selenium
Selenium is a free suite of tools for automating web browsers, primarily to test web applications. WebDriver provides language bindings for controlling browsers locally or remotely, and is a W3C Recommendation. The main project supports.NET/C#, Ruby, Java, Python, and JavaScript. Selenium IDE is a browser add-on for recording and replaying interactions in Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. For distributed tests, Selenium Grid spreads work across machines and combinations of browsers and operating systems. Grid offers Standalone, Hub and Node, and Distributed configurations; Docker and Kubernetes deployment resources are also linked. Selenium Manager can discover, download, and cache browser releases and drivers. Documentation covers browser-specific functionality for Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari, and names GitHub Actions and Jenkins as CI/CD examples. Selenium began in 2004 at ThoughtWorks in Chicago. Grid has no authentication by default, and the project advises restricting external access and placing it behind a secure network. The latest Opera driver functionality is not supported, and that driver is officially unsupported. Selenium costs nothing.