Browserless alternatives

What Browserless provides

Browserless runs managed headless Chrome instances in the cloud and exposes them over the Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP). You point your existing Puppeteer or Playwright scripts at their WebSocket endpoint instead of a local browser:

// Puppeteer pointing at Browserless
const browser = await puppeteer.connect({
  browserWSEndpoint: 'wss://chrome.browserless.io?token=YOUR_KEY',
});

Browserless also provides higher-level REST endpoints (/screenshot, /pdf, /scrape) as shortcuts. The value proposition is eliminating Chromium infrastructure from your stack — no binary downloads, no sandbox configuration, no server upkeep.

Plans start at $25/mo and scale to $350+/mo (Scale and Enterprise) based on concurrent sessions and usage. Enterprise plans are priced separately.

Where Browserless falls short

• Cost — $25–350+/mo for managed sessions. High-volume screenshot pipelines accumulate cost quickly, especially in CI or agent workflows that make hundreds of requests per day.
• Data leaves your network — every page you visit and every screenshot you take passes through Browserless servers. Internal tools, staging environments, and authenticated sessions all go through a third party.
• Cannot reach private URLs — because Browserless runs in their cloud, it cannot access your internal network, localhost, or VPN-only services.
• Requires Puppeteer/Playwright knowledge— the low-level CDP interface is powerful but requires writing browser automation scripts. If you just need a screenshot of a URL or an HTML snippet, Openkova's one-call REST API is much simpler.
• Vendor lock-in — migrating away from Browserless means either setting up your own Chromium infrastructure or switching to a different service.

Comparison

Other alternatives to Browserless

• Puppeteer — Node.js library; run Chromium directly on your own server without an intermediary service
• Playwright— Microsoft's multi-browser library (Chromium, Firefox, WebKit); similar to Puppeteer with a broader browser matrix
• puppeteer-renderer — open-source self-hosted Docker service that wraps Puppeteer in a REST API; URL-only, no HTML snippet input
• ScreenshotOne — managed SaaS screenshot API; simpler than Browserless but also URL-only and proprietary

Getting started with Openkova

git clone https://github.com/scnix-git/openkova
docker compose up

Screenshot a URL — equivalent to Browserless /screenshot:

curl -N -X POST http://localhost:3000/api/convert/url \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://example.com", "format": "png"}'

Render an HTML snippet directly:

curl -N -X POST http://localhost:3000/api/convert/snippet \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"html": "<h1 style=\"font-family:sans-serif;padding:40px\">Report</h1>", "format": "pdf"}'

See the API reference for the full endpoint list and SSE streaming format, or read how to deploy Openkova with Docker.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a free alternative to Browserless?

Yes. Openkova is free and MIT-licensed. It provides a REST API for converting URLs and HTML to screenshots using self-hosted headless Chromium — no per-session cost, no managed service dependency.

What is the difference between Browserless and Openkova?

Browserless exposes a raw CDP endpoint so your Puppeteer scripts can connect to a remote browser. Openkova is a higher-level REST API: you POST a URL or HTML string and get back a PNG, JPEG, WebP, or PDF. No Puppeteer scripting required.

Can Openkova run Puppeteer scripts?

Openkova does not expose a CDP endpoint. It provides /api/convert/url, /api/convert/snippet, and /api/convert/file as REST endpoints. For use cases that require raw browser control, run Puppeteer directly against a local Chromium binary.

Does Openkova require Docker?

No — it runs on any Node.js 24+ environment. Docker is recommended because Chromium is pre-installed in the image, removing the setup step entirely. Deployment to Railway or Fly.io works out of the box with the included Dockerfile.

Also compare: ScreenshotOne alternatives, Urlbox alternatives, and puppeteer-renderer alternatives.