Apache-2.0 browser API you can self-host with Docker, plus Steel Cloud sold by concurrent sessions with per-unit browser-hour, proxy and CAPTCHA rates.
Teams that want an exit route from the vendor: Steel Browser is Apache-2.0 on GitHub, runs from a single Docker image or a Railway/Render one-click deploy, and exposes the same session API as the cloud. It fits builders who need standard tooling rather than an agent framework, since sessions are reachable over a CDP WebSocket from Playwright, Puppeteer and Selenium with Node and Python SDKs. Enterprise self-hosting and Outpost keep session data inside your own network with your own keys and region.
Do not assume the open-source build equals the cloud. The Steel Browser README never mentions CAPTCHA solving, and its examples pass your own proxyUrl, so managed proxies, fingerprint rotation and CAPTCHA solving are things you buy, not things you self-host. The README also declares the project in public beta and evolving every day, and warns that Selenium sessions do not support all features of the CDP-based sessions API. Launch caps sessions at 15 minutes, so long multi-step logins need the $250/mo Scale plan before they can finish at all.
Pros
Cons
The Apache-2.0 Steel Browser gives you session management with cookie and local-storage persistence, stealth plugins and fingerprint management, bring-your-own proxy chaining, extension loading, request logging, a debug UI and markdown, screenshot and PDF endpoints. CAPTCHA solving is absent from the README entirely. Managed residential proxies, CAPTCHA solves at $1 to $3 per thousand and dedicated IPs are Steel Cloud purchases.
Plan fee buys concurrency and session length; usage is separate. Launch is $0 per month with 10 concurrent sessions and 15-minute sessions. Scale is $250 per month with 100 concurrent and one-hour sessions. On top you pay browser hours at $0.10 or $0.08, proxy bandwidth at $10 or $6 per GB, CAPTCHA solves at $3 or $1 per thousand, and /scrape at $5 per thousand.
No. There is no task success rate, WebVoyager score or anti-bot bypass percentage on the homepage, pricing page or docs introduction. What the vendor publishes instead is scale and latency: over 1.5 million browser hours, 35 million-plus sessions, and an average session start under one second. Reliability evidence has to come from your own runs against your own target sites.
Yes for the open-source server. One Docker command or docker compose runs the API on port 3000 with a UI at /ui and a console debugger on 9223, and Railway and Render have one-click deploys. Running without Docker needs a local Chrome. Keeping data in your own network with your own keys and chosen region is sold as Steel Outpost, an enterprise option.
Facts sourced from the vendor’s own site, last verified 2026-10-10.
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