Rating certificate · AW/26-09/00826 Sept 2026
65of 100
Stagehand
Browserbase · Browser & computer use
No. 2 of 2 in categorymedium confidenceTrust AOpen source
The Register / Browser & computer use / Stagehand
Register entry · Browser & computer use · updated 26 Sept 2026
Stagehand
Stagehand is Browserbase's MIT-licensed SDK (TypeScript first, with Python and Go) for building browser agents: code can mix deterministic page actions with LLM-resolved act(), extract() and observe() calls, and resolved actions can be cached. Version 4 (npm 4.0.0, 10 August 2026) moved control into a browser extension to cut round-trip latency and dropped the built-in agent in favour of integration with external harnesses. It runs against local browsers or Browserbase's paid hosted browsers.
What reviewers and users praise
- More deterministic and debuggable than fully autonomous agents because most code is standard Playwright-style (ByteTunnels; Reddit r/AI_Agents)
- Lower token cost through caching (Gonsalvez; HN comment 2026-09-18)
What they criticise
- Requires more upfront developer effort to decide which steps are deterministic (ByteTunnels)
- Python SDK reported to lag the TypeScript SDK (Reddit r/AI_Agents)
- Some teams found runtime AI still non-deterministic and moved to generated Playwright scripts (Reddit r/AI_Agents)
Experts vs the crowdcrowd warmer by 1
Experts58
Crowd59
| Price | Free, paid from $20 |
|---|---|
| Use it via | API, CLI |
| Runs on | macos, linux, windows, web |
| Licence | MIT |
| Updated | Evidence collected 26 Sept 2026 |
How the rating was worked out
Weights for Browser & computer use: adoption 35%, experts 40%, crowd 25%. Pillars without enough evidence are left out and the others re-weighted. The method.
| Adoption & momentumweight 35% | 76 | GitHub stars 25k → 73 · npm weekly downloads 1.5M → 86 · PyPI monthly downloads 1.1M → 66 · 9 releases in 90 days → 80reach × 0.7 + momentum × 0.3 |
|---|---|---|
| Expertsindependent reviews · weight 40% | 58 | 3 independent reviews (1 positive · 2 mixed · 0 negative), averaged toward 50 for small samples. |
| Crowdcommunity sample · weight 25% | 59 | 10 dated posts from hackernews, reddit: 6 positive · 1 mixed · 3 negative (positive + ½ mixed) ÷ n, averaged toward 50 for small samples |
| Rating | 65 | medium confidence (3 of 3 pillars, 10 community posts). |
Trust & safety
Seven dimensions graded A–D from documented facts. Overall: A.
C
Permission model
SDK executes LLM-resolved actions directly; approvals are whatever the developer's own code adds. No built-in approval mode or sandbox is documented for the SDK itself. source
B
Data access scope
Acts only on the pages the developer's code opens; scope is set in code rather than by a documented allowlist feature. source
A
Data storage
Open-source SDK works with local browsers by default; Browserbase cloud is optional. source
n/e
Data retention & training
Browserbase plans state session data retention of 7 days (Free) or 30 days (Developer/Startup); no statement on training use was found. With local browsers, data goes only to the LLM provider the developer chooses. source
A
Incident history (24 months)
No GitHub security advisories for browserbase/stagehand and none in the GitHub Advisory Database for the npm package; no incidents found in the last 24 months. source
A
Compliance
Browserbase trust center lists SOC 2 Type 2 and HIPAA (applies to the hosted service, not the SDK). source
A
Transparency
MIT-licensed source with public GitHub releases and npm changelog. source
The experts
3 named independent reviews found; dated reviews from the last 12 months are scored.
- positive
If your agent needs to browse the web and token budget is the primary constraint, Stagehand's caching means costs approach zero after the first run.
Steven Gonsalvez (dev.to) · 26 Apr 2026 · dev.to - mixed
Stagehand offers deterministic reliability where possible and AI flexibility where needed
Arman Hossain (ByteTunnels) · 12 Feb 2026 · bytetunnels.com - mixed
DOM structures change, Stagehand's AI adapts without breaking your automation.
Hisham Medhat (Scrapfly blog) · 17 Jul 2026 · scrapfly.io
The crowd
10 coded posts from hackernews, reddit.
6 positive1 mixed3 negative
- positive
Astra with computer use seems to burn a ton of tokens though. Stagehand seems more token efficient.
We made Playwright 2x faster (Stagehand v4 launch) · 18 Sept 2026 · news.ycombinator.com - positive
This looks very interesting! How does stagehand deal with complex http/websocket request/response and or console message filtering?
We made Playwright 2x faster (Stagehand v4 launch) · 19 Sept 2026 · news.ycombinator.com - negative
Why use Stagehand when agents can write CDP / Playwright on the fly for browser use
For Computer Use, the harness matters as much as the model · 24 Sept 2026 · news.ycombinator.com - positive
For browsers, this is getting solved — tools like Stagehand use the accessibility tree instead of screenshots.
Show HN: Agent-Rdp · 28 Jan 2026 · news.ycombinator.com - positive
stagehand is good stuff!
Show HN: Vibium · 25 Dec 2025 · news.ycombinator.com - positive
Playwright is great. Take a look at Stagehand, it's an AI layer built on top of Playwright
Ask HN: Any local agents to help repetitive browser tasks? · 29 Sept 2025 · news.ycombinator.com - mixed
stumbled onto stagehand through some random thread complaining about it. docs are thin. but the sessions actually... complete?
r/AI_Agents · 15 Apr 2026 · reddit.com - negative
stagehand was better than browser-use but honestly instead of the best of both worlds it felt like the worst of both worlds.
r/AI_Agents · 22 Apr 2026 · reddit.com
Pricing
As published, checked 26 Sept 2026.
| Plan | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Stagehand SDK | Free | MIT; bring your own LLM key and browser |
| Browserbase Free | Free | 3 concurrent browsers, 1 browser hour/month, 7-day data retention |
| Browserbase Developer | $20 / monthly | 25 concurrent browsers, 100 browser hours then $0.12/hour, 30-day retention |
| Browserbase Startup | $99 / monthly | 100 concurrent browsers, 500 browser hours then $0.10/hour, 30-day retention |
| Browserbase Scale | Custom | Custom; 250+ concurrent browsers, HIPAA BAA and DPA, SSO |
Recent changes
- 10 Aug 2026
Stagehand 4.0.0 on npm: extension-based architecture; vendor says the built-in agent was removed in favour of external harness integrations. source
- 9 Sept 2026
Stagehand 4.1.0 on npm. source
- 18 Sept 2026
Public v4 launch post on HN ('We made Playwright 2x faster and 80% more token efficient'). source
Ranked alongside
Other ranked entries in Browser & computer use.
Browser UseBrowser Use (browser-use.com)66
Sources
Every figure above traces to one of these, observed up to 26 Sept 2026.