Which automation libraries does BrowserCat support?

Supports Playwright, Puppeteer, and all Chrome DevTools Protocol clients. The team recommends Playwright for new users due to strong performance, active community, and multi-language support. Selenium and Cypress are not supported.

Can I use BrowserCat for local development?

Yes. You can use BrowserCat locally to speed up tests or scraping without running browsers on your machine, achieving 10–100× greater throughput. The team suggests developing locally first, then switching to BrowserCat when you hit a bottleneck.

Am I locked into BrowserCat?

No. BrowserCat is built on open-source tech, so you can migrate to a competitor or self-host anytime. Switching requires changing just one line of code (from chromium.connect to chromium.launch).

Does BrowserCat avoid bot detection?

The platform tunes browsers to mimic real users and offers options to help avoid detection, including third-party proxy support. Residential proxies, CAPTCHA solutions, and input humanization are in beta.

BrowserCat

BrowserCat offers a headless browser API supporting Playwright, Puppeteer & CDP. Automate web scraping, PDF generation, UI testing & workflows without hosting browsers or managing servers. Instant scale, global deployment.

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Summary

BrowserCat is a headless browser API platform that lets you run browser automation, web scraping, PDF generation, and testing via Playwright, Puppeteer, or Chrome DevTools Protocol—without hosting infrastructure. Built for developers who want to focus on business logic, not server management.

What is BrowserCat?

BrowserCat provides instant-start, globally available headless browser APIs supporting major automation libraries. Connect to cloud browsers with one line of code to execute complex web interactions, data scraping, screenshots, PDF exports, or CI/CD tests—no Docker containers, version conflicts, or scaling headaches. You retain full control: customize launch arguments, feature flags, proxy settings, and region selection, with dashboards for monitoring, usage caps, and log management.

Core Capabilities

Open-source library support: Compatible with Playwright, Puppeteer, and Chrome DevTools Protocol; zero vendor lock-in
Instant scale: Launch one or hundreds of browser instances on demand, deployed across global regions
Full control: Customize launch args, headless modes, proxy requests, and feature flags
Multi-purpose automation: Web scraping, PDF/image generation, UI testing, monitoring, and AI agent tasks
Dashboards & alerts: Real-time usage monitoring, cap settings, log access, and notifications
Bot-detection optimization: Browser configurations mimic real user behavior

Pros

No need to manage headless browser infrastructure or Docker containers
Switch from local to cloud execution with one line of code
Built on mainstream open-source tools; minimal migration cost
Instant start and elastic scaling for burst or long-running workloads
Comprehensive docs, quick-start templates, and multi-language support

Cons

Relies on third-party API; network latency may affect real-time scenarios
Usage-based pricing may not suit extremely high-frequency continuous tasks
Residential proxies and CAPTCHA solutions still in beta
Does not support Selenium or Cypress
Not suitable for teams requiring fully offline or on-premises environments

Decision Guidance

Use BrowserCat if: You need fast browser automation deployment (scraping, testing, generation) without managing servers; your team is small or wants to focus on product development; you need elastic scaling or multi-region support; you already use Playwright or Puppeteer and want to accelerate CI/CD.

Consider alternatives if: You require fully offline or on-premises deployment; you have continuous high-frequency tasks and are cost-sensitive; you must use Selenium or Cypress; or you already have mature internal headless browser infrastructure with no scaling bottlenecks.