Anchor Browser vs Steel
A side-by-side comparison of Anchor Browser and Steel, drawn from Ignaite's continuously-verified listings.
Compared from listings verified as of
At a glance
| Attribute | Anchor Browser | Steel |
|---|---|---|
| Category (differs) | Automation | Infra |
| Pricing | FREEMIUM | FREEMIUM |
| License (differs) | Proprietary | Open core |
| Deployment (differs) | Cloud | Hybrid |
| Platforms (differs) | API, Web | Web, API |
| Model support | Model-agnostic | Model-agnostic |
| Vendor (differs) | Anchor | Nen Labs |
The honest brief
Anchor Browser
Cloudflare-verified stealth Chromium with built-in auth and VPN, built to survive bot detection that blocks generic headless browsers.
- Web Action Cache for deterministic runs
- Built-in auth (OmniConnect) and VPN
- Scales to many parallel sessions
- Deployable in your own cloud
- Free tier with 5 concurrent browsers
- Closed source
- Usage metered in credits
- Newer, smaller track record
- Overkill for simple scraping jobs
Steel
Open-source, Docker-self-hostable browser sandbox unlike most closed agent-browser APIs — run local or in cloud.
- Self-host via Docker or use the cloud
- Handles sessions/proxies/CAPTCHAs
- Page-to-markdown/screenshot/PDF
- Framework- and model-agnostic
- Infrastructure, not a full agent
- Managed cloud is metered
- Younger than incumbent scrapers
- Needs an agent framework on top