๐ Table of Contents
๐ Get Started in Seconds!
Get up and running in three simple steps:
Step 1: Run the Docker image
docker run -p 3000:3000 ghcr.io/browserless/chromium
Step 2: Open the docs in your browser
Visit http://localhost:3000/docs
โ
Success! Your browser service is live at ws://localhost:3000
Step 3: Connect your script with Puppeteer or Playwright
๐ Puppeteer Example
import puppeteer from 'puppeteer-core';
const browser = await puppeteer.connect({
browserWSEndpoint: 'ws://localhost:3000',
});
const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.goto('https://example.com');
console.log(await page.title());
await browser.close();
๐ญ Playwright Example
import pw from 'playwright-core';
const browser = await pw.firefox.connect(
'ws://localhost:3000/firefox/playwright'
);
const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.goto('https://example.com');
console.log(await page.title());
await browser.close();
Note: Use ghcr.io/browserless/firefox or ghcr.io/browserless/multi for Firefox/Webkit support.
Output:
Example Domain
โจ Features
General Features
- Parallelism and queueing โ Handle multiple sessions with configurable concurrency limits
- Debug Viewer โ Actively view and debug running browser sessions in real-time
- Unforked libraries โ Works seamlessly with standard Puppeteer and Playwright
- Fonts & emoji โ All system fonts and emoji support out-of-the-box
- Configurable timeouts โ Set session timers and health-checks to keep things running smoothly
- Error tolerant โ If Chrome crashes, Browserless won't
- ARM64 architecture support โ Full support for ARM64 platforms including Apple Silicon; some browsers (Edge, Chrome) have limited ARM64 compatibility
Premium Features
Our Self-serve cloud and Enterprise offerings include all the general features plus extras, such as:
- BrowserQL for avoiding detectors and solving captchas
- Hybrid automations for streaming live browser sessions during scripts
- Persistent Sessions for persisting browser state (cookies, cache, localStorage) across multiple sessions with configurable data retention up to 90 days
- Session Replay for recording and debugging browser sessions with event capture and video playback
- Chrome Extensions Support for loading custom extensions including ad blockers, captcha solvers, etc.
- Advanced Captcha/Stealth Routes for enhanced anti-detection with Captcha solving, fingerprint randomization, and residential proxy rotation
- REST APIs for tasks such as retrieving HTML, PDFs or Screenshot etc.
- Inbuilt residential proxy for automatic IP rotation and geo-targeting with residential proxy networks
- Webhook Integrations for queue alerts, rejections, timeouts, errors, and health failures
๐ข Customisable Deployment Options
Select the deployment model that best fits your needs:
๐ Open Source (Self-Hosted)Free, self-hosted solution with core browser automation capabilities. Best for: Testing, development, and small projects |
๐ข Enterprise Docker (Self-Hosted)Full Enterprise features in a self-hosted container. Best for: Production workloads requiring data sovereignty |
โ๏ธ Cloud (Self-Serve)Fully managed, pay-as-you-go service with automatic scaling. Best for: Quick starts and rapid prototyping |
๐ Private DeploymentCustom Enterprise infrastructure across major cloud providers. Best for: Large-scale enterprise deployments |
Want to dive deeper? Check out this detailed guide for advanced stuff including Docker configuration, hosting providers, SDK extensions, and more.
๐ก Why Browserless?
Running Chrome in the cloud or CI sucks.
Missing fonts. Random crashes. Dependency hell. Lambda limits. You know the drill.
Browserless solves this by handling browsers as a managed service โ locally or in our cloud โ so you can focus on automation, not infrastructure. We've taken care of the hard parts: system packages, font libraries, security patches, scaling strategies, and CVEs.
You still own your script. You still control your code. We just make sure the Browser runs smoothly, every time.
๐ Licensing
SPDX-License-Identifier: SSPL-1.0 OR Browserless Commercial License.
If you want to use Browserless to build commercial sites, applications, or in a continuous-integration system that's closed-source then you'll need to purchase a commercial license. This allows you to keep your software proprietary whilst still using browserless. You can purchase a commercial license here. A commercial license grants you:
- Priority support on issues and features.
- On-premise running as well as running on public cloud providers for commercial/CI purposes for proprietary systems.
- Ability to modify the source (forking) for your own purposes.
- A new admin user-interface.
Not only does it grant you a license to run such a critical piece of infrastructure, but you are also supporting further innovation in this space and our ability to contribute to it.
If you are creating an open source application under a license compatible with the Server Side License 1.0, you may use Browserless under those terms.
Happy hacking!
Need help? Reach out to us at support@browserless.io