Best free Steel.dev alternatives

Looking for a free alternative to Steel.dev? Here are 9 browser & computer-use agents worth trying — 8 with a free tier. Steel.dev itself is free tier + paid.

ToolSteel.dev (you searched)Playwright MCPBrowser UseBrowserbase
Pricingfreemiumfreefreemiumfreemium
Best forOpen-source browser API for fleets of cloud browsersOfficial Microsoft MCP server exposing Playwright browser control to any MCP clientOpen-source library to run browser agents locally for freeFree tier: 1 browser-hour/month, 3 concurrent browsers, 3 agent runs
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Steel.dev alternatives — straight answers

What is the best free alternative to Steel.dev?

Playwright MCP is the closest free alternative to Steel.dev: same Browser & Computer-Use Agents sub-category, and it is free. Official Microsoft MCP server exposing Playwright browser control to any MCP client

Are there free Steel.dev alternatives?

Yes — 8 of the 9 alternatives listed here are free or freemium: Playwright MCP, Browser Use, Browserbase, Skyvern, Firecrawl. The other 1 are trial or paid.

Is Steel.dev free?

Steel.dev is free tier + paid. There is a free tier you can work in, with paid plans above it.

How were these Steel.dev alternatives chosen?

They are the other tools in Browser & Computer-Use Agents, then the rest of AI Agents & Automation, ordered free tiers first and capped at 9. There is no sponsorship and no paid placement in that ordering — only the pricing tier decides.

All Steel.dev alternatives

Browse Browser & Computer-Use Agents →

Playwright MCP

Browser & Computer-Use Agents
free

✦ WhyA Steel.dev alternative — Official Microsoft MCP server exposing Playwright browser control to any MCP client.

  • Official Microsoft MCP server exposing Playwright browser control to any MCP client
  • Uses accessibility snapshots instead of screenshots/vision, faster and more deterministic
  • 36k+ GitHub stars, Apache-2.0 licensed
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Browser Use

Browser & Computer-Use Agents
freemium

✦ WhyA Steel.dev alternative — Open-source library to run browser agents locally for free.

  • Open-source library to run browser agents locally for free
  • Hosted agent API billed per token + browser-hour
  • Managed browser infrastructure for scaling agents
Visit

Browserbase

Browser & Computer-Use Agents
freemium

✦ WhyA Steel.dev alternative — Free tier: 1 browser-hour/month, 3 concurrent browsers, 3 agent runs.

  • Free tier: 1 browser-hour/month, 3 concurrent browsers, 3 agent runs
  • Creator of Stagehand, an AI-native browser automation framework
  • Agent identity management for logging into restricted sites
Visit

Skyvern

Browser & Computer-Use Agents
freemium

✦ WhyA Steel.dev alternative — Vision+LLM based automation that survives UI/DOM changes (no brittle selectors).

  • Vision+LLM based automation that survives UI/DOM changes (no brittle selectors)
  • 22,700+ GitHub stars, self-hostable via Docker
  • Used by 500+ enterprises for workflow automation on arbitrary sites
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Firecrawl

Browser & Computer-Use Agents
freemium

✦ WhyA Steel.dev alternative — Converts any site into clean LLM-ready markdown/structured data.

  • Converts any site into clean LLM-ready markdown/structured data
  • Free tier: 1,000 credits/month, no card required
  • Crawl, scrape, map and search endpoints purpose-built for RAG/agent pipelines
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Simular

Browser & Computer-Use Agents
trial

✦ WhyA Steel.dev alternative — Sai: always-on computer-use agent operating a private cloud virtual desktop.

  • Sai: always-on computer-use agent operating a private cloud virtual desktop
  • 72.6% success on computer-use benchmarks, above reported human baseline
  • Works across desktop GUI, APIs, terminals, and code, not just browser tasks
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Zhipu AutoGLM

General Autonomous Agents
free

✦ WhyA Steel.dev alternative — Free foundation-agent system for autonomous GUI control (web + Android).

  • Free foundation-agent system for autonomous GUI control (web + Android)
  • Voice-to-action: controls entire web/phone UI from a spoken instruction
  • AutoGLM Rumination adds deep-research style multi-step task execution
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Windmill

Workflow Automation
free

✦ WhyA Steel.dev alternative — Open-source, self-hostable with unlimited executions on the free tier.

  • Open-source, self-hostable with unlimited executions on the free tier
  • Turns scripts (Python/TS/Go/Bash/SQL) into flows and full internal apps
  • Kubernetes/Docker/Fargate deployable with a hybrid seat+compute enterprise pricing model
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Langflow

Workflow Automation
free

✦ WhyA Steel.dev alternative — Open source with 138k GitHub stars, free desktop app and free cloud account.

  • Open source with 138k GitHub stars, free desktop app and free cloud account
  • Drag-and-drop visual builder for agents and RAG pipelines on top of LangChain primitives
  • Deep integrations across major LLMs, vector DBs and Google Cloud/Slack/MongoDB
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Steel.dev head-to-head

Steel.dev vs Playwright MCPSteel.dev vs Browser UseSteel.dev vs BrowserbaseSteel.dev vs SkyvernSteel.dev vs FirecrawlSteel.dev vs SimularSteel.dev vs Zhipu AutoGLMSteel.dev vs Windmill