List of the Top 20 Free Headless Browsers in 2025

Connect with the worldwide community using Google’s web browser. Google develops powerful tools aimed at promoting connectivity, entertainment, productivity, and efficient task management, all of which are effortlessly integrated into Chrome. By leveraging Google applications like Gmail, Google Pay, and Google Assistant, Chrome not only boosts your efficiency but also elevates your overall browsing experience. Furthermore, it accommodates a range of extensions that can significantly enhance your productivity and streamline your online activities.

Mozilla Firefox is an open-source web browser that is offered for free and developed by the non-profit Mozilla Foundation, prioritizing user privacy and security. The browser features Total Cookie Protection to enhance data safety and provides integrated tools for managing tabs on various devices, as well as for editing PDFs directly in the interface. It is compatible with multiple operating systems, such as Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS, delivering a consistent user experience across all platforms. Renowned for its dedication to transparency and prioritizing user needs, Firefox ensures a browsing experience that is both secure and efficient. Its focus on privacy, along with extensive customization options, attracts users who are seeking alternatives to more conventional browsers. Additionally, Firefox's regular updates and community-driven approach contribute to its ongoing improvement and innovation in web browsing.

Chromium is an initiative focused on collaboration that aims to develop a more secure, efficient, and dependable browsing experience for users as they explore the Internet. This project prioritizes improving the overall online experience for all individuals who engage with web content. Additionally, it fosters a community-driven approach to innovation in web technologies.

Steel is an adaptable open-source browser API designed for managing a variety of cloud-based browsers. It streamlines the process of browser automation, catering to needs that range from large-scale scraping tasks to fully autonomous web agents, allowing users to start browser sessions on demand via simple API calls. With built-in CAPTCHA solving capabilities, Steel guarantees that automation processes run smoothly without interruptions. Its intuitive controls are designed to reduce the chances of being flagged as automated traffic. Typically, a session can be initiated in under one second if the client is within the same geographic area. Each session is flexible, capable of lasting anywhere from one minute to a full 24 hours. Users can effortlessly save and inject cookies and local storage, allowing them to resume their activities seamlessly. Furthermore, Steel facilitates the execution of Puppeteer, Playwright, or Selenium in the cloud with remarkable ease. The Session Viewer feature stands out by enabling users to monitor and troubleshoot both live and previously recorded sessions, greatly enhancing the overall user interface. This extensive toolkit not only makes Steel a crucial asset for developers but also empowers them to effectively leverage the capabilities of browser automation in a cloud setting. By combining efficiency with user convenience, Steel significantly enhances the automation experience.

Bright Data stands at the forefront of data acquisition, empowering companies to collect essential structured and unstructured data from countless websites through innovative technology. Our advanced proxy networks facilitate access to complex target sites by allowing for accurate geo-targeting. Additionally, our suite of tools is designed to circumvent challenging target sites, execute SERP-specific data gathering activities, and enhance proxy performance management and optimization. This comprehensive approach ensures that businesses can effectively harness the power of data for their strategic needs.

Servo's objective is to provide a standalone, modular web engine that seamlessly integrates into applications, allowing developers to build content using web standards. Engineered in Rust, it benefits from shared codebases with Mozilla Firefox and the wider Rust ecosystem. Since its inception in 2012, Servo has contributed to the evolution of W3C/WHATWG web standards by pinpointing specification challenges and developing new automated tests that are compatible across various browsers, with key team members actively involved in the formulation of accepted new standards. This endeavor not only promotes the advancement of the web platform but is also underpinned by reusable, modular technologies that comply with established web standards. Developers have the opportunity to explore Servo and report any issues through pre-built nightly snapshots, which negates the requirement for local builds. As we advance towards our first developer preview, we are dedicated to improving our security protocols through formal audits and continuing to utilize existing libraries in conjunction with Rust to enhance our methodologies. This commitment to security guarantees that the tools we deliver remain both dependable and secure for developers, fostering a trustworthy environment for innovation and experimentation. The ongoing evolution of Servo stands to benefit not just individual developers but the entire web development community.

With Puppeteer, you can automate nearly any task that you would typically execute manually in a web browser! There is a streamlined variant called Puppeteer-core, which is intended for users who wish to start an already installed browser or connect to a remote one. It is essential to verify that the version of puppeteer-core you select matches the browser version you intend to utilize. For those who are already familiar with other frameworks used for browser testing, Puppeteer will feel quite intuitive. You begin by instantiating a Browser object, navigating to web pages, and then employing Puppeteer's API to interact with those pages. By default, Puppeteer automatically downloads a specific version of Chromium, ensuring that its API operates correctly from the outset. If you want to use Puppeteer with a different version of Chrome or Chromium, you can easily indicate the path to the executable while creating the Browser instance. This adaptability offers a customized testing experience that can cater to various project specifications, making Puppeteer a versatile tool for developers. Additionally, the ease of integration with existing workflows further enhances its appeal to users looking for efficiency in their testing processes.

Playwright works seamlessly with all modern rendering engines, including Chromium, WebKit, and Firefox. It supports testing on various operating systems such as Windows, Linux, and macOS, whether in a local setup or continuous integration environments, and it can function in both headless and headed modes. The framework guarantees that actions are executed only when the elements are ready for user interaction, featuring an extensive array of introspection events. This integration effectively eliminates the dependence on artificial timeouts, which often lead to unreliable tests. Moreover, Playwright's assertions are specifically designed for the web's dynamic nature, automatically reattempting checks until the defined conditions are met. Users have the flexibility to tailor their test retry strategies and can capture execution traces, videos, and screenshots to further reduce instability. In terms of its architecture, browsers handle web content from different origins in isolated processes, enabling Playwright to align with the principles of modern browser frameworks and conduct tests out-of-process. This architectural choice significantly mitigates the usual limitations of in-process test runners, thereby boosting testing efficiency and reliability. Consequently, Playwright stands out as a powerful tool for developers looking to enhance their testing workflows and ultimately improve their software quality. By adopting Playwright, teams can ensure comprehensive coverage and a smoother testing experience across diverse environments.

Latenode merges the simplicity of no-code solutions with the depth of full-code options and AI-enhanced insights, enabling effortless interactions between services that utilize APIs. Users have the flexibility to either work with no-code nodes for quick deployments or write custom scripts for more specialized needs. Rather than spending hours navigating through API documentation, you can communicate your requirements directly to the AI assistant, which will generate pre-assembled code tailored to your specifications. This powerful platform is designed to optimize the integration of various marketing tools, creating a unified system that reduces data discrepancies and enhances operational efficiency through smooth integration. Users can easily connect with popular SaaS applications using available connectors or develop bespoke code as required. For instance, you can effortlessly send alerts via Slack to your team while simultaneously dispatching email confirmations to your clients. Furthermore, the platform supports conditional logic, allowing you to intelligently control your scripts based on the data received, significantly improving functionality. With a complete cloud-based toolkit for API creation, you can craft workflows that seamlessly link any applications together, thereby streamlining processes across the board. By harnessing these features, teams can elevate their productivity and refine their communication strategies, ultimately leading to better collaboration and results. This integration-driven approach encourages innovation and ensures that users can adapt to changing demands with ease.

Hyperbrowser is a comprehensive platform engineered to execute and scale headless browsers within secure, isolated containers, specifically aimed at web automation and AI applications. This system enables users to streamline numerous tasks such as web scraping, testing, and form submissions while facilitating the large-scale collection and organization of web data for deeper analysis and insights. By integrating seamlessly with AI agents, Hyperbrowser significantly improves the efficiency of browsing, data collection, and interaction with web applications. Among its key features are automatic captcha resolution to enhance automation workflows, a stealth mode to effectively bypass bot detection, and thorough session management that covers logging, debugging, and secure resource isolation. With the capacity to handle over 10,000 concurrent browsers and providing sub-millisecond latency, Hyperbrowser guarantees efficient and reliable browsing experiences, supported by a 99.9% uptime assurance. The platform is also designed to integrate effortlessly with various technology stacks, including Python and Node.js, and offers both synchronous and asynchronous clients for smooth incorporation into current systems. Consequently, users can confidently rely on Hyperbrowser as a powerful and versatile solution for their web automation and data extraction requirements, further solidifying its position within the market.

Stagehand is a groundbreaking web automation framework that utilizes artificial intelligence to expand the capabilities of Playwright, enabling developers to operate web browsers with straightforward natural language instructions. Created by Browserbase, it includes three intuitive APIs—act, extract, and observe—that enhance Playwright's core page class, thus making web automation tasks more user-friendly. For instance, developers can navigate to desired websites, identify elements like input fields, gather specific data such as product prices, and perform actions like adding items to shopping carts, all through conversational commands. This approach simplifies the process of developing resilient, autonomous, and repeatable web automation workflows, reducing the difficulties and risks typically associated with traditional methods. Additionally, Stagehand integrates smoothly with existing Playwright code, allowing for easy incorporation into current projects. By leveraging AI capabilities, it not only makes browser automation management simpler but also boosts overall efficiency, ultimately resulting in greater productivity for developers. This unique blend of simplicity and effectiveness establishes Stagehand as an essential asset in the field of web automation, offering a modern solution to the challenges faced by developers. With its innovative features, Stagehand is poised to transform the way web automation tasks are approached and executed.

PhantomJS is a versatile, scriptable web browser that runs without a graphical interface across various operating systems, such as Windows, macOS, Linux, and FreeBSD, utilizing QtWebKit for its rendering engine. This tool excels in executing a wide range of web standards, providing efficient support for DOM manipulation, CSS selectors, JSON handling, as well as rendering for Canvas and SVG. Thanks to its robust features, PhantomJS is ideal for numerous applications, including automating web pages, capturing screen content, testing websites without requiring a visual display, and even monitoring network traffic. For example, users can create a simple script that opens a webpage and captures it as an image file for future use. Furthermore, its adaptability enables developers to integrate PhantomJS seamlessly into broader testing frameworks or automation workflows, enhancing their overall efficiency. This capability makes it a preferred choice for those looking to streamline their web-related tasks.

HtmlUnit acts as a "browser without a GUI for Java applications," allowing the modeling of HTML documents and providing an API for actions such as loading pages, submitting forms, and navigating links, similar to a conventional web browser. It boasts strong JavaScript capabilities that are continuously advancing, enabling it to handle intricate AJAX situations effectively, and it can simulate various browsers like Chrome, Firefox, or Edge based on user configurations. While its main purpose revolves around website testing or data extraction, HtmlUnit is not designed to be a standalone unit testing framework; rather, it integrates seamlessly with larger testing frameworks like JUnit or TestNG to imitate browser operations. Serving as a cornerstone for multiple open-source projects, including WebDriver, Arquillian Drone, and Serenity BDD, HtmlUnit finds widespread use in many automated web testing initiatives, such as Apache Shiro, Apache Struts, and Quarkus. Its non-GUI operation is particularly advantageous for developers aiming to streamline browser interactions while minimizing resource consumption. Additionally, HtmlUnit's flexibility and compatibility with various testing frameworks make it a preferred choice for enhancing automated testing strategies.

Zombie.js is a streamlined, headless testing framework tailored for Node.js, enabling developers to simulate browser environments for testing client-side JavaScript without the need for a visual browser interface. This innovative tool automates a range of web interactions such as form submissions, link clicks, and page navigation, which facilitates thorough full-stack testing in a controlled setting. With Zombie.js, developers can effortlessly navigate to web pages, fill out forms, and assert conditions within their testing frameworks, thereby improving the overall reliability of their applications. It also integrates seamlessly with testing libraries like Mocha, fostering a productive environment for crafting and running tests efficiently. By leveraging this framework, developers can confidently verify that their web applications deliver consistent performance across diverse scenarios, ultimately leading to a more robust user experience. Its ability to streamline testing processes makes it an invaluable asset for any developer's toolkit.

TrifleJS acts as a headless browser designed specifically for automated testing, utilizing the .NET WebBrowser class alongside the V8 JavaScript engine to simulate environments similar to Internet Explorer. Inspired by PhantomJS, it offers an API that feels familiar to those who have experience with that framework. The tool supports various versions of Internet Explorer, allowing for the emulation of IE7, IE8, and IE9, based on the versions present on the user's system. Developers can execute scripts from the command line, indicating their preferred version of Internet Explorer for emulation. Moreover, TrifleJS includes an interactive REPL mode that streamlines the debugging and testing process for JavaScript code, greatly improving the development workflow. This adaptability positions it as an essential resource for developers aiming to verify compatibility across diverse Internet Explorer versions. With its intuitive features and robust capabilities, TrifleJS enhances the efficiency and effectiveness of automated testing in web development.

SlimerJS is a free and open-source browser tailored for web development, allowing users to manipulate web pages through external JavaScript scripts. It offers a wide range of capabilities, such as opening web pages, clicking links, and modifying content, which proves beneficial for functional testing, automating interactions, monitoring network activity, capturing screenshots, and scraping online data. Unlike PhantomJS, SlimerJS operates using Gecko, Mozilla Firefox's rendering engine, rather than WebKit, and it supports both headless and non-headless operation modes. The APIs available in SlimerJS are somewhat akin to those in PhantomJS, though there are significant differences in their respective functionalities. Nevertheless, most scripts initially created for PhantomJS remain compatible with SlimerJS, making it easier for developers to transition between the two platforms. This flexibility ultimately improves the overall scripting experience for web developers, allowing them to choose the tools that best suit their needs. As a result, SlimerJS serves as a valuable asset in the web development toolkit.

jBrowserDriver is a highly adaptable and programmable web browser driver that conforms to the standards set by Selenium WebDriver. Built on WebKit technology and entirely implemented in Java, this headless driver is open source and distributed under the Apache License v2.0. To use jBrowserDriver alongside a remote Selenium server, one must first start the necessary remote server(s) and employ the appropriate code to facilitate interaction with jBrowserDriver remotely. For those interested in compiling jBrowserDriver from the source, it is essential to have Maven version 3.x installed and to run the command mvn clean compile install from the project's root directory. If you are an Eclipse user, you can either import the Java project from the root directory or directly include the Maven file. Additionally, jBrowserDriver can be effortlessly incorporated into your projects in the same way as any conventional Selenium WebDriver or RemoteWebDriver, ensuring compatibility with both Selenium Server and Selenium Grid setups. This flexibility guarantees that developers can effectively utilize its features across a range of testing environments, enhancing their overall testing experience.

WebKit serves as a powerful, open-source web browser engine that drives applications like Safari, Mail, and the App Store on macOS, iOS, and Linux systems. It acts as the fundamental backbone for rendering web pages and executing JavaScript, thereby facilitating a smooth and enjoyable user experience. Developers are invited to participate in the project by reporting bugs or suggesting improvements to the codebase. Additionally, web developers have the opportunity to stay updated on WebKit’s advancements, track feature developments, and utilize Safari Technology Preview to experiment with the latest web technologies. The project emphasizes real-world compatibility, adherence to web standards, stability, performance, energy efficiency, security, privacy, portability, user accessibility, and the simplicity of code modifications. WebKit operates under the BSD 2-Clause license, while its WebCore and JavaScriptCore components are subject to the GNU Lesser General Public License. This collaborative model not only encourages participation but also drives continual innovation and enhancement within the web development community, allowing for a diverse range of contributions that can lead to even more robust web experiences. By fostering an open environment, WebKit enables developers to build better tools and applications that benefit users worldwide.

Scrapfly delivers an extensive array of APIs designed to streamline the web data collection process for developers. Their web scraping API is tailored to efficiently pull information from websites, skillfully navigating challenges like anti-scraping measures and the intricacies of JavaScript rendering. The Extraction API utilizes cutting-edge AI technology and large language models to dissect documents and extract structured data, while the screenshot API provides high-resolution images of web pages. These solutions are built for scalability, ensuring both dependability and efficiency as data needs grow. Furthermore, Scrapfly supplies comprehensive documentation, SDKs for Python and TypeScript, along with integrations to platforms like Zapier and Make, facilitating seamless incorporation into diverse workflows. By leveraging these robust features, users can significantly elevate their data collection methods and improve overall efficiency in their projects. Ultimately, Scrapfly positions itself as an invaluable resource for developers seeking to optimize their web scraping capabilities.

We are Zyte, previously known as Scrapinghub! As the front-runner in the web data extraction sector, our passion lies in harnessing the power of data to drive business success. We empower countless developers and enterprises to obtain accurate and pristine data efficiently, consistently, and at scale, day in and day out for over ten years. Our clientele can depend on us for trustworthy insights derived from over 13 billion web pages each month, catering to diverse needs like price intelligence, news aggregation, job postings, entertainment analytics, and comprehensive brand monitoring, among other offerings. Having pioneered open-source initiatives such as Scrapy and created products like our Smart Proxy Manager (formerly known as Crawlera), we have established ourselves as innovators in the field. With a dedicated remote team of nearly 200 developers and data extraction specialists, we are on a mission to dismantle barriers to data access and revolutionize the landscape of web data extraction. Our commitment to excellence continues to drive us forward as we explore new ways to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of data utilization for our clients.