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# cdpfleet vs Kernel

A sandboxed cloud Chromium for agents, billed per second with free standby, against a fleet of twelve real browsers on flat threads: $0.06/hour headless but $0.48/hour headful there, your own proxies only from the $200/month plan, versus free traffic through any proxy here. Prices, limits and features side by side.

Kernel runs sandboxed Chromium browsers in the cloud for AI agents and automation: you create a browser through its API or SDK (TypeScript, Python, Go), get a CDP WebSocket URL, and drive it with Playwright, Puppeteer or WebDriver. Headful is the default (live view, replays, better stealth), headless is the light option, and a stealth mode adds an ISP proxy and a CAPTCHA solver. Billing is per second, and a browser idle for 5 seconds goes into standby and stops costing money. cdpfleet is a fleet of twelve real desktop browsers — Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Brave, Opera, Naver Whale, Yandex Browser, Chromium, Patchright, Rebrowser, Camoufox, Firefox and WebKit — launched with one HTTPS call and driven over the Playwright protocol or CDP from five languages, on threads you buy. Kernel bundles more agent features; cdpfleet gives you more browsers, lets you use any proxy on every plan and counts a headful browser as two threads instead of charging eight times the headless price. Kernel has no ready-made scrape, screenshot or crawl calls — its apps host your own code next to the browser — so this page also sets that next to cdpfleet [Functions](https://cdpfleet.com/docs/functions), [jobs](https://cdpfleet.com/docs/jobs) and [monitors](https://cdpfleet.com/docs/monitors).

|  | cdpfleet | Kernel |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Browsers | 12 — Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Brave, Opera, Naver Whale, Yandex Browser, Chromium, Patchright, Rebrowser, Camoufox, Firefox, WebKit. Chrome with stable, beta and dev channels and pinned previous majors; Camoufox with pinned versions. | One sandboxed Chromium (version not published), headful by default or headless; GPU-accelerated headful from the Start-Up plan. |
| How you connect | Playwright protocol (`connect(wsUrl)`, client 1.60) from Node.js, Python, Java, C# and Go — or `"cdp": true` for a `cdpUrl` (Puppeteer, `connectOverCDP`). [SDKs](https://cdpfleet.com/docs/sdk) for Node.js, Python and Go (C# and Java build from source). | CDP WebSocket (`connectOverCDP`, Puppeteer) or WebDriver; SDKs in TypeScript, Python and Go, plus a CLI. |
| Browser time | Free [Community plan](https://cdpfleet.com/docs/pricing#community): 2 threads, 60 browser-minutes per thread a day, 15-minute sessions, proxies included. Per second, as thread-seconds. Shared: $0.02–$0.05 per browser-hour at full use; dedicated $0.01/hour ($8.50/month for a browser around the clock). A headful session takes 2 threads. | Per second: headless ~$0.06/hour, **headful ~$0.48/hour** (8×), headful with GPU ~$2.88/hour. No charge while a browser is in standby (5 s after the last CDP, live-view or computer-control activity). Plans: Developer free ($5 credits/month), Hobbyist $30/month ($10 credits), Start-Up $200/month ($50 credits), Enterprise. The pricing page bills per GB-second of memory; the docs' rate table gives one rate per browser type, so a larger browser's price (headless 2–4 GB, headful 16 GB) isn't spelled out. |
| Ending a session | Closing the connection ends the session and the billing; an unused session ends after 60 seconds. | Disconnecting doesn't end it: with no client attached the browser goes into standby (not billed) and is deleted after `timeout_seconds` (60 s by default, up to 72 h), or by a delete call. |
| Session length | Up to 24 h (shared threads: also capped by your remaining daily minutes). Idle timeout 120 s by default, up to 10 min on shared threads and 24 h on dedicated. | No maximum duration published; `timeout_seconds` is an inactivity timeout (default 60 s, up to 72 h) that starts when no client is attached. |
| Concurrency | The threads you buy: 5 to 10,000 (more on request). | Developer 5, Hobbyist 10, Start-Up 150, Enterprise custom; browsers in standby still count; browser creation is rate limited separately. |
| Your own proxies | **Free on every plan** — HTTP, HTTPS or SOCKS5, single, pools or per-host rules, with live swap. Or the [cdpfleet residential proxy](https://cdpfleet.com/docs/proxies#residential), 4 tiers from $0.50 to $5/GB. | Bring-your-own HTTP or HTTPS proxies from the Start-Up plan ($200/month) only; proxies can be hot-swapped on a running browser, and up to 10 per-host routes send chosen destinations through another proxy. |
| Their proxies | [cdpfleet residential](https://cdpfleet.com/docs/proxies#residential): 4 tiers from $0.50/GB ($5/GB at Tier 1), $5 free credit, by country, device OS and sticky session. | Configurable ISP (US, SG, GB, FR, DE), residential and mobile proxies from the Hobbyist plan, unmetered and not billed. On the free plan, only stealth mode's default proxy — an ISP proxy from a shared pool by the docs, "a Kernel-managed residential proxy" by the pricing page. |
| Resources per browser | A real desktop browser on a dedicated node slot; headful renders on a virtual display. | Headless 1 GB of memory by default (or 2 or 4 GB), headful 8 GB (or 16 GB), set at creation. |
| Stealth | Real browsers by default (genuine Chrome, Edge, Brave…), headful by default, and three stealth builds — Patchright, Rebrowser, Camoufox ([compare them](https://cdpfleet.com/docs/cases/stealth-builds)). | Anti-detection defaults on every browser; stealth mode adds a default ISP proxy and an automatic CAPTCHA solver (both opt-out); GPU browsers render canvas and WebGL on real hardware. |
| Captcha solving | Not built in. Use any solver through Playwright, or hand over to a person with live view. | Automatic, in stealth mode. |
| Watching a session | Live view with human takeover — Watch / Take control in the dashboard, or a link from the API — and [Launch interactive](https://cdpfleet.com/docs/live-view#launch-interactive): open any browser on a start page straight into live view from the dashboard's code generator (`start_url` over the API). [Session recordings](https://cdpfleet.com/docs/recordings) as MP4 (480p free, 720p or 1080p on a plan), and JPEG frames to your code with `page.screencast`. | Live view; MP4 replays you start and stop over the API, kept 1 day (free), 7 days (Hobbyist) or 30 days (Start-Up); neither in headless mode. |
| Persistence and logins | [Persistent profiles](https://cdpfleet.com/docs/profiles) keep cookies, local storage and IndexedDB between sessions (paid plans); Playwright `storageState`; `keep_alive` to reconnect to the same browser on dedicated threads. No extensions. | Profiles (cookies, storage, open tabs, Chromium preferences), managed auth connections and vaults, custom extensions. |
| Scraping in one call | [Functions](https://cdpfleet.com/docs/functions): screenshot, PDF, Markdown, [scrape](https://cdpfleet.com/docs/functions/scrape) (HTML, Markdown, text, links, screenshot, XHR calls, cookies; `wait_for`, `actions`, `extract` by CSS selector), [map](https://cdpfleet.com/docs/functions/map), [geo compare](https://cdpfleet.com/docs/functions/geo) and a [live tab](https://cdpfleet.com/docs/functions/livetab) — in a pooled browser, or in a browser and device of your choice on paid plans. Billed like a session (one thread while the call runs, one per country for geo compare); the Community proxy and your own proxies cost nothing extra. Free tools at [/functions](https://cdpfleet.com/functions). | No scrape, Markdown or extraction endpoint: you create a browser and drive it. Two shortcuts run next to it — the Playwright execution API (`POST /browsers/{id}/playwright/execute`) runs your TypeScript in the browser's VM and returns its value, and browser curl sends plain HTTP requests through a browser's network stack, cookies and proxy, without rendering. |
| Crawling and bulk | [Jobs](https://cdpfleet.com/docs/jobs) on paid plans: batch (any number of URLs), crawl and map, with no size or time limit — runs continue past the 24-hour session limit by themselves; results as JSON lines or a zip archive, kept 14 days; stop and resume; signed webhooks. Plus [watch](https://cdpfleet.com/docs/jobs#watch) (live XHR/WebSocket/DOM events), [warmup](https://cdpfleet.com/docs/jobs#warmup) and [monitors](https://cdpfleet.com/docs/monitors) (scheduled change detection with diffs). | No crawl, map or batch API and no change detection. Apps host your TypeScript or Python next to the browsers: an invocation is billed for its compute (~$0.24/hour at 4 GB) plus the browsers it opens, runs up to 100 seconds synchronously or an hour asynchronously, 5–50 at once by plan. The docs say invocations can be scheduled, but no schedule API is documented. Browser pools keep warm browsers ready for bursts. |
| Screenshots and PDFs | Screenshot (PNG/JPEG, viewport or full page) and PDF Functions — a text PDF from a Chromium-based browser. | No screenshot or PDF endpoint: the computer-controls API captures the whole VM screen (native dialogs included); otherwise Playwright in a session or through the execution API. |
| Agent tooling | A hosted [MCP server](https://cdpfleet.com/docs/mcp/setup) at cdpfleet.com/mcp — add it in Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini and sign in with OAuth — or `npx cdpfleet-mcp`; [SDKs](https://cdpfleet.com/docs/sdk) for Node.js, Python and Go. | A hosted MCP server (`mcp.onkernel.com/mcp`, OAuth 2.1 or API key) with tools for browsers, profiles, proxies, apps, Playwright code, computer actions, WebMCP and replays; computer controls shaped for computer-use models; integrations for Claude, OpenAI, Gemini, Browser Use and others; SDKs in TypeScript, Python and Go, and a CLI. |
| Where the browser runs | Servers in the EU (Germany and Finland); your proxy decides where traffic exits. | `us-east` by default; `eu-west` and `ap-southeast` from the Start-Up plan at the same rates (not a data-residency guarantee). |
| Examples | [89 cases](https://cdpfleet.com/docs/cases) run on production in five languages, all on [GitHub](https://github.com/cdpfleet/cdpfleet) with their output. | Docs guides and SDK references in TypeScript, Python and Go. |

Kernel facts from its public pricing page and documentation, checked on 10 November 2026; list prices in USD. Tell us if something is out of date.

## Which one, when

### Pick Kernel if…

-   Your agents spend most of their time waiting — on an LLM, a person, a queue — so free standby beats paying for an open browser.
-   You run short headless jobs where ~$0.06/hour is hard to beat.
-   You want managed logins, extensions and a built-in CAPTCHA solver from one vendor.
-   You want to deploy your agent's code next to its browser and invoke it by API.

### Pick cdpfleet if…

-   You want pages, scrapes, screenshots or PDFs in one call, or crawls, batch jobs and [monitors](https://cdpfleet.com/docs/monitors), without writing and hosting the browser code yourself.
-   You need headful browsers: here a headful session costs two threads, there it costs eight times the headless price.
-   Your traffic goes through your own proxies — free here on every plan, $200/month and up there.
-   The site must see a specific real browser or version — Chrome channels, Edge, Brave, Firefox, WebKit, Camoufox — not one Chromium.
-   You want the Playwright protocol from Java, C# or Go, or a flat price for a browser that runs around the clock.
-   You want to start free — the Community plan includes proxies — and try a browser in live view before writing any code.

## Try it

The [quickstart](https://cdpfleet.com/docs/quickstart) is one HTTPS call and five lines of Playwright; the [code builder](https://cdpfleet.com/docs/builder) writes the launch for any browser and option set in your language.

### Sources

-   [Kernel pricing](https://www.kernel.sh/pricing)
-   [Kernel docs: pricing and billing](https://www.kernel.sh/docs/info/pricing)
-   [Kernel docs: concurrency and limits](https://www.kernel.sh/docs/browsers/concurrency-and-limits)
-   [Kernel docs: create a browser](https://www.kernel.sh/docs/browsers/create-a-browser)
-   [Kernel docs: headless mode](https://www.kernel.sh/docs/browsers/headless)
-   [Kernel docs: standby mode](https://www.kernel.sh/docs/browsers/standby)
-   [Kernel docs: termination and timeouts](https://www.kernel.sh/docs/browsers/termination)
-   [Kernel docs: bot detection and stealth](https://www.kernel.sh/docs/browsers/bot-detection/overview)
-   [Kernel docs: stealth mode](https://www.kernel.sh/docs/browsers/bot-detection/stealth)
-   [Kernel docs: proxies](https://www.kernel.sh/docs/proxies/overview)
-   [Kernel docs: per-host proxy routes](https://www.kernel.sh/docs/proxies/routes)
-   [Kernel docs: profiles](https://www.kernel.sh/docs/browsers/profiles)
-   [Kernel docs: replays](https://www.kernel.sh/docs/browsers/replays)
-   [Kernel docs: regional browsers](https://www.kernel.sh/docs/browsers/regions)
-   [Kernel docs: Playwright execution](https://www.kernel.sh/docs/browsers/playwright-execution)
-   [Kernel docs: browser curl](https://www.kernel.sh/docs/browsers/curl)
-   [Kernel docs: computer controls](https://www.kernel.sh/docs/browsers/computer-controls)
-   [Kernel docs: apps](https://www.kernel.sh/docs/apps/develop)
-   [Kernel docs: invoking an app](https://www.kernel.sh/docs/apps/invoke)
-   [Kernel docs: MCP server](https://www.kernel.sh/docs/reference/mcp-server)

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Source: https://cdpfleet.com/docs/compare/cdpfleet-vs-kernel · Markdown: https://cdpfleet.com/docs/compare/cdpfleet-vs-kernel.md · All docs for AI tools: https://cdpfleet.com/llms.txt