Playwright vs Puppeteer (reference, archived)

Both automate a local browser. Playwright MCP is maintained by Microsoft; the Puppeteer server is an archived reference implementation.

	Playwright	Puppeteer (reference, archived)
Category	Dev Tools	Dev Tools
Status	Official · Microsoft	Official · Model Context Protocol
Transport	Local (stdio)	Local (stdio)
Auth method	None (local browser)	None (local browser)
Scopes / permissions	—	—
Tools listed	8	7
In Config Builder	Yes	Yes
Last verified	Oct 15, 2026	Oct 15, 2026
Summary	Browser automation for agents using Playwright accessibility snapshots.	Browser automation and scraping with Puppeteer. Archived reference server.
Key tools	browser_navigate browser_snapshot browser_click browser_fill_form browser_evaluate browser_file_upload browser_console_messages browser_close	puppeteer_navigate puppeteer_screenshot puppeteer_click puppeteer_hover puppeteer_fill puppeteer_select puppeteer_evaluate

Playwright setup

Run with npx

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "playwright": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["@playwright/mcp@latest"]
    }
  }
}

Run with npx

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "puppeteer": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@modelcontextprotocol/server-puppeteer"]
    }
  }
}

Built from the verified data on each spec sheet. Check the official pages before relying on details.