Agentic Index
Browserbase vs Island (2026)
Browserbase last verified ·Island last verified
Both provide browsers for agents and they answer opposite questions. That verdict is the Agentic Index coverage score, graded from each vendor's own published materials.
Browserbase is developer infrastructure, hosted browsers and MCP integration, free to start, with the Developer plan at $20 a month. Island is the enterprise browser as an agent control plane, with per agent permissions, human approval gates, real time data loss prevention on MCP data flows, per invocation audit logs to your security systems and model agnostic provider choice. Browserbase answers how agents browse, and Island answers whether your security team will allow it.
On the Agentic Index agent infrastructure ranking, Browserbase clears the bar and Island does not. Browserbase documents all five production contract capabilities in full; Island does not document deployment and data residency in full, nor testing, debugging and optimization. 33 of the 186 vendors in the lane clear it. See the agent infrastructure ranking
This comparison is published by Agentic Index, an independent agentic AI vendor research platform. Browserbase and Island are each graded against the same 14 capability Agentic Index taxonomy, from the vendor's own public materials under the Agentic Index verification standard, alongside 1,084 researched vendors. No vendor pays for placement and no vendor has reviewed this page. How this evidence is graded
Choose Browserbase if
- You need browser infrastructure to build on.
- A free tier and a Developer plan at $20 a month are the adoption path.
- Your agents run in your own infrastructure and governance is handled elsewhere.
Choose Island if
- Per agent permissions and approval gates are what your security review will require.
- Data loss prevention on MCP flows and per invocation audit logs are hard requirements.
- The enterprise browser is already your endpoint strategy.
| Feature | B Browserbase |
I Island |
|---|---|---|
| Action & orchestration | ||
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Integrations & Tool Calling Ability to connect agents to real systems through native integrations, OAuth-authenticated actions, custom tools, APIs, webhooks, or MCP-compatible tools. |
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BrowserbaseIntegrations & Tool Calling Browserbase Agents have four built in tool groups (browser, search, shell and files) and cannot take custom tools yet. The integrations directory (Stripe cards, 1Password logins, Box, n8n and agent frameworks) connects services to sessions that the customer's own code drives. Sourcedocs.browserbase.com/platform/agents/how-it-worksread 2026-10-21 |
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IslandIntegrations & Tool Calling AI agents take governed actions through Island hosted MCP servers, connect to approved knowledge sources through MCP integrations, and organizations can publish internal MCP servers to agents without exposing API keys or network access. Sourceisland.io/ai/ai-browserread 2026-09-27 |
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Workflow Orchestration Ability to sequence, branch, retry, route, and combine deterministic workflow nodes with autonomous agent steps. |
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BrowserbaseWorkflow Orchestration An Agent run plans and executes multi step browser work, reusable Agents run one prompt across many inputs, and Functions host the customer's own scripts behind an API. Sequencing, branching and retries across runs live in the customer's code, and there is no workflow model. Sourcedocs.browserbase.com/platform/functions/overviewread 2026-10-21 |
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IslandWorkflow Orchestration AI Automation builds and runs on-demand agents that work across enterprise applications, and the Enterprise Browser automates common workflows inside web apps without source code. There is no multi agent execution, workflow model or visual builder. Sourceisland.io/press/island-makes-ai-work-for-the-enterpriseread 2026-09-27 |
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Triggers & Channel Coverage How agents wake up and where they work: schedules, webhooks, message events, CRM events, inbox events, chat, email, voice, and collaboration tools. |
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BrowserbaseTriggers & Channel Coverage Runs and Functions start from the API, SDKs, the Browse CLI or the MCP server. To run a Function on a cron, the customer uses its own webhook, queue worker or scheduled job. Browserbase's webhooks are outbound notices, and Browserbase runs no schedule itself. Sourcedocs.browserbase.com/platform/webhooks/overviewread 2026-10-21 |
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IslandTriggers & Channel Coverage AI Automation agents are on-demand, and the AI Browser suggests actions from the page the user is viewing. Both start when a person asks, and there is no schedule, event or webhook trigger. Sourceisland.io/press/island-makes-ai-work-for-the-enterpriseread 2026-09-27 |
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| Knowledge & context | ||
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Knowledge Grounding & RAG Ability to ground agent behavior in company data through document ingestion, retrieval, external knowledge APIs, semantic search, or RAG layers. |
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BrowserbaseKnowledge Grounding & RAG There is no retrieval over the customer's own knowledge. Search and Fetch read the public web at run time. Sourcedocs.browserbase.com/llms.txtread 2026-10-21 |
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IslandKnowledge Grounding & RAG AI reaches company approved knowledge sources through RAG and MCP integrations, and prompts are enriched with identity, role and page context. Island routes to the customer's existing sources and keeps no index of its own over the customer's knowledge. Sourceisland.io/ai/ai-browserread 2026-09-27 |
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Memory & State Persistence Ability to persist context across a run, conversation, workflow, user, team, or longer-term memory layer. |
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BrowserbaseMemory & State Persistence An Agent reads its memory of earlier steps within a run. Contexts keep cookies, local storage and cache across sessions, but that is saved browser state, and the Agent has no memory store it reads across runs. Sourcedocs.browserbase.com/platform/browser/core-features/contextsread 2026-10-21 |
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IslandMemory & State Persistence Admins decide what AI remembers, including which context carries forward, which conversations persist and how that builds over time. This is memory under policy, with no stated scope or lifetime for what is kept. Sourceisland.io/ai/ai-browserread 2026-09-27 |
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| Control & trust | ||
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Human Oversight & Guardrails Approval steps, consent checkpoints, escalation rules, structured guardrails, policy constraints, and pause/resume controls. |
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BrowserbaseHuman Oversight & Guardrails A run given pauseWhen pauses when the stated condition arises, such as an approval or a verification code. It tells the customer what it needs and continues where it left off once they reply. Allowed Domains limits where sessions may browse. Sourcedocs.browserbase.com/platform/agents/pausing-runsread 2026-10-21 |
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IslandHuman Oversight & Guardrails Admins define for every AI agent what it can access, what it can execute and when human approval is required, and AI Automation agents run under set controls over application access, permitted actions and human approvals. Sourceisland.io/ai/ai-browserread 2026-09-27 |
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Security, Identity & Governance RBAC, SSO, auditability, encryption, least-privilege tool access, compliance posture, and data handling policy. |
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BrowserbaseSecurity, Identity & Governance Organizations assign Admin, Contributor and Viewer roles, and the Scale plan adds SAML single sign on. Every plan has SOC 2 Type II, and HIPAA with a BAA, a DPA and third party penetration tests are available, with a trust center at trust.browserbase.com. Sourcedocs.browserbase.com/account/enterprise/securityread 2026-10-21 |
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IslandSecurity, Identity & Governance Admins define which AI tools, models and tenants each employee can access by identity, role and location, set per agent permissions and issue just in time, time boxed credentials to agents. Island completed a SOC 2 Type 2 audit by PwC of the Enterprise Browser and Island Cloud (announced 6 Jul 2022). That audit dates from 2022, and Island runs a trust center. Sourceisland.io/ai/ai-browserread 2026-09-27 |
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Observability & Auditability Traces, logs, execution histories, metrics, audit events, and debugging detail for production agent behavior. |
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BrowserbaseObservability & Auditability Each Agent run keeps a chronological message transcript of what the Agent did. Every session has live view, session replay and downloadable recordings. Logs are kept for 7 to 30 or more days depending on plan, and logging can be turned off. Sourcedocs.browserbase.com/platform/browser/observability/observabilityread 2026-10-21 |
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IslandObservability & Auditability Island captures detailed logs of every AI conversation, prompt, response, tool call and agent action across web and desktop, tied to user, device, agent and policy and exportable, and AI Automation agents run with full audit trails. The same logging covers Island's own agents as well as the third party AI it governs. Sourceisland.io/airead 2026-09-27 |
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Deployment & Data Residency Deployment modes and options, including SaaS, dedicated cloud, VPC, on-prem, hybrid, local runtime, and self-hosting. |
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BrowserbaseDeployment & Data Residency The Sessions API takes a region parameter, and data residency is configurable across US, EU and Asia regions. Enterprise accounts get zero data retention and bring your own storage. The service is hosted only. Sourcedocs.browserbase.com/optimizations/latency/multi-regionread 2026-10-21 |
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IslandDeployment & Data Residency Agent actions run either through Island hosted MCP servers or locally in the managed browser on the customer's devices, and Island ships as a browser, extension, desktop and network layer. Island Cloud offers no data residency or region choice. Sourceisland.io/ai/ai-browserread 2026-09-27 |
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| Solution readiness | ||
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Prebuilt Agents, Templates & Packs Ready-made workflows, packaged employees, templates, blueprints, industry solutions, and role-specific agents that reduce time-to-value. |
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BrowserbasePrebuilt Agents, Templates & Packs The Agents examples are worked task recipes (KYC checks, price monitoring, many portals) that the customer writes into its own Agent, and Skills teach coding agents to use Browserbase. There are no packaged agents or templates to adopt. Sourcedocs.browserbase.com/platform/agents/examplesread 2026-10-21 |
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IslandPrebuilt Agents, Templates & Packs There is no catalog of prebuilt agents, workflow library or templates. The customer builds AI Automation agents and browser automations. Sourceisland.io/airead 2026-09-27 |
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| Platform extensibility | ||
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Model Flexibility & Routing Ability to work across multiple foundation models, route tasks to different models, or let buyers bring their own providers and keys. |
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BrowserbaseModel Flexibility & Routing Model Gateway lets a customer pick OpenAI, Anthropic or Google models by name on a Browserbase API key, and enterprise security includes bring your own LLM. Browserbase Agents themselves take no model setting, and the gateway is used through the Stagehand SDK. Sourcedocs.browserbase.com/platform/model-gateway/overviewread 2026-10-21 |
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IslandModel Flexibility & Routing Island is model agnostic. Organizations embed the providers they choose, including ChatGPT, Copilot, Gemini, Grok, Claude or their own, and admins define which models each employee can access. Sourceisland.io/ai/ai-browserread 2026-09-27 |
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APIs, SDKs & MCP Extensibility Composability layer: stable APIs, SDKs, MCP tool consumption/serving, custom tools, and integration into internal systems. |
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BrowserbaseAPIs, SDKs & MCP Extensibility A REST API covers sessions, contexts, Agents, Functions, Fetch and Search, with Node.js and Python SDKs, the Browse CLI and a Browserbase MCP server. Sourcedocs.browserbase.com/reference/introductionread 2026-10-21 |
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IslandAPIs, SDKs & MCP Extensibility Island names a Browser-use MCP that lets outside agents drive the Island browser and a Direct API for building governance into coded agents, but publishes no public endpoint, auth scheme, tool list or API reference. Sourceisland.io/airead 2026-09-27 |
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Testing, Debugging & Optimization Testing, debugging, scoring, retries, fallbacks, quality gates, and optimization loops for improving agent workflows before and after deployment. |
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BrowserbaseTesting, Debugging & Optimization The Optimize tool analyzes completed Agent runs and proposes a system prompt change to run again. Each Agent tracks completion, fail and timeout rates and average duration over its run history, so the deployed Agent can be improved from one run to the next. Sourcedocs.browserbase.com/platform/agents/optimizing-agentsread 2026-10-21 |
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IslandTesting, Debugging & Optimization Tracking covers AI usage, cost, time saved and tool performance, which is adoption analytics. There is no evaluation harness, test cases or quality gate for agents. Sourceisland.io/airead 2026-09-27 |
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| Specialist automation | ||
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Browser & Computer Use Browser, desktop, or remote/local computer control for workflows that cannot be handled through stable APIs alone. |
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BrowserbaseBrowser & Computer Use Browserbase runs hosted Chromium browsers, one per VM, which agents and Playwright, Puppeteer or Selenium code drive, with stealth, CAPTCHA solving, proxies and live view. Browserbase Agents browse, click, type and extract on the web in their own session. Sourcedocs.browserbase.com/platform/agents/overviewread 2026-10-21 |
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IslandBrowser & Computer Use Island's own Enterprise Browser is where agents act. AI Browser agents take governed actions locally in the browser, AI Automation agents execute inside a hardened browser environment, and a Browser-use MCP lets agents navigate legacy internal apps that have no API. Sourceisland.io/airead 2026-09-27 |
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Pricing snapshot
Sourced from the Index pricing dataset · open each vendor's profile for full detail.
| Pricing | B Browserbase |
I Island |
|---|---|---|
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Entry price Lowest public entry point |
From $20 a month (Developer) · free tier | Contact sales |
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Pricing confidence How public the numbers are |
Public, partial | Contact only |
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Billing Primary billing axis |
Hybrid. A monthly plan fee includes allocations of browser hours, proxy bandwidth and API calls, and usage past them is metered. | enterprise contract |
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Variable cost Workload / overage exposure |
High variable cost | Medium variable cost |
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Free tier / trial Try before you buy |
Free tier
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No free tier
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Buying motion Self-serve vs sales call |
Mixed | Sales call |
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Pricing verified When this pricing was last checked |
Product updates
Newest first, each linked to its source.
Browserbase
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· Human approval / guardrails
Agents running in Browserbase can now sign in to websites through 1Password Agentic Autofill, added through the Browserbase extension system.
Source -
· Browser/computer use
Stagehand 4.2 adds page.onToolsAdded() and page.onToolsRemoved() so browser agents can react as websites expose or withdraw WebMCP tools during a session.
Source -
· Security / enterprise
Secrets are now generally available in Browserbase Functions, so credentials and API keys are stored in Browserbase, attached to specific functions and read at run time instead of being written into code.
Source
Island
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· Browser/computer use
Enterprise Browser for Agents lets endpoint and cloud agents work in SaaS, internal and public web apps through Island's browser, with the organization's policies applied.
Source -
· Integrations
Claude Code, Claude Cowork, Claude for Microsoft 365 and Claude Science sessions now flow into Island's Anthropic integration through the expanded Claude Compliance API.
Source -
· Integrations
Island integrated its Enterprise Agentic Control Plane with Anthropic's new Inference Hooks for Claude Enterprise.
Source
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