Side-by-side comparison

Every Playwright and Puppeteer MCP server in the AgentRank index, sorted by score. The gap between the top Playwright option and the best Puppeteer server is 47 points.

Global rank = position among 25,638 indexed repos. Close% = issue close rate. Data from March 18, 2026 crawl.

Playwright MCP options

microsoft/playwright-mcp — score 94.23

The official Microsoft Playwright MCP server is ranked #10 globally across all 25,638 indexed repositories — the only browser automation tool in the top 10. It has 29,150 stars (more than any other tool in the top 10), 62 contributors, and a 97% issue close rate.

Microsoft maintains this directly alongside Playwright itself. When Playwright releases a new API or breaks something, the MCP server gets updated. If you are building an agent that needs browser automation, this is the one.

executeautomation/mcp-playwright — score 69.94

The community alternative, executeautomation/mcp-playwright, has 5,301 stars and 34 contributors — strong signals for a non-vendor project. It ranks #298 globally and has an AgentRank score of 69.94.

The one caveat: the last commit was December 2025, which drags the freshness score. The 78% issue close rate is acceptable but below the 84%+ you want for a production dependency. Use it if you need Playwright features not yet in the official server — otherwise default to the Microsoft server.

Puppeteer MCP options

No official Puppeteer MCP server exists as of March 2026. The two community options both score in the high 40s.

zed-extensions/mcp-server-puppeteer — score 47.02

zed-extensions/mcp-server-puppeteer has fresh commits (March 2026) but zero contributors beyond the maintainer and zero recorded issue history. It's a Rust implementation, primarily useful for Zed editor integration. Ranks #3,848 globally. Not recommended as a general-purpose Puppeteer MCP server.

merajmehrabi/puppeteer-mcp-server — score 45.82

merajmehrabi/puppeteer-mcp-server is the most-starred Puppeteer MCP option at 410 stars, but the last commit was March 2025 — one year ago. The AgentRank freshness signal penalizes anything over 90 days stale. At 365 days, the decay is severe. Zero issue close rate signals no active maintenance response. Ranks #4,401 globally.

Verdict

The AgentRank index covers 83 Playwright and Puppeteer MCP repositories. The verdict from the data is unambiguous:

• For browser automation in agent workflows: use microsoft/playwright-mcp. Score 94.23, globally ranked #10, officially maintained.
• If you need community features not in the official server: executeautomation/mcp-playwright at 69.94. Watch the freshness signal.
• Puppeteer options: both score below 48. No production-grade Puppeteer MCP server exists in the index as of March 2026.

Playwright wins on every signal: stars (29,150 vs 410), contributors (62 vs 3), issue close rate (97% vs 0%), and global rank (#10 vs #3,848 and #4,401). This is the clearest category verdict in the AgentRank database tier.

Setup guide

Install microsoft/playwright-mcp

Add to your MCP client config. For Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json):

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

For Cursor, add to .cursor/mcp.json:

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

The server runs headless Chromium by default. Pass --headed if you need to watch the browser. Full documentation is on the GitHub repo.