Best Headless Browsers in 2025: Reviewed

Are you looking for the best headless browser for web scraping? You've come to the right place!

The ability to automate the browser and handle JavaScript execution makes headless browsers the best choice for scraping dynamic pages. That said, you need to choose carefully across languages and project requirements. We've reviewed the most popular ones and highlighted their strength and weaknesses so you can choose the best one for your project.

What Is a Headless Browser?

A headless browser is simply a browser without a user interface. Most of these tools offer an optional graphical user interface (GUI) mode, though. And that's actually important if you need to debug your setup to see whether any issues arise. Other reasons are to monitor what's happening behind the scenes and capture rendering issues common with the headless mode.

While most people identify headless browsers with automated testing, the self-contained nature of browser control and script execution makes headless browsers ideal for web scraping as well.

Some of the usefulness of scraping with headless browsers includes the following:

• Browser automation allows you to mimic human interactions, such as clicking, hovering, scrolling, typing, and more.
• You'll get JavaScript support to extract dynamic content.
• Headless browsers also offer increased speed because they lack a browser user interface.

Headless browsers, however, have some significant drawbacks. They usually have bot-like signals, such as the WebDriver. And this makes them highly prone to anti-bot detection by WAFs like Cloudflare. Also, running multiple headless browser instances results in memory overhead, making them unsuitable for large-scale scraping.

Before reviewing the best headless browsers in detail, you need to understand the key factors to consider before choosing one for scraping.

Key Factors for Choosing a Headless Browser

Choosing the best headless browser for your scraping project can be tricky, but the following factors will guide your decision.

1. Ease of Use

Web scraping is inherently complex. So, opt for a headless browser that can simplify the process. This browser should have a user-friendly API that facilitates interaction with web pages and data extraction. Ideally, it should be easy to set up and have comprehensive documentation.

2. Programming Language Support

A headless browser that supports multiple languages lets you choose between several language options when kicking off development. It also simplifies cross-technology code migration if you later decide to switch programming languages.

3. Browser Compatibility

When selecting a headless browser for scraping, consider one with broad browser support. This facilitates cross-browser automation, allowing access and interaction with web pages in different environments like Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari.

4. Speed

Since web scraping can be resource-intensive, speed is critical when choosing a headless browser for your project. Your choice should efficiently emulate a browser environment while minimizing CPU and memory usage.

5. Community Support

A headless browser with solid community support will help you build projects faster. An active community provides resources, modules, and discussions that help address specific challenges. High adoption among web scraping developers also ensures better documentation and troubleshooting support, enabling faster project deployment.

With these factors in mind, here are the best headless browsers for web scraping.

1. ZenRows

ZenRows is a web scraping API with all the functionalities of a headless browser. It's a complete toolkit that helps you avoid getting blocked while scraping, including auto-rotating premium proxies, CAPTCHA and anti-bot auto-bypass, and more. Moreover, ZenRows is one of the fastest-growing web scraping solutions.

ZenRows mitigates all the potential drawbacks of open-source headless browsers. It's compatible with all programming languages, non-selective with browsers, fast, and beginner-friendly. All it takes to use ZenRows is a single API call, and watch it handle your scraping tasks effectively.

👍 Pros

• ZenRows is tailored explicitly for web scraping and crawling.
• It's a complete anti-bot bypass solution with a high success rate.
• It provides JavaScript rendering support to scrape dynamic pages.
• The tool supports all programming languages.
• It's easy to use.
• It offers concurrency support.
• It provides full-scale screenshot support.
• ZenRows is fast and lightweight.
• 24/7 active customer support.
• It has an excellent knowledge base and documentation to solve problems quickly.

👎 Cons

• It's a paid solution, but you can try it for free.
• ZenRows is unsuitable for automation testing.

Programming Language Support: All programming languages

Compatible Browsers: Customizable browser

2. Playwright

Created by Microsoft, Playwright is one of the most popular test automation and web scraping tools. It features headless mode by default but offers an optional GUI mode. It has an auto-wait feature that automatically pauses for the DOM to load before further actions. Playwright is compatible with popular browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. It also supports programming languages like Python, JavaScript, .NET, and Java.

Playwright has a dedicated code generator you can leverage to generate locators seamlessly without inspecting the website via the browser's inspection tool. It also has a command-line tool that helps you install and manage browser WebDrivers seamlessly. Although it supports an asynchronous mode to run your scraping tasks concurrently, running multiple browser instances results in memory overhead.

👍 Pros

• Headless and GUI mode options are available.
• It has an asynchronous mode for concurrent scraping.
• Playwright features a selector generator tool.
• It supports various programming languages.
• Playwright has an auto-wait feature.
• It has an active user community.
• It offers an efficient WebDriver management feature.
• It supports all screenshot types.

👎 Cons

• The browser instance can result in memory overhead.
• It's prone to anti-bot detection and blocking.
• The setup can be difficult, especially for beginners.
• It has a steep learning curve.

Programming Language Support: Python, JavaScript, Java, .NET

Compatible Browsers: Chrome/Chromium, Firefox, Safari, and Edge

Repository: GitHub

Read our complete tutorial on web scraping with Playwright to learn more.

3. Puppeteer

Puppeteer is a headless browser for automation testing and web scraping in Node.js. Previously, Puppeteer only supported the Chrome browser. However, version 23.0.1 added Firefox support via the WebDriver BiDi protocol. Like Playwright, it runs headless mode by default but allows you to switch to GUI mode for debugging.

While it's a JavaScript library, it has a Python port called Pyppeteer, allowing you to use its features in Python. Puppeteer also supports all screenshot types. With Puppeteer, you can intercept network requests and selectively modify requests on the fly. The library also supports multiple browser contexts, so you can run scraping tasks in multiple tabs within a single browser instance.

👍 Pros

• It supports request interception.
• Puppeteer is available in headless and GUI mode.
• It provides a complete browser automation feature.
• It has an active community.
• Puppeteer includes support for multiple browser contexts.
• There's asynchronous support for concurrent scraping.
• It features a complete screenshot API.

👎 Cons

• It has limited browser support.
• Anti-bots can easily detect Puppeteer.
• Some Puppeteer features aren't yet compatible with the WebDriver BiDi protocol.
• It has limited programming language support.

Programming Language Support: JavaScript and an unofficial port for Python (Pyppeteer)

Compatible Browsers: Chrome, Edge, and Firefox

Repository: GitHub

Want to learn more? Take a look at our complete guide to Puppeteer web scraping.

4. Selenium

Selenium is one of the earliest and most popular automation tools with a headless browser feature. Compared to the other tools, it covers more browsers, including Firefox, Chrome, Edge, Safari, and Internet Explorer. It supports more programming languages like Python, JavaScript, PHP, Java, C#, Perl, Ruby, and .NET. The tool features an IDE that allows you to automate the browser without writing code manually.

Selenium supports a grid system for parallel execution across several browsers and machines. It also integrates with third-party libraries like Pytest, providing assertions for validating automation outcomes.

👍 Pros

• It has an active community.
• Selenium supports many programming languages and browsers.
• There's a no-code IDE to generate automation code.
• It offers a grid system for parallel execution.
• It easily integrates with third-party tools.
• It's available in GUI and headless mode.

👎 Cons

• Anti-bots easily detect Selenium due to its bot-like properties.
• Multiple browser instances result in slow performance.
• It has a steep learning curve.
• WebDriver management can be costly at scale.

Programming Language Support: Python, JavaScript, Java, Ruby, PHP, Perl, C#, and .NET

Compatible Browsers: Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, and Internet Explorer (limited)

GitHub Repository: GitHub

Read our article on using Selenium for web scraping in Python to learn more.

5. Splash

Splash is a headless web scraping tool that uses a custom, lightweight web rendering engine based on QtWebKit. It fully supports JavaScript rendering, allowing you to perform interactions such as scrolling, hovering, and clicking during web scraping. While Splash is written in Python, it primarily uses the Lua scripting language to automate browser-based tasks.

Splash provides a dedicated server that communicates over an HTTP API, making it accessible from various programming languages. You can write the scraping logic in Lua, send it to Splash via the API, and receive the rendered result. Splash also integrates seamlessly with Scrapy, a popular Python web scraping framework. This integration allows Scrapy to handle JavaScript-rendered content when extracting data.

👍 Pros

• It provides seamless integration with Python's Scrapy.
• Splash is lightweight and fast.
• It provides support for any programming language over an HTTP API.
• It features a dedicated local or remote server.
• There is no browser instance overhead.
• Splash is tailored for large-scale web scraping.
• It provides screenshot support.

👎 Cons

• It has a low user base.
• Server setup can be technically challenging for beginners.
• It requires learning the Lua scripting language, complicating its learning curve.

Programming Language Support: Lua scripting. It supports all programming languages via its HTTP API

Compatible Browsers: Headless browser engine based on QTWebKit

Repository: GitHub

Check out our detailed tutorial on web scraping with Scrapy-Splash to learn more about how Splash works with Scrapy.

6. HtmlUnit

HtmlUnit is a Java headless browser library based on the Mozilla Rhino rendering engine. Unlike most headless browsers, HtmlUnit is strictly headless and doesn't have the GUI option. It features smooth HTML parsing and full-scale JavaScript rendering, allowing your scraper to interact with web pages like a regular browser.

You can block memory-demanding assets such as JavaScript and CSS to manage resources while scraping. This feature is handy for scraping simple websites that don't require JavaScript rendering. Although HtmlUnit is less popular than other tools, it's well-represented on developer community platforms like Stack Overflow.

👍 Pros

• The lack of a GUI makes it more lightweight and faster than other mainstream alternatives.
• It supports multiple browser emulation.
• HtmlUnit supports full-scale JavaScript rendering.
• You can block unwanted resources easily.
• It seamlessly integrates with Java programs.
• It's highly customizable.

👎 Cons

• Its strict headless mode makes debugging difficult.
• It doesn't support screenshots.
• Steep learning curve.
• Easily detectable as a bot.
• Strictly limited Java.

Programming Language Support: Java

Compatible Browsers: Internal JavaScript engine Rhino. No real browser engines

Repository: GitHub

7. Chromedp

Chromedp is one of the top Golang headless browsers for test automation and web scraping. It strictly supports Chrome simulation over the Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP). Chromedp also runs headless mode by default, but you can switch to GUI mode, depending on your requirements.

Access to the CDP allows Chromedp to intercept the network, allowing you to modify ongoing requests with extra functionalities, such as blocking resources, setting a User Agent, adding proxies, and more. Chromedp takes advantage of Golang's concurrency, making it suitable for large-scale web scraping.

👍 Pros

• It takes advantage of Golang's concurrency.
• It easily integrates with Golang applications.
• Chromedp supports screenshots.
• It supports network interception to modify requests on the fly.
• It offers GUI and headless mode options.
• Chromedp provides full-scale Chrome automation.
• It has lower memory overhead due to CDP support.

👎 Cons

• The learning curve is steep.
• It has easily detectable bot-like signals, such as HeadlessChrome.
• It has limited browser support.
• Chromedp is strictly available in Golang.

Programming Language Support: Golang

Compatible Browsers: Chrome/Chromium

Repository: GitHub

Check out our complete article on Chromedp web scraping to learn more.

8. Cypress

Cypress is an end-to-end scraping framework in JavaScript. It supports multiple browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. Cypress maintains a standard project set up via Electron and supports the GUI mode by default. However, you can also spin it headless to remove the GUI overhead.

However, Cypress is primarily designed for automation testing rather than web scraping. Its strict testing environment setup limits customization for data extraction, making it less suitable for complex scraping tasks. That said, Cypress offers a simple and robust screenshot API, which is valuable for specific scraping-related tasks, such as competitor's page monitoring.

👍 Pros

• Cypress has a complete browser automation feature.
• It provides support for multiple browsers.
• The tool has an active user community.
• It features a user interface to set up a development environment quickly.
• It has a simple learning curve.

👎 Cons

• It's limited to JavaScript.
• Cypress is unsuitable for complex scraping tasks.
• It has limited flexibility for customization.

Programming Language Support: JavaScript

Compatible Browsers: Firefox, WebKit (experimental), Chrome, Edge and Electron

Repository: GitHub

Best Headless Browser for Scraping (Summary)

We've compared the best headless browsers across various programming languages. Your decision ultimately depends on your project requirements. The table below gives a quick overview of all the comparisons.

Above all, performance is critical to your scraping tasks. So, we've handpicked a few that satisfy the following criteria to help you streamline your choice:

• The fastest headless browser.
• Lightweight headless browser.

Fastest Headless Browser

ZenRows is the fastest headless browser, followed by HtmlUnit. Both tools provide the essential requirements for executing JavaScript, allowing you to scale up without impacting the CPU or memory. However, if you're looking for an option that combines speed with stealth, ZenRows is the best choice.

Lightweight Headless Browser

ZenRows, HtmlUnit, Splash, and Chromedp are at the top of the list of lightweight headless browsers. These tools use fewer system resources while still enabling browser automation.

Conclusion

You've just seen a comparison of eight top headless browsers for web scraping and testing. Headless browsers offer browser automation, simplifying human interaction simulation and dynamic content extraction. Headless browsers differ in terms of extra features, browser compatibility, and language support.

However, scraping with unfortified headless browsers will get your scraper blocked. The best way to deal with anti-bots and scrape any website without getting blocked is to use a web scraping API like ZenRows.

Try ZenRows for free now without a credit card!