Browserbase vs Continue: Which Is Better in 2026?

Browserbase is a platform providing headless browser infrastructure for AI agents, web automation and scraping at scale. As AI agents increasingly need to actually use the web — clicking, filling forms, navigating apps and gathering information like a human would — they require reliable, scalable browsers running in the cloud. Browserbase delivers exactly that, letting developers run and control browsers via a simple API without managing the complex, brittle infrastructure that running browsers at scale normally demands.

The challenge Browserbase addresses is significant. Running headless browsers reliably is hard: they're resource-heavy, prone to detection and blocking, and tricky to scale and keep stable. For AI agents and automation that depend on browsing, these problems become serious bottlenecks. Browserbase provides managed, production-grade browser infrastructure with features like stealth and anti-detection, session management, proxying, and the ability to observe and control sessions live — so developers can focus on what their agents do rather than on keeping browsers alive.

This makes Browserbase a key enabler for the rapidly growing world of agentic AI and web automation. Developers use it to power agents that perform tasks on websites, to run reliable scraping and data-collection at scale, to automate workflows that span web apps, and to test and interact with sites programmatically. It integrates with popular browser automation frameworks and AI agent tools, slotting into existing stacks. As AI agents that take real actions on the web move from demos to production, dependable browser infrastructure becomes critical, and Browserbase is positioned right at that intersection. For developers building AI agents, automations or scrapers that need to drive real browsers reliably and at scale — without the operational nightmare of running that infrastructure themselves — Browserbase offers a robust, purpose-built and increasingly essential platform.

Continue is an open-source AI code assistant for VS Code and JetBrains that brings customizable, model-flexible AI help right into the editors developers already use. Rather than locking you into one closed platform, Continue lets you configure exactly which models you want to use — including your own keys and even local models — giving you control, flexibility and freedom from vendor lock-in while you get AI completion, chat and assistance inside your normal workflow.

Its strengths are openness and configurability. As an open-source project, it is transparent, community-driven and free, and its flexibility around models means you can tune it to your preferences, budget and privacy needs. It works across popular IDEs, so teams using different editors can share a consistent AI-assisted experience. For developers who want modern AI coding help without committing to a single proprietary editor or model provider, Continue offers a powerful, adaptable middle ground that respects how they already work.

Continue is ideal for developers and teams who value open source, want to choose and control their AI models, and prefer adding AI to their existing VS Code or JetBrains setup rather than switching editors. It sits alongside tools like Cline and Aider in the open-source AI-coding ecosystem, and is a flexible alternative to closed AI editors like Cursor. If you want customizable, open, model-agnostic AI assistance integrated into the IDE you already love, Continue is a standout choice that keeps you in control of both your workflow and your AI.