Is Steel worth the price?
Steel's pricing structure appears fair, especially with a generous free Hobby tier offering $10 in credits and 100 browser hours.
The Developers tier at $99 for 1,238 browser hours offers good value for growing teams. This pricing is best for developers and startups needing scalable headless browser solutions.
Pricing Plans
Hobby
Free
- $10 in Credits per month
- 100 Browser Hours
Starter
$29
- $29 in Credits per month
- 290 Browser Hours
- 2.9 GB Proxy Bandwidth
- 7.2k Captcha Solves
Developers
$99
- $99 in Credits per month
- 1,238 Browser Hours
- 12 GB Proxy Bandwidth
- 28k Captcha Solves
Startups
$499
- $499 in Credits per month
- 9,980 Browser Hours
- 166 GB Proxy Bandwidth
- 166k Captcha Solves
Enterprise
Custom Pricing
- Higher Limits
- Discounted Rates
- Dedicated Clusters & APIs
- Unlimited Session Concurrency
Hidden Costs & Gotchas
Overage fees if credits/hours are exceeded.
Potential for increased costs with higher concurrency.
Custom pricing for Enterprise may hide significant costs.
Which Plan Do You Need?
Individual developers and hobbyists
Small teams needing browser automation
Startups with scaling web scraping needs
How Steel Compares to Competitors
Compared to Browserless.io, which offers a Developer plan at $50 for 500k requests (roughly equivalent to browser hours), Steel's Developers tier at $99 for 1,238 browser hours seems competitive. While Bright Data's Web Unlocker starts at $150 for 150k requests, Steel offers a more direct browser hour model, making it potentially more transparent for usage-based scenarios.
Steel Pricing FAQ
How much does Steel cost?
Steel starts at $29/month on the Starter plan. It offers 3 paid tiers ranging from $29/month up to $499/month. A free plan is also available with limited features.
Does Steel have a free plan?
Yes. Steel offers a free plan called "Hobby". It includes: $10 in Credits per month, 100 Browser Hours.
What is the cheapest Steel paid plan?
The cheapest paid plan for Steel is "Starter" at $29/month. Key features include: $29 in Credits per month, 290 Browser Hours, 2.9 GB Proxy Bandwidth.
Cheaper alternatives to Steel
Direct competitors with similar features. Many offer free tiers or lower per-seat pricing.
