# Browser comparison

Commit `3e1cf682937990d8211ee8734e8c566d5829053e` · [workflow run](https://github.com/aliilyas/bruster/actions/runs/40662002499)
Measured 2026-10-28T09:14:52.634344+00:00; 10 sessions per configuration. Values are medians [min–max].
WebKitGTK 2.52.6 · Playwright 1.64.1 · Puppeteer 25.16.0 · agent-browser 0.40.0 · Google Chrome for Testing 156.0.8078.4 · Headless Shell Google Chrome for Testing 156.0.8078.4 · Node v26.12.1

Ubuntu 24.04.5 LTS · AMD EPYC 7763 64-Core Processor · 4 visible CPUs · 15.6 GiB RAM · runner image 20261026.354.1

| Metric | Bruster / WebKitGTK | Playwright / Headless Shell | Playwright / full Chrome | Puppeteer / full Chrome | agent-browser / full Chrome |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|
| Launch → first loaded page (ms) | 226.4 [216.3–1062.4] | 592.3 [580.4–604.4] | 806.1 [786.6–832.5] | 607.7 [595.3–630.7] | 844.3 [784.8–860.9] |
| Startup → ready / blank-page setup (ms) | 104.2 [100.1–764.9] | 572.6 [561.6–586.0] | 759.7 [733.5–789.4] | 569.6 [562.4–597.0] | 765.1 [724.3–787.4] |
| First navigation after setup (ms) | 120.8 [111.8–297.1] | 18.7 [16.8–23.1] | 46.1 [35.8–56.9] | 34.3 [30.1–38.6] | 72.0 [59.9–94.1] |
| Warm tiny-page navigation (ms) | 6.5 [4.9–15.3] | 10.9 [8.8–17.4] | 18.2 [13.9–38.1] | 19.9 [16.7–33.3] | 40.7 [22.8–93.0] |
| Tiny DOM extraction (ms) | 6.0 [0.9–7.8] | 3.2 [2.3–6.3] | 8.3 [3.1–18.4] | 6.4 [1.5–11.5] | 6.3 [3.4–21.7] |
| Large-page navigation (ms) | 52.9 [31.3–68.3] | 34.0 [22.5–47.4] | 41.7 [28.0–61.4] | 39.6 [36.2–46.3] | 84.8 [76.6–110.6] |
| Large DOM extraction, object return (ms) | 17.5 [5.1–24.2] | 101.5 [76.9–149.9] | 105.3 [78.2–150.3] | 27.5 [17.0–53.7] | 31.5 [25.9–40.1] |
| Large DOM extraction, JSON-string return (ms) | 13.8 [5.7–45.6] | 11.2 [8.4–34.6] | 26.6 [8.3–43.4] | 20.7 [8.4–43.0] | 13.3 [11.6–28.7] |
| Image-page navigation (ms) | 116.9 [112.6–124.1] | 119.6 [117.1–133.3] | 124.1 [121.4–139.0] | 126.7 [123.0–133.7] | 131.6 [128.7–139.4] |
| PNG screenshot (ms) | 39.4 [38.8–43.2] | 46.5 [41.4–52.9] | 55.0 [47.6–72.7] | 81.0 [62.8–91.5] | 69.4 [53.8–100.9] |
| Idle total PSS, including display (MiB) | 220.0 [217.4–222.3] | 324.8 [322.9–327.2] | 506.9 [503.3–509.3] | 419.0 [413.6–420.7] | 515.9 [510.7–518.0] |
| Idle process RSS, excluding display (MiB) | 344.5 [341.7–347.9] | 596.4 [592.1–600.8] | 1172.5 [1164.1–1177.3] | 1061.4 [1057.5–1065.0] | 1586.4 [1563.8–1595.5] |
| Installed runtime files, lower bound (MB) | 427.9 | 475.5 | 630.8 | 644.7 | 483.2 |
| Sessions with failures (including cleanup) | 0/10 | 10/10 | 10/10 | 0/10 | 0/10 |

Ten sessions per configuration by default, with rotating order and fresh browser profiles. Values are medians [observed minimum–maximum], not confidence intervals. Startup and first navigation have one sample per session; repeated-operation timings pool all iterations; memory uses the median of three idle readings per session. Startup ends at the adapter ready event, or after blank-page/viewport setup for agent-browser. The combined launch-to-first-page measurement includes both setup and the first navigation. Xvfb is already running: its startup time is excluded, but its memory is included. 1280×800 viewport; localhost fixtures; no-store HTTP responses; navigation waits for load. OS filesystem caches are not flushed. Identical extraction JavaScript and cross-tool result hashes. Timings include controller round trips; agent-browser includes its per-command native CLI. Memory covers the complete owned process forest (including detached daemons and helpers), plus Xvfb for Bruster. PSS apportions shared pages; summed RSS double-counts them. Memory is small-page idle usage, not peak usage. Native snapshots have different semantics and are retained in the raw artifacts rather than ranked as equal work. MB = 1,000,000 bytes; MiB = 1,048,576 bytes. Installed-file inventories are lower bounds including browser/engine, linked libraries, observed mapped files and Node where required; unobserved OS resources may add more. GitHub-hosted runner hardware and OS packages can change: compare the configurations within a run and inspect provenance before interpreting trends.

## Fault probes and cleanup

- Bruster / WebKitGTK: fault probes {}; shutdown/cleanup {}; successful 100 ms recovery retries: 0.
- Playwright / Headless Shell: fault probes {"recovery_after_navigation_error": 10}; shutdown/cleanup {}; successful 100 ms recovery retries: 10.
- Playwright / full Chrome: fault probes {"recovery_after_navigation_error": 10}; shutdown/cleanup {}; successful 100 ms recovery retries: 10.
- Puppeteer / full Chrome: fault probes {}; shutdown/cleanup {}; successful 100 ms recovery retries: 0.
- agent-browser / full Chrome: fault probes {}; shutdown/cleanup {}; successful 100 ms recovery retries: 0.

## Provenance

```json
{
  "started_utc": "2026-10-28T09:10:24.466233+00:00",
  "platform": "Linux-7.0.0-1017-azure-x86_64-with-glibc2.39",
  "os": {
    "NAME": "Ubuntu",
    "ID": "ubuntu",
    "PRETTY_NAME": "Ubuntu 24.04.5 LTS",
    "VERSION_ID": "24.04",
    "VERSION": "24.04.5 LTS (Noble Numbat)",
    "VERSION_CODENAME": "noble",
    "ID_LIKE": "debian",
    "HOME_URL": "https://www.ubuntu.com/",
    "SUPPORT_URL": "https://help.ubuntu.com/",
    "BUG_REPORT_URL": "https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/",
    "PRIVACY_POLICY_URL": "https://www.ubuntu.com/legal/terms-and-policies/privacy-policy",
    "UBUNTU_CODENAME": "noble",
    "LOGO": "ubuntu-logo"
  },
  "node": "v26.12.1",
  "chrome": "Google Chrome for Testing 156.0.8078.4",
  "headless_shell": "Google Chrome for Testing 156.0.8078.4",
  "cpu_count": 4,
  "cpu_model": "AMD EPYC 7763 64-Core Processor",
  "mem_total_kib": 16371756,
  "runner_image": {
    "ImageOS": "ubuntu24",
    "ImageVersion": "20261026.354.1",
    "RUNNER_ARCH": "X64"
  },
  "session_environment": {
    "display_set": true,
    "session_bus_address_set": false,
    "XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP": null,
    "GTK_USE_PORTAL": null,
    "GTK_MODULES": null,
    "NO_AT_BRIDGE": null,
    "BRUSTER_USE_SESSION_BUS": null
  },
  "rustc": "rustc 1.99.1 (58cf8f9c3 2026-10-13)",
  "gtk": "3.24.41",
  "webkitgtk": "2.52.6",
  "packages": {
    "playwright-core": "1.64.1",
    "puppeteer-core": "25.16.0",
    "agent-browser": "0.40.0"
  },
  "bruster_bytes": 1469152,
  "bruster_sha256": "9ad469a9e51bec04561f0b9f248354ee394f97d29c3c4c9e4be016cac59180b0",
  "chrome_sha256": "377a9fc07b495c3b8d0ab8ec1fdfd153641759f9756fea34d8dfce4de82f5025",
  "headless_shell_sha256": "4fa61f0ba0b4f89b7bec242c32ca16d3bccf69dbfef0651924a9ba8fede5f9d6",
  "rounds": 10,
  "iterations": 10,
  "common_extraction_js": "(() => ({\n  title: document.title,\n  elements: Array.from(document.querySelectorAll('h1,h2,h3,p,li,a,input,button,select,textarea'))\n    .filter(e => { const r = e.getBoundingClientRect(); return r.width > 0 && r.height > 0; })\n    .map(e => ({tag: e.tagName.toLowerCase(),\n      name: (e.getAttribute('aria-label') || e.getAttribute('placeholder') || e.textContent || '').trim(),\n      href: e.getAttribute('href'), value: 'value' in e ? e.value : null}))\n}))()",
  "harness_sha256": {
    "bench_compare.py": "ebfa32d27a3fbde2e272272fbbb8e8318bc13b01e9d0fb27f27c7db2fe6e6759",
    "bench_competitor_driver.mjs": "c9bb792d8d3a1a60f1b0f5fe6a1775e865ca715858f3b2da13ba2162f75077fe",
    "bench_audit.py": "df91d7a203077227c82fc6730033498ea20badaf519c6dd8f6bf10b1c6ae006c"
  },
  "package_lock_sha256": "210628238686d22733351fad6e50abaee12565f3664605aa8ac740ad9931716e",
  "args": {
    "bruster": "/home/runner/work/bruster/bruster/target/release/bruster",
    "node": "/opt/hostedtoolcache/node/26.12.1/x64/bin/node",
    "chrome": "/home/runner/work/_temp/benchmark-browsers/chromium-1248/chrome-linux64/chrome",
    "shell": "/home/runner/work/_temp/benchmark-browsers/chromium_headless_shell-1248/chrome-headless-shell-linux64/chrome-headless-shell",
    "deps": "/home/runner/work/_temp/benchmark-deps",
    "output": "/home/runner/work/_temp/benchmark-results",
    "rounds": 10,
    "iterations": 10,
    "tools": [
      "bruster",
      "playwright",
      "puppeteer",
      "agent-browser",
      "playwright-shell"
    ]
  },
  "finished_utc": "2026-10-28T09:14:52.634344+00:00"
}
```