The Hidden Cost of Self-Hosting Puppeteer (And What to Use Instead)

If you've ever added Puppeteer to a production app, you know the moment it starts causing problems. It was supposed to be simple: launch a headless Chrome, capture a screenshot, done. But now you've got: A container that needs 512MB+ of RAM just to idle Random Target closed errors at 3am CI pipelines that take forever because Chromium won't install Memory leaks that require weekly restarts Sandboxing flags that security won't approve This isn't a Puppeteer criticism. It's a legitimate tool. The problem is using a full browser runtime for a use case that doesn't need one. What Does Self-Hosting Puppeteer Actually Cost? Let's do the real math for a small SaaS that takes ~1,000 screenshots/month. Server cost : You need at least 1GB RAM dedicated to Chrome. On AWS, that's a t3.small ($0.023/hr × 720hr = ~$17/month), but you'll run it at minimum 50% capacity. Realistically: $20-40/month in compute alone. Engineer time : Initial setup is 2-4 hours. But every 6-8 weeks, something breaks — a C