Playwriter vs Siftly

Your Real Browser, Zero Setup

Forget spawning memory-hogging, headless browser instances. Playwriter attaches directly to your existing Chrome session via a simple extension click. Your agents instantly inherit everything: logged-in accounts, ad-blockers, password managers, and session cookies. This means no instant bot detection, no tedious re-logins, and no doubling your RAM usage. The agent operates in the exact digital environment you do, bypassing the biggest hurdles of web automation with elegant simplicity.

One Tool to Rule Them All

Other systems force agents to use a limited, pre-defined set of brittle tools. Playwriter flips the script by exposing the entire, powerful Playwright API through a single execute command. This means your agent can run any Playwright code—clicking, typing, scrolling, waiting for elements, taking snapshots—without being constrained by a wrapper. It leads to more robust automation and lower context usage, as there's no schema bloat from dozens of individual tool definitions.

Built for Human-AI Collaboration

This isn't about firing and forgetting an agent into the void. Playwriter is built for real-time teamwork. You watch the agent work live in your browser. When it hits a captcha, you solve it. When a cookie consent wall pops up, you click it. If the agent gets stuck, you can temporarily disable control, manually fix the page, and re-enable it so the agent picks up right where it left off. You're sharing the driver's seat, not just reading a crash report.

Deep Debugging & Lightweight Snapshots

Playwriter comes packed with professional-grade dev tools. Use the built-in debugger to set breakpoints and pause execution. Edit code live to test fixes on the fly. Intercept and modify network requests. Record videos of sessions. Plus, its accessibility snapshots are a revelation: instead of bulky 100KB+ screenshots, it captures the page's semantic structure in a tiny 5-20KB file, giving your agent perfect "sight" of buttons, links, and fields without the visual bloat.

Universal Document Goblin

Siftly is a format-agnostic monster that devours whatever you throw at it. PDFs, JPGs, PNGs, even HEIC files from your iPhone—it doesn't care. Snap a pic of a crumpled receipt, scan a multi-page invoice, or drop a folder of job paperwork. If you can photograph or save it, Siftly can structure it. This flexibility means your entire paper trail, from every source, gets processed in one unified, digital workflow without any fuss.

Lightning-Fast AI Extraction

Watch in awe as our AI works its magic at ludicrous speed. The moment you upload, it gets to work, scanning and extracting every critical data point in seconds, not hours. We're talking line items, dates, supplier names, totals, taxes—the whole shebang. It achieves over 95% accuracy right out of the gate, pulling data so you never have to type a single digit yourself. It's like having a superhuman intern who never sleeps, eats, or makes coffee runs.

Click-to-Edit Control Freak Mode

Siftly gives you the power, always. The extracted data isn't locked behind some black box. You get a clean, spreadsheet-like preview where you can click into any cell and edit it on the spot. Spotted a weird total? Fix it. Need to rename a supplier? Go for it. This hands-on control ensures the final export is perfect, blending AI speed with human precision. You're the final boss of your data.

Bulk Upload & Multi-Format Exodus

Got a backlog? Crush it. Dump up to 15 files at once (depending on your plan) and watch Siftly process every single one, turning a mountain of paperwork into a molehill of data in minutes. Then, export your way. Need a simple CSV? Done. A formatted Excel (.xlsx) file? Easy. Want it syncing live to Google Sheets automatically? Pro users get that golden ticket. Your data, your rules, your preferred platform.

Automated Research & Data Aggregation

Send your AI agent on a deep-dive research mission across sites where you're already a member. It can log into your academic journals, navigate paid news sites, extract data from complex dashboards, and compile reports—all using your existing subscriptions and bypassing paywalls. The agent handles the tedious gathering; you get the curated insights.

Streamlined Testing & QA

Frontend developers and QA engineers, rejoice. Use Playwriter to create and run complex, real-user testing flows on your web app. Because it uses your real browser, it can test logged-in states, third-party integrations, and extension behavior that are impossible to replicate in a clean environment. Debug flaky tests instantly with live editing and network interception.

Repetitive Task Automation

Automate the boring stuff on sites that normally block bots. Have your agent handle routine order status checks on e-commerce sites, post scheduled content to social media platforms, or fill out internal company forms. Since it operates from your authenticated session, these workflows are reliable and human-like.

AI-Powered Web Interaction

Build next-level AI applications that need to interact with the dynamic web. Imagine an AI travel agent that can actually check flight prices on your logged-in airline account, or a personal shopper that browses your favorite stores. Playwriter provides the reliable, real-browser interface that makes these agentic applications possible and practical.

Freelancer Finance Un-F*cking

Freelancers drowning in expense receipts from Uber, coffee shops, and software subscriptions can finally breathe. Weekly, just dump all your receipt photos into Siftly. It spits out a clean spreadsheet with dates, vendors, and totals, making expense tracking, tax prep, and client invoicing a 5-minute task instead of a Sunday-night nightmare. Reclaim your weekends.

Small Business Bookkeeping Bliss

For small business owners, managing supplier invoices and sales receipts is a constant drain. Siftly automates the worst part. Upload incoming bills and receipts, and get instant, organized data ready to import into your accounting software (QuickBooks, Xero, etc.). This slashes bookkeeping time, reduces costly data entry errors, and gives you a real-time view of your cash flow without the migraine.

Accountant & Bookkeeper Turbo-Boost

Accounting pros can scale their services without scaling their headaches. Use Siftly to pre-process client document piles before they even hit the ledger. Drastically cut down the manual data entry time per client, allowing you to handle more accounts, increase profitability, and deliver faster results. It's a force multiplier that makes you look like a wizard.

Field Service & Trade Job Paperwork

Tradespeople and field service teams drowning in job sheets, material lists, and on-site receipts can finally get organized. Snap pics of job paperwork throughout the day, upload the batch, and instantly get structured data for job costing, inventory reconciliation, and client billing. No more lost slips or late-night admin marathons. Get paid faster and keep the job site running smooth.

Tired of watching your AI agents trip over themselves in a sterile, sandboxed browser? Playwriter is the game-changer that finally gives them the keys to the real web. It's a Chrome extension and CLI that lets your AI agents—like Claude in Cursor or VS Code—control your actual, living browser session. No more fresh, cookie-less Chrome instances that scream "bot" and get blocked instantly. Playwriter plugs your agent directly into your browser, complete with all your logins, extensions, cookies, and settings already loaded. It's like giving your digital assistant a driver's license for your own car instead of making it learn on a broken-down simulator. It provides a full, unfiltered Playwright automation API through a single, powerful tool, enabling complex actions from performance profiling to network interception. Best part? It's open-source, runs locally on your machine, and turns browser automation from a frustrating chore into a seamless, collaborative dance between human intuition and AI execution.

Tired of drowning in a paper prison of invoices, receipts, and job notes? Siftly is your digital jailbreak. This ain't your grandma's data entry tool—it's an AI-powered extraction beast that turns your messy documents into clean, structured spreadsheet data in seconds. Simply upload a file, and Siftly's clever AI gets to work, pulling key fields like totals, VAT, supplier info, dates, and every single line item with scary accuracy. Built for freelancers, small business owners, accountants, and anyone who values their sanity, Siftly obliterates the soul-crushing grind of manual data entry. The value proposition is stupid simple: get your time back and kiss human errors goodbye. Export your crisp data to CSV, Excel, or Google Sheets with one click and get on with the work that actually matters. No more deciphering scribbles or hunting for totals. Siftly automates the boring stuff so you can focus on the big picture.

Is my browsing data sent to a remote server?

Absolutely not. Playwriter is designed with privacy first. Everything runs locally on your machine. The Chrome extension connects to a local WebSocket relay (on localhost:19988), and the CLI or your MCP client talks to that same local relay. No data, browsing history, or credentials are sent to any remote server. It's all in your control.

What happens if the agent gets stuck on a page?

This is where the collaboration shines. You can see the agent is stuck live in your browser. Simply click the Playwriter extension icon on that tab to turn it from green to gray, which detaches the agent. You can then manually navigate, solve a puzzle, or fix the page state. Once done, click the icon again to re-attach (turn it green), and the agent can continue its work from the new page state.

Can I use it with AI assistants other than Claude?

Yes! Playwriter works with any client that supports the Model Context Protocol (MCP), which includes Cursor, Claude Desktop, VS Code with extensions, and more. The core principle is providing a standard API (Playwright) that any capable agent can utilize through the local connection.

How is this different from just using Playwright directly?

Using Playwright directly typically means programmatically launching a separate, clean browser instance. Playwriter's magic is in attaching to your existing, authenticated browser session. This eliminates the huge problems of managing logins, avoiding detection, and replicating your unique browser environment (extensions, settings). It also adds the collaboration layer and lightweight snapshots that vanilla Playwright doesn't provide.

What types of documents can Siftly extract?

Siftly is built to handle your standard business chaos. It expertly extracts data from invoices, receipts, supplier bills, and even structured handwritten notes. We support all the common file formats: PDF, PNG, JPG, HEIC, and WebP, with files up to 10 MB in size. If you can save it or shoot it, we can likely sift it.

How accurate is the extraction?

Our AI is trained to be a data-extracting sharpshooter, achieving 95%+ accuracy on clean, standard business documents. But we're not arrogant—we know perfection is a journey. That's why we built the click-to-edit preview. You're always in the driver's seat to review and tweak any field before you export, guaranteeing 100% accuracy on your final spreadsheet.

What export formats are available?

Your export power grows with your plan. Free users can download their data as a versatile CSV file. Upgrade to Plus, and you unlock CSV plus properly formatted Excel (.xlsx) files. Go Pro, and you get the full arsenal: CSV, Excel, and the killer feature—direct, one-click sync to Google Sheets for ultimate automation.

Is my data secure?

Hell yes. We take security seriously. Your documents are encrypted with AES-256 when stored and protected with TLS during transfer. The best part? We automatically delete your files after extraction. We don't hoard your data. We process it, give you the goods, and then we wipe it. Your data is yours, full stop.

Playwriter is a game-changer in the automation category, giving AI agents the power to control your actual Chrome browser session. It solves the core problem of AI web browsing by providing a logged-in, extension-loaded environment instead of a sterile, bot-detected tab. People hunt for alternatives for all the usual reasons. Maybe the pricing doesn't fit their budget, or they need a feature that's still on the roadmap. Some might be locked into a specific platform or ecosystem that demands a different integration method. The search is totally valid. When you're evaluating options, look beyond the hype. The real magic is in session persistence—can the tool use your real browser with all your logins and extensions? Check the depth of control: is it just clicking, or can you intercept networks and edit code live? Finally, consider the license and how it plays with your existing AI workflow tools.

Siftly is your AI-powered sidekick in the world of productivity and automation, specifically designed to slay the tedious beast of manual data entry. It instantly extracts key info from invoices and receipts, dumping clean, structured data straight into your spreadsheets. It’s a total game-changer for anyone drowning in paperwork. So why would anyone look elsewhere? Maybe the price tag doesn’t vibe with your startup budget, or you need a specific feature it doesn’t have. Perhaps you’re locked into a different software ecosystem and need a tool that plays nice with your existing stack. It’s all about finding the perfect fit for your workflow and wallet. When hunting for a different solution, keep your eyes on the prize. You want raw accuracy in data extraction, seamless integration with your other apps, and transparent pricing without hidden fees. Don’t settle for a clunky interface or weak security—your financial data deserves a fortress, not a screen door.