Playwright vs Selenium: Which One should You Choose?

There are many test automation frameworks in the market. Selenium was dominant for many years. However, the latest evolution in web development made many automation frameworks popular. The Playwright is one such application that is competing with Selenium. Through this post on Playwright vs Selenium, we’d try to cover their features, limitations, and differences.

Playwright vs Selenium – Overview

What is Selenium?

Selenium is a popular open-source test automation framework that was developed in 2004 and is one of the most widely used testing frameworks. It is not a single tool but a suite of tools for different testing needs – Selenium WebDriver, Selenium IDE, and Selenium Grid.

Read here – Selenium Alternatives

What is Playwright?

Playwright, developed by Microsoft in 2020, is an open-source test automation library for automated browser testing and web scraping. Since its launch, Playwright has undergone many changes, and each release has added new features. Compared with Selenium, Playwright became quickly popular due to its simplicity and advanced features.

Read more – Take a quick look at Playwright vs Puppeteer

Playwright vs Selenium: Features and Limitations

Features of Selenium

• Selenium is open source and backed by large community and donors.
• Selenium supports native browsers Firefox, Chrome, Edge, and Safari. Tests are run on native browsers, not stock browsers.
• Selenium test scripts are easy to understand.
• Selenium supports Mobile devices using third-party libraries.
• Since the Selenium tool has existed for 18+ years, long-term support can be expected.

Limitations of Selenium

• As Selenium uses a middle layer browser-specific drivers tests are slow and flaky.
• Selenium doesn’t support any in-built reporters.
• Selenium can be treated as a library rather framework. Using the Selenium API one can develop the automation framework which is complicated and time-consuming.
• Selenium doesn’t come with any inbuilt assertion libraries. One needs to rely on third-party libraries.
• Selenium doesn’t support Image processing features such as Visual Testing etc.
• Selenium doesn’t support API testing or Component testing. It supports only browser-based testing.
• Supported by all major cloud testing providers.
• Great community support, and a lot of tutorials available across the web.

Features of Playwright

• Playwright is not just a library, instead the complete framework is shipped as a package, you can start testing easily.
• Playwright supports different types of testing such as API, end-to-end, and component testing.
• It is developer friendly and provides a lot of debugging features, such as tracing, logging, and IDE integration.
• Playwright directly injects commands into the browser, so tests are the most faster and reliable.
• Playwright comes with built-in reporters where it supports multiple types of reporters such as list, line, dot, JUnit, and HTML reporter.
• It is shipped with in-built assertion/test runner libraries; third-party libraries are optional.
• Playwright supports mocking and stubbing, which is a big plus if you want to have a single framework for API and end-to-end testing.
• Playwright can be used for Visual comparison testing, where UI can be tested independently without integrating data. The visual comparison involves testing styles, UI designs, layout, etc.
• Playwright performs automatic waiting, no need to add explicit waiting.
• It has good documentation. Since Microsoft backs it, Playwright documented everything with an example. It is easy for a beginner to learn and start testing.

Limitations of Playwright

• It is relatively new to the market as the community is still growing.
• Playwright doesn’t support the native Safari browser.
• The Native mobile application support is still not official.
• Playwright doesn’t support legacy IE 11
• It uses its stock browser, which is not a real browser.
• Cloud platform testing support is limited.

Read here – Playwright vs Nightwatch

Playwright vs Selenium: When to Use?

Both Playwright and Selenium are open-source testing frameworks for browser automation. Choosing one between these two frameworks is subjective to the testing needs, project requirements, and the scenarios to be tested.

When to Use Selenium

• Selenium is compatible with various browsers, such as Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera, IE, and Edge. It also works well with older versions.
• Has a large, active community of users
• Supports different programming languages like Perl, PHP, Ruby, C#, .NET, Java, JavaScript, and Python.
• Supports parallel testing via Selenium Grid, but setting up this infrastructure can be quite time-consuming. Read more – Selenium Automation Testing

When to Use Playwright

• Playwright is a great choice for testing modern web apps as it supports all modern rendering engines, including WebKit, Chromium, and Firefox.
• Supports built-in headless browser testing
• Provides advanced features like network interception, automatic waiting to test complex scenarios
• Provides a Trace Viewer, a GUI tool for faster and easy debugging
• Supports parallel testing

Playwright vs Selenium: Core Differences

Playwright and Selenium are both popular tools for browser automation and testing, but they have some key differences. The core differences between Selenium and Playwright are as follows,

Features	Playwright	Selenium
Open source	Yes, Apache 2.0	Yes, Apache 2.0
Browser Support	Chrome/Chromium, Firefox, and Webkit (Open-source version of Safari)	Chrome, Firefox, Edge, IE, Opera, Safari
Programming language	Java, Python, C#, JavaScript/Typescript	Java, Python, C#, JavaScript, Ruby, Perl, PHP, Typescript
Test runner support	Playwright comes with an in-built test runner. Also supports third-party test runners, Mocha, Jest, Jasmine, Ava, etc.	Selenium doesn’t have any inbuilt test runner. It supports TestNG, JUnit, NUnit, Mocha, Jest, Jasmine,
Operating system	Windows, macOS, Linux	Windows, macOS, Linux, Solaris
Architecture	Follows Websocket protocol with event-driven headless architecture.	Follows JSON wire protocol/HTTP protocol. Uses the browser Specific Webdriver to communicate with browsers.
Mobile Device Support	Experimental features	Supports third-party libraries like Appium
Donors/Backed Company	Microsoft/Community	Community
CI/CD integration support	Yes	Yes
Community Support	Growing community	Large community support
Record and Playback support	Yes, Playwright CodeGen	Yes, Selenium IDE
Web Scraping	Yes	Yes
Performance	Quite faster than Selenium	Quite slow than Playwright
Parallel Testing	Yes	Yes
Built-in reporting features	Yes	No
Visual Comparison Testing	Yes	No
Community support	Yes	Yes

Read here- How to choose test automation tool?

Playwright vs Selenium: Which One to Choose for Your Test Automation

Selenium is the most widely used tool and comes with great community support. However, it lacks many advanced features. Playwright has limited community support, but it has many modern features. Now the question arises, which one to choose, Playwright or Selenium? There is no direct answer.

The best test automation tool completely depends on organization and project requirements. It involves a lot of factors, such as skilled resources, types of web applications, development frameworks used, required features, time to deliver, etc. But, there are lot of alternatives that you can choose from.

“The best test automation tool in the world doesn’t exist, but the best tool for 

the project exists.”

A good alternative would be to opt for a scriptless testing tool like Testsigma. It helps address these pain points of both testers and the organization as a whole.

Testsigma is a cloud-based low-code test automation tool that allows testers to plan, create, run, and maintain tests on the cloud. Testsigma is faster than Playwright and Selenium in terms of both test creation and execution. Let’s see how in the below section.

Key Features of Testsigma

• Testsigma is a unified low-code test automation tool that allows testers to create and run end-to-end automated tests on the cloud for your web, mobile, and desktop apps and APIs. 
• Not just browser automation, you can automate your entire functional testing in one platform.
• No coding skills are required. Create automated tests using plain English using NLP-driven testing, Recorder, or Data-driven testing. 
• You can use Java to customize automated scenarios that might require coding. That way, it supports both codeless and code-based testing in one place.
• Makes your entire test automation process 10x faster, allowing you to ship faster.
• Offers detailed and custom test reporting features. 
• Provides 24×5 extended customer support via chat, email, call, and community
• Supports parallel testing across multiple test environments 
• Has an intuitive user interface, which is simple and easy to use for both technical and non-technical users.
• No need to install or set up the framework. A one click sign in to create and run automated tests on the cloud.
• Makes testing more accessible by providing different low-code techniques.

Playwright vs Selenium Alternative: Testsigma

The best alternative could be to opt for a scriptless testing tool like Testsigma. It helps address these pain points of both testers and the organization as a whole.

Testsigma is a low-code cloud-based test automation tool that allows testers to plan, create, run, and maintain tests on the cloud. Testsigma is faster than Playwright and Selenium in terms of both test creation and execution. Let’s see how in the below section.

Summary

Selenium and Playwright are both open-source tools and are backed by the community. Both tools support multiple browsers and operating systems. However, Selenium and Playwright framework demands more technical expertise compared to Testsigma.

Compared to Selenium and Playwright, Testsigma is easy to learn and use, and provides a cost-effective solution. Every organization is keen on reducing costs. We know there is a cost involved in everything, from maintaining the test infrastructure to upskilling the resources. Considering the cost, ease of use, and modern features, Testsigma is the first choice for the organization.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Playwright built with Selenium?

No, Playwright is a completely different tool right from architecture. It doesn’t use any Selenium components.

Which is the best alternative to Selenium and Playwright?

Considering the limitations of Playwright and Selenium and the ease of integration with modern web applications, Testsigma is the best alternative.

Does Playwright Use Selenium?

No, Playwright is a separate tool from Selenium. Playwright is a NodeJS-based framework used for modern web testing. Selenium was originally developed using JavaScript, and it is the first test automation framework built for testing web applications.