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  1. Stackups
  2. DevOps
  3. Testing Frameworks
  4. Headless Browsers
  5. Puppeteer vs Splash

Puppeteer vs Splash

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Splash
Splash
Stacks29
Followers36
Votes0
GitHub Stars4.2K
Forks516
Puppeteer
Puppeteer
Stacks1.0K
Followers582
Votes26

Puppeteer vs Splash: What are the differences?

Introduction

Puppeteer and Splash are both headless browsers that are used for web scraping and automation. While they serve similar purposes, there are key differences between the two that make them suitable for different use cases. In this Markdown code, we will outline and describe six key differences between Puppeteer and Splash.

  1. Architecture: Puppeteer is a Node.js library that provides a high-level API to control Chrome or Chromium browsers, allowing for automation and testing. It uses the DevTools Protocol to interact with the browser. On the other hand, Splash is a lightweight web rendering service written in Python that uses the WebKit browser engine. It operates as a standalone HTTP server, allowing for remote access to its capabilities. The architectural differences between Puppeteer and Splash determine their compatibility, performance, and flexibility in various scenarios.

  2. JavaScript Support: Puppeteer has native JavaScript support since it controls Chrome and Chromium browsers, which are widely used for web development. This allows Puppeteer users to easily interact with and execute JavaScript code on web pages. In contrast, Splash primarily supports Lua scripts, which may require additional learning and effort for users who are more comfortable with JavaScript and its ecosystem.

  3. Blocking vs Non-Blocking: Puppeteer operates in a blocking manner, meaning that it waits for an action to complete before moving on to the next one. This makes it easier to write sequential automation scripts and perform tasks that require synchronous execution. On the other hand, Splash is designed to be non-blocking, allowing multiple requests to be processed simultaneously. This makes it more suitable for high-load scenarios where concurrent scraping or rendering is required.

  4. JavaScript Rendering: Puppeteer fully renders and executes JavaScript on web pages, including AJAX calls and dynamic rendering. It provides access to the DOM and allows for interaction with elements and events. In comparison, Splash specializes in rendering and executing JavaScript asynchronously. It focuses on fetching and rendering HTML, CSS, and web content, but does not provide full access to the DOM or interaction with events.

  5. Browser Compatibility: Puppeteer relies on Chrome or Chromium browsers, which are widely used and enjoy good cross-platform compatibility. This makes Puppeteer a suitable choice for web scraping, automation, and testing on various operating systems. On the other hand, Splash relies on the WebKit browser engine, which may not have the same level of compatibility, especially in certain niche or specialized scenarios.

  6. Community and Ecosystem: Puppeteer benefits from being backed by Google, which ensures a strong and active community. It has a large number of contributors, extensive documentation, and a rich ecosystem of tools and libraries. This makes it easier for Puppeteer users to find support, resources, and solutions to their problems. While Splash also has an active community, it may not have the same level of support and resources as Puppeteer, especially in terms of third-party libraries and integrations.

In summary, Puppeteer and Splash differ in their architecture, JavaScript support, blocking vs non-blocking behavior, JavaScript rendering capabilities, browser compatibility, and community support. These differences determine their suitability for different use cases, making it important for developers and users to choose the appropriate tool based on their specific requirements.

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Advice on Splash, Puppeteer

Ankur
Ankur

Software Engineer

Dec 4, 2019

Needs advice

I am using Node 12 for server scripting and have a function to generate PDF and send it to a browser. Currently, we are using PhantomJS to generate a PDF. Some web post shows that we can achieve PDF generation using Puppeteer. I was a bit confused. Should we move to puppeteerJS? Which one is better with NodeJS for generating PDF?

73.1k views73.1k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Splash
Splash
Puppeteer
Puppeteer

It is a headless browser that executes JavaScript for people crawling websites. It is open source and fully integrated with Scrapy and Portia. You can also use its API to integrate with any project that needs to render JavaScript pages.

Puppeteer is a Node library which provides a high-level API to control headless Chrome over the DevTools Protocol. It can also be configured to use full (non-headless) Chrome.

Executes and renders JavaScript to scrape dynamic content; Its HTTP API receives URLs and responses with HTML contents
-
Statistics
GitHub Stars
4.2K
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Forks
516
GitHub Forks
-
Stacks
29
Stacks
1.0K
Followers
36
Followers
582
Votes
0
Votes
26
Pros & Cons
No community feedback yet
Pros
  • 10
    Scriptable web browser
  • 10
    Very well documented
  • 6
    Promise based
Cons
  • 10
    Chrome only
Integrations
JavaScript
JavaScript
Linux
Linux
Scrapy
Scrapy
Python
Python
Ubuntu
Ubuntu
Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Node.js
Node.js

What are some alternatives to Splash, Puppeteer?

Playwright

Playwright

It is a Node library to automate the Chromium, WebKit and Firefox browsers with a single API. It enables cross-browser web automation that is ever-green, capable, reliable and fast.

PhantomJS

PhantomJS

PhantomJS is a headless WebKit scriptable with JavaScript. It is used by hundreds of developers and dozens of organizations for web-related development workflow.

HeadlessTesting

HeadlessTesting

Headless Browser Cloud for Developers. Connect your Puppeteer and Playwright scripts to our Cloud. Automated Browser Testing with Puppeteer and Playwright in the Cloud.

jsdom

jsdom

It is a pure-JavaScript implementation of many web standards, notably the WHATWG DOM and HTML Standards, for use with Node.js. In general, the goal of the project is to emulate enough of a subset of a web browser to be useful for testing and scraping real-world web applications.

CasperJS

CasperJS

CasperJS is a browser navigation scripting & testing utility written in Javascript for PhantomJS or SlimerJS.

SlimerJS

SlimerJS

It allows you to manipulate a web page with an external Javascript script: opening a webpage, clicking on links, modifying the content... It is useful to do functional tests, page automation, network monitoring, screen capture etc.

Chromeless

Chromeless

Chrome automation made simple. Runs locally or headless on AWS Lambda.

Serverless Chrome

Serverless Chrome

The aim of this project is to provide the scaffolding for using Headless Chrome during a serverless function invocation. Serverless Chrome takes care of building and bundling the Chrome binaries and making sure Chrome is running when your serverless function executes. In addition, this project also provides a few "example" handlers for common patterns (e.g. taking a screenshot of a page, printing to PDF, some scraping, etc.)

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