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CasperJS vs PhantomJS vs Puppeteer: What are the differences?
Browser Automation Support: CasperJS runs on top of PhantomJS, which means it uses PhantomJS as its headless browser. On the other hand, Puppeteer is a Node library which provides a high-level API to control headless Chrome or Chromium over the DevTools Protocol. This allows Puppeteer to offer better support for the most recent features and updates in the Chrome browser.
Programming Language: CasperJS uses JavaScript and PhantomJS is based on JavaScript as well. Meanwhile, Puppeteer uses Node.js which allows for easier integration with other Node projects and greater flexibility in terms of programming.
Async/Await Support: One major difference between CasperJS and Puppeteer is the support for async/await in Puppeteer. Puppeteer fully supports this modern JavaScript feature, making it easier to write asynchronous code. CasperJS doesn't have this level of support for async/await, which can make coding more challenging.
Speed and Performance: Puppeteer tends to be faster and more efficient compared to CasperJS and PhantomJS. Due to its direct interaction with Chromium/Chrome, Puppeteer can complete tasks more quickly and provide better performance overall.
Community and Support: With Google backing Puppeteer, it has a strong community and active support for bug fixes and updates. CasperJS and PhantomJS, on the other hand, have seen a decline in support and updates, making them less reliable options for long-term projects.
Testing Capabilities: Puppeteer is more focused on testing and browser automation tasks, providing extensive APIs for tasks like taking screenshots, generating PDFs, and emulating different devices and network conditions. CasperJS and PhantomJS, while still capable of these tasks, may not have the same level of functionality or ease of use as Puppeteer.
In Summary, the choice between CasperJS, PhantomJS, and Puppeteer depends on factors such as programming language preference, browser automation support, speed, performance, community, and testing capabilities.
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?
You better go with puppeteer. It is basically chrome automation tool, written in nodejs. So what you get is PDF, generated by chrome itself. I guess there is hardly better PDF generation tool for the web. Phantomjs is already more or less outdated as technology. It uses some old webkit port that's quite behind in terms of standards and features. It can be replaced with puppeteer for every single task.
I suggest puppeteer to go for. It is simple and easy to set up. Only limitaiton is it can be used only for chrome browser and currently they are looking into expanding into FF. The next thing is Playwright which is just a scale up of Puppeteer. It supports cross browsers.
Pros of CasperJS
Pros of PhantomJS
- Scriptable web browser13
- Depends on QT3
- No ECMAScript 62
Pros of Puppeteer
- Very well documented10
- Scriptable web browser10
- Promise based6
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Cons of CasperJS
Cons of PhantomJS
Cons of Puppeteer
- Chrome only10
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