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Playwright vs Selenium: What are the differences?

Introduction

Here we will discuss the key differences between Playwright and Selenium. Both Playwright and Selenium are popular automation testing frameworks used for web applications. However, there are several significant differences between them.

1. Accessibility Testing Support:

Playwright comes with built-in support for accessibility testing, allowing developers to easily verify if their web application is accessible to users with disabilities. This feature is not available in Selenium, making Playwright a more suitable choice for developers aiming for inclusive web development.

2. Cross-Browser Testing Capability:

While Selenium is primarily focused on cross-browser testing, Playwright goes a step further by providing native multi-browser support. Playwright allows developers to write their automated tests once and execute them on multiple browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, and WebKit. On the other hand, Selenium requires separate driver configurations for each browser, making Playwright more efficient and convenient for cross-browser testing.

3. Concurrent Execution Support:

Playwright enables concurrent execution of tests by utilizing modern browser capabilities. This means that multiple browser instances can run concurrently, leading to improved test execution speed. Selenium, on the other hand, does not provide built-in support for concurrent execution, resulting in slower test runs.

4. Language binding support:

Playwright supports multiple programming languages out of the box, including JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, and Java. Selenium also supports various programming languages, but Playwright's language binding support is more extensive and up-to-date. This allows developers to choose their preferred language and seamlessly integrate Playwright into their existing tech stack.

5. Same-Site Cookie Support:

Playwright offers native support for same-site cookies, which are essential for modern web applications that rely on authentication and session management. Selenium, on the other hand, requires additional configurations and workarounds to handle same-site cookies effectively. With Playwright, developers can ensure the reliability and security of their web applications without going through any extra hassle.

6. Debugging Capabilities:

Playwright provides built-in debugging capabilities, allowing developers to easily identify and diagnose issues during test execution. It offers features like screenshots on failure and video recording, making it easier to reproduce and fix bugs. Selenium also provides debugging functionalities, but Playwright's debugging capabilities are more user-friendly and comprehensive.

In summary, Playwright has several advantages over Selenium. It offers built-in accessibility testing support, native multi-browser functionality, concurrent execution support, extensive language binding support, excellent same-site cookie handling, and enhanced debugging capabilities. These features make Playwright a powerful and convenient choice for web application automation testing.

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we are having one web application developed in Reacts.js. in the application, we have only 4 to 5 pages that we need to test. I am having experience in selenium with java. Please suggets which tool I should use. and why ............................ ............................ .............................

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Replies (1)
Prashanth Marappa
Senior Software Engineer at Mphasis · | 1 upvotes · 214.4K views
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with the help of selenium we can automate react js for functional testing

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Pros of Playwright
Pros of Selenium
  • 13
    Cross browser
  • 10
    Open source
  • 9
    Test Runner with Playwright/test
  • 7
    Promise based
  • 7
    Well documented
  • 5
    Integrate your POMs as extensible fixtures
  • 5
    Execute tests in parallel
  • 5
    API Testing
  • 4
    Python Support
  • 4
    Capture videos, screenshots and other artifacts on fail
  • 3
    Inbuild reporters html,line,dot,json
  • 3
    Context isolation
  • 1
    Fastest
  • 175
    Automates browsers
  • 154
    Testing
  • 101
    Essential tool for running test automation
  • 24
    Record-Playback
  • 24
    Remote Control
  • 8
    Data crawling
  • 7
    Supports end to end testing
  • 6
    Easy set up
  • 6
    Functional testing
  • 4
    The Most flexible monitoring system
  • 3
    End to End Testing
  • 3
    Easy to integrate with build tools
  • 2
    Comparing the performance selenium is faster than jasm
  • 2
    Record and playback
  • 2
    Compatible with Python
  • 2
    Easy to scale
  • 2
    Integration Tests
  • 0
    Integrated into Selenium-Jupiter framework

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Cons of Playwright
Cons of Selenium
  • 12
    Less help
  • 3
    Node based
  • 2
    Does not execute outside of browser
  • 8
    Flaky tests
  • 4
    Slow as needs to make browser (even with no gui)
  • 1
    Update browser drivers

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What is 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.

What is Selenium?

Selenium automates browsers. That's it! What you do with that power is entirely up to you. Primarily, it is for automating web applications for testing purposes, but is certainly not limited to just that. Boring web-based administration tasks can (and should!) also be automated as well.

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What companies use Playwright?
What companies use Selenium?
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What are some alternatives to Playwright and Selenium?
Puppeteer
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.
Protractor
Protractor is an end-to-end test framework for Angular and AngularJS applications. Protractor runs tests against your application running in a real browser, interacting with it as a user would.
Cypress
Cypress is a front end automated testing application created for the modern web. Cypress is built on a new architecture and runs in the same run-loop as the application being tested. As a result Cypress provides better, faster, and more reliable testing for anything that runs in a browser. Cypress works on any front-end framework or website.
TestCafe
It is a pure node.js end-to-end solution for testing web apps. It takes care of all the stages: starting browsers, running tests, gathering test results and generating reports.
WebdriverIO
WebdriverIO lets you control a browser or a mobile application with just a few lines of code. Your test code will look simple, concise and easy to read.
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