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Playwright

397
528
+ 1
76
TestCafe

191
273
+ 1
26
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Playwright vs TestCafe: What are the differences?

Playwright and TestCafe are both popular automation testing tools for web applications. However, they have some key differences that set them apart in terms of their features and capabilities.

  1. Cross-Browser Support: Playwright offers full cross-browser support, allowing developers to test their applications on different browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. TestCafe, on the other hand, provides limited cross-browser support only for Chrome and Firefox.

  2. Multi-Page and Single-Page Application Testing: Playwright supports both multi-page and single-page application testing, providing the flexibility to navigate between different pages and validate their functionalities. In contrast, TestCafe primarily focuses on single-page application testing, making it more suitable for such scenarios.

  3. Native Mobile App Testing: Unlike TestCafe, Playwright extends its cross-browser capabilities to native mobile app testing as well. Developers can use Playwright to write automation scripts for Android and iOS platforms, enabling comprehensive testing across multiple devices.

  4. Programming Language Support: While both tools support multiple programming languages, Playwright has wider language support. It allows developers to write tests in JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, and .NET languages like C# and F#. On the other hand, TestCafe primarily focuses on JavaScript, making it more suitable for JavaScript-centric development teams.

  5. Debugging and Logging: Playwright offers advanced debugging and logging capabilities, allowing developers to debug their test scripts and log detailed information during test execution. TestCafe also provides basic debugging and logging features but lacks the extensive capabilities offered by Playwright.

  6. Community and Ecosystem: Playwright has a larger and more active community compared to TestCafe. It is backed by Microsoft, which ensures continuous development and support. The Playwright community actively contributes to the tool's ecosystem by developing plugins, integrations, and sharing knowledge. TestCafe has a smaller community, which limits the availability of additional resources and plugins for integration.

In summary, Playwright offers extensive cross-browser and native mobile app support, multi-page application testing capabilities, wider programming language support, advanced debugging and logging features, and a larger community. TestCafe, on the other hand, focuses on single-page application testing, has limited cross-browser support, and primarily supports JavaScript.

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Pros of Playwright
Pros of TestCafe
  • 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
  • 8
    Cross-browser testing
  • 4
    Open source
  • 4
    Easy setup/installation
  • 4
    Built in waits
  • 3
    UI End to End testing
  • 2
    Supports Devices without extra software/package
  • 1
    Both client and server side debug

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Cons of Playwright
Cons of TestCafe
  • 12
    Less help
  • 3
    Node based
  • 2
    Does not execute outside of browser
  • 9
    No longer free

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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 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.

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What companies use Playwright?
What companies use TestCafe?
See which teams inside your own company are using Playwright or TestCafe.
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What tools integrate with Playwright?
What tools integrate with TestCafe?

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What are some alternatives to Playwright and TestCafe?
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.
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.
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.
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.
See all alternatives