Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Google Chrome Developer Tools VS puppeteer

Compare Google Chrome Developer Tools VS puppeteer and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

Google Chrome Developer Tools logo Google Chrome Developer Tools

Get started with Google Chrome's built-in web developer tools.

puppeteer logo puppeteer

Puppeteer is a Node library which provides a high-level API to control headless Chrome or Chromium...
  • Google Chrome Developer Tools Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-08
  • puppeteer Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-02

Google Chrome Developer Tools features and specs

  • Comprehensive Toolset
    Chrome Developer Tools provide a robust set of features that allow developers to inspect and debug code, optimize performance, and enhance visual styles. This makes it a go-to for both web development and troubleshooting.
  • Integrated Environment
    The tools are seamlessly integrated into the Chrome browser, providing a native environment for debugging and testing web pages without requiring additional software installations.
  • Live Editing
    Developers can make live changes to HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and see the results in real-time, facilitating efficient iterative development processes.
  • Performance Profiling
    Chrome Developer Tools include comprehensive profiling tools that help in analyzing the performance of a website or web application, assisting developers in identifying bottlenecks and optimizing resource usage.
  • Cross-Browser Compatibility
    Although the tools are a part of Chrome, they help ensure that websites function correctly across different browsers by allowing simulation of various browsers and devices.

Possible disadvantages of Google Chrome Developer Tools

  • Steep Learning Curve
    The comprehensive nature of Chrome Developer Tools can be overwhelming for beginners, requiring significant time to learn to use all features effectively.
  • Resource Intensive
    Running Developer Tools can be resource-intensive, causing performance degradation on systems with lower specifications while debugging large applications.
  • Browser Dependency
    The tools are dependent on the Chrome browser, which might not be ideal in scenarios where development needs to focus primarily on other browsers like Firefox or Safari.
  • Occasional Bugs
    As with any software, Chrome Developer Tools can sometimes have bugs or inconsistencies that might affect their reliability or lead to incorrect reporting.

puppeteer features and specs

  • Headless Browsing
    Puppeteer allows headless browsing, which means you can automate and test web applications without opening a browser user interface, resulting in faster execution and lower resource usage.
  • Full Browser Control
    Enables full control over Chrome or Chromium browsers, allowing for comprehensive browser testing and automation, including taking screenshots, generating PDFs, and capturing web pages.
  • Rich API
    Offers a rich set of APIs that can control browsers, manage cookies, intercept network requests, and handle various browser events, making it versatile for different use cases.
  • Active Community
    Highly active open-source community with regular updates and a plethora of plugins and extensions, providing robust support and continuous improvements.
  • Compatibility
    Supports the latest JavaScript features and works seamlessly with popular libraries and frameworks, providing a modern development experience.

Possible disadvantages of puppeteer

  • Restricted to Chrome/Chromium
    Puppeteer is primarily designed to work with Chrome and Chromium browsers, limiting cross-browser testing capabilities compared to other tools that support multiple browsers.
  • Resource Intensive
    Running multiple instances of headless browsers can be resource-intensive in terms of CPU and memory usage, potentially affecting performance on limited hardware.
  • Learning Curve
    Requires some learning curve for developers unfamiliar with browser automation or the Puppeteer API, making initial setup and usage potentially time-consuming.
  • Lacks JavaScript Redaction
    Unlike some other tools, Puppeteer does not natively support JavaScript error redaction, which means developers must manage error handling and debugging themselves.
  • Not Ideal for GUI Tests
    Since Puppeteer is headless by default, it might not be ideal for GUI end-to-end tests that require visual validation, requiring additional tools or configurations to enable full browser displays.

Google Chrome Developer Tools videos

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puppeteer videos

Puppeteer - Video Review

More videos:

  • Review - GameSpot Reviews - Puppeteer
  • Review - CGR Undertow - PUPPETEER review for PlayStation 3

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Google Chrome Developer Tools and puppeteer)
Developer Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Automated Testing
0 0%
100% 100
Security
100 100%
0% 0
Browser Testing
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Google Chrome Developer Tools and puppeteer

Google Chrome Developer Tools Reviews

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puppeteer Reviews

Top Selenium Alternatives
Puppeteer offers more direct and tighter integration with Chrome or Chromium through the DevTools Protocol, unlike Selenium which abstracts the browser interaction through WebDriver, making it more versatile across different browsers but potentially less optimized for specific browser internals like those Puppeteer accesses in Chrome.
Source: bugbug.io
Best Data Scraping Tools
It is completely free. Puppeteer is well backed and supported by Google Chrome and hence replacing Selenium and PhantomJS. It automatically installs an efficient, compatible Chromium binary in its setup, therefore reducing the burden of keeping track on your browser.
Puppeteer vs Selenium
If you're looking for a better alternative, try Endtest. It has Puppeteer's speed, it supports Selenium's browsers AND it has all the features that they're missing.
Source: dev.to
Introduction to Headless Browser Testing
The Puppeteer API can be used to take screenshots, create PDFs, navigate pages, and fetch information from pages. We’ll write some example code to see Puppeteer in action.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, puppeteer seems to be a lot more popular than Google Chrome Developer Tools. While we know about 106 links to puppeteer, we've tracked only 1 mention of Google Chrome Developer Tools. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Google Chrome Developer Tools mentions (1)

  • Top 10 Web Development Tools For Fullstack Developers
    Download link (https://developer.chrome.com/devtools). - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago

puppeteer mentions (106)

  • Top React Testing Libraries in 2025
    Puppeteer is a headless browser automation tool built on Chromium. It allows developers to simulate user interactions, capture screenshots, and perform UI tests with a high degree of accuracy. Puppeteer is particularly useful for testing cross-browser compatibility and visual elements in React applications. Its robust API enables precise control over browser actions, making it a valuable tool for UI testing and... - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • End-to-End SEO Testing with Playwright and Lighthouse
    Vitest is a next-generation JavaScript testing framework powered by Vite. It’s an excellent alternative to Jest, offering native TypeScript support, a fast setup, and solid performance. However, while it has an experimental headless browser, it’s not ideal for advanced scenarios like running SEO audits in CI/CD pipelines. Instead, we can pair Vitest with Pupetter, a more mature tool for headless browser automation. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • The Puppeteer Language Experiment
    This project tests how the browser language can be changed with Puppeteer. It implements multiple options to set the language of Chrome and checks each option against BrowserLeaks to see how it affected the JavaScript proeprties and HTTP headers available by the browser. For more information, see my article The Puppeteer Language Experiment on DEV.to. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Scrapy Vs. Crawlee
    In Crawlee, you can scrape JavaScript rendered websites using the built-in headless Puppeteer and Playwright browsers. It is important to note that, by default, Crawlee scrapes in headless mode. If you don't want headless, then just set headless: false. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Sometimes things simply don't work
    I am not in any way associated with the developers at puppeteer, but if you are looking for a way to contribute, they are open source. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Google Chrome Developer Tools and puppeteer, you can also consider the following products

Firefox Developer Tools - Examine, edit, and debug HTML, CSS, and JavaScript on the desktop and on mobile.

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.

Charles Proxy - HTTP proxy / HTTP monitor / Reverse Proxy

Cypress.io - Slow, difficult and unreliable testing for anything that runs in a browser. Install Cypress in seconds and take the pain out of front-end testing.

Fiddler - Fiddler is a debugging program for websites.

Playwright - Playwright is automation software for Chromium, Firefox, Webkit using the Node.js library having a single API in place.