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jsdom VS Playwright

Compare jsdom VS Playwright and see what are their differences

jsdom logo jsdom

A JavaScript implementation of various web standards, for use with Node.js - jsdom/jsdom

Playwright logo Playwright

Playwright is automation software for Chromium, Firefox, Webkit using the Node.js library having a single API in place.
  • jsdom Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-29
  • Playwright Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-22

jsdom features and specs

  • Browser-like Environment
    jsdom provides a virtual representation of the browser's DOM environment, which allows developers to run scripts that usually require a browser.
  • Node.js Integration
    Being a Node.js library, jsdom can be easily integrated into server-side applications, enabling server-side DOM manipulation.
  • Testing Facilitation
    jsdom is commonly used in testing frameworks to simulate browser environments, allowing for headless testing of front-end code.
  • Standard-compliant
    jsdom strives to be compliant with web standards, which ensures consistent behavior with real browser environments.
  • Rich API
    It provides a rich set of APIs that mimic the browser DOM, making it comprehensive for developers needing browser-like functionality.

Possible disadvantages of jsdom

  • Performance Overhead
    jsdom can be slower than real browser environments because it runs in Node.js and not in a optimized browser engine.
  • Limited Browser Features
    While jsdom supports many DOM features, it might not support all the modern APIs and features available in the latest browsers.
  • Resource Intensive
    Running multiple jsdom instances can be resource-intensive, which may not be ideal for applications with large-scale DOM manipulation.
  • JavaScript Only
    Being specific to JavaScript and Node.js, jsdom is not suitable for developers working primarily in other programming environments.
  • Complexity in Setup
    Setting up and configuring jsdom for specific use cases can be more complex compared to some alternatives, requiring more effort from the developer.

Playwright features and specs

  • Cross-Browser Testing
    Playwright supports testing on Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit, providing comprehensive coverage across different browsers, thus ensuring greater compatibility and a wider test reach.
  • Auto-Wait Mechanism
    Playwright automatically waits for elements to be actionable before performing interactions, reducing the need for explicit wait commands and helping to make tests more reliable and less flaky.
  • Headless Testing
    Playwright supports headless mode for all browsers, which allows for faster test execution and reduced resource consumption, making it ideal for continuous integration systems.
  • Context Isolation
    Playwright introduces the concept of browser contexts, which allows for isolated execution environments within a single browser instance. This enables parallel testing with reduced overhead.
  • Extensive API
    Playwright offers a wide range of APIs that cover user interactions, network interception, and browser automation, providing developers with powerful tools to create robust tests.
  • Network Interception
    Playwright can intercept and modify network requests and responses, allowing for advanced testing scenarios such as mocking APIs and simulating different network conditions.
  • Strong Documentation
    Playwright provides thorough and detailed documentation, making it easier for developers to learn and effectively utilize the framework.
  • Rich Debugging Features
    The framework includes features like verbose logging and debugging capabilities, which facilitate easier troubleshooting and quicker resolution of issues.
  • Support for Multiple Languages
    Playwright supports multiple programming languages, including JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, C#, and Java, offering flexibility to developers based on their preference.
  • Community and Support
    The Playwright project has an active community and regular updates, ensuring continuous improvement and access to support from both the community and the development team.

Possible disadvantages of Playwright

  • Steeper Learning Curve
    Due to its extensive capabilities and API, Playwright might have a steeper learning curve for beginners compared to some simpler testing tools.
  • Performance Overhead
    While Playwright aims to be efficient, its feature-rich nature can sometimes introduce performance overhead, particularly for complex test suites.
  • Evolving Ecosystem
    The relatively rapid development and updates can occasionally lead to breaking changes, requiring teams to frequently update their test scripts.
  • Less Mature Ecosystem
    Compared to more established tools like Selenium, Playwright's ecosystem is still maturing, which may result in fewer third-party plugins and integrations.
  • Limited Browser Versions
    Playwright's focus on modern browsers and web standards might make it difficult to test older browser versions or niche browsers, potentially limiting test coverage for legacy systems.
  • Resource Intensive
    Running multiple browser contexts and handling extensive network interception can be resource-intensive, requiring more powerful hardware or cloud resources for large test suites.

jsdom videos

JSDom & Enzyme: Different Test Styles for React Apps - Dan La Feir @ ReactNYC

More videos:

  • Review - Frontend Pairing - Discovering missing JSDOM APIs that didn’t allow to test Toast UI in jest

Playwright videos

Generate tests in VS Code

More videos:

  • Review - Playwright Brittany K. Allen wins 2021 Georgia Engel Comedy Playwriting Prize

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to jsdom and Playwright)
Automated Testing
23 23%
77% 77
Development
11 11%
89% 89
Browser Testing
23 23%
77% 77
Testing
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare jsdom and Playwright

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Playwright Reviews

Top Selenium Alternatives
Playwright offers a modern approach with auto-wait APIs and more native support for modern web features compared to Selenium's more manual and broad approach. While Selenium requires explicit waits and has a broader language support, Playwright focuses on simplifying cross-browser testing with its unified API and auto-wait features, which might reduce setup and test...
Source: bugbug.io
Top 5 Selenium Alternatives for Less Maintenance
Appium and Playwright closely resemble Selenium in terms of functionality but offer unique features and advantages. Both of these solutions require coding experience. Leapwork, a commercial vendor, uses Selenium under the hood to power their visual automation approach.
20 Best JavaScript Frameworks For 2023
Playwright, a Node.js library created by Microsoft, is considered one of the best JavaScript frameworks for testing. It automates Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit with a single API. Developers building JavaScript code can use these APIs to build new browser pages, go to URLs, and interact with page elements. Additionally, Playwright can automate Microsoft Edge since it is based...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Playwright should be more popular than jsdom. It has been mentiond 279 times since March 2021. 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.

jsdom mentions (32)

  • Proton: Pluggable SSR + DOM | Or How I implemented better SSR from scratch
    Nah, I took a third path - looking for alternatives to JSDOM... And I found it - happy-dom. - Source: dev.to / 24 days ago
  • The Future of Htmx
    We do have pseudo-browsers written in pure js that you can theoretically use: https://github.com/jsdom/jsdom but they're about as reliable as you can expect: it's difficult to keep up the pace with the big three (or two) on standards compliance, and they usually don't even try. So the only reliable solution is a headless Chromium, Firefox, and/or WebKit-based noname browser like the sibling says.... - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Go-DOM - A headless browser written in Go.
    Internally the test starts an HTTP server. Because the this runs in the test process, mocking and stubbing of business logic is possible. The test use jsdom to communicate with the HTTP server; which both parse the HTML response into a DOM, but also executes client-side script in a sandbox which has been initialised, e.g. With window as the global scope.3. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • Excluding Dependencies: Bundling for Node and the Browser
    For example, I needed to parse an HTML string into a DOM Document. The browser already supports the DOMParser class, which is, unfortunately, not available in Node.js. Here, I have to fall back on JSDOM, which also exposes this class. - Source: dev.to / 12 months ago
  • Migrating from Jest to Vitest for your React Application
    If you happen to be using React Testing Library in your project, you'll need to keep the jsdom dev dependency installed. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
View more

Playwright mentions (279)

  • Design Pattern for Playwright End-to-End Testing
    This article introduces a design pattern for end-to-end testing using Playwright. This pattern is an extension of the Page Object Model, aimed at improving test code readability and reducing the increase in code volume when adding more test scenarios or test data variations. This pattern is adopted by SVQK. A working implementation example and its test results are available in the following repositories:. - Source: dev.to / 4 days ago
  • Why the Python Standard Library Needs a run_sync()
    I recently updated a small script I wrote to automate file uploads to a website with no API. It uses the excellent Playwright project to drive a browser - making the tedious task of filling out forms painless. - Source: dev.to / 10 days ago
  • No Dockerfile? No problem! Running Node and Python MCPs with ToolHive
    E.g. If you’re interested in running the Playwright MCP, simply do:. - Source: dev.to / 11 days ago
  • SVQK - A Web Application Development Platform Using Svelte + Quarkus
    This command not only sets up the tools and scripts but also runs tests to verify that the tools and applications work as expected. The tests include unit tests for backend components, integration tests for manipulating Web APIs using a Rest Client, and end-to-end tests for frontend operations using Playwright. This setup command can be executed both on a local PC and in a CI environment. - Source: dev.to / 12 days ago
  • How to Chat with Gemini 2.5 Pro from VSCode via AI Studio (Free and Unlimited)
    My first idea was to run an instance of Chrome and control it using Playwright. So I created a file browser.ts and wrote the following code to:. - Source: dev.to / 20 days ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing jsdom and Playwright, you can also consider the following products

html2canvas - JavaScript library to take "screenshots" of webpages or parts of it, directly on the...

puppeteer - Puppeteer is a Node library which provides a high-level API to control headless Chrome or Chromium...

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.

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.

BrowserCat - Easy, fast, and reliable browser automation and headless browser APIs. The web is messy, but your code shouldn't be.

Microlink - Extract structured data from any website