Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Playwright VS Selenoid

Compare Playwright VS Selenoid and see what are their differences

Playwright logo Playwright

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

Selenoid logo Selenoid

A lightning fast Selenium-compatible server running your tests in Docker containers
  • Playwright Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-22
  • Selenoid Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-01-03

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.

Selenoid features and specs

  • Resource Efficiency
    Selenoid is designed to be lightweight and efficient, utilizing Docker containers for managing browser instances, which helps conserve system resources compared to running full virtual machines.
  • Scalability
    Selenoid allows for easy scaling of browser instances. You can run parallel tests efficiently and increase the number of browsers as needed with minimal configuration changes.
  • Fast Startup and Execution
    Browser containers in Selenoid start quickly, which accelerates test execution and reduces overall test suite runtime compared to using traditional Selenium Grid.
  • Simple Configuration
    Configuring browsers and custom settings in Selenoid is straightforward with a JSON configuration file, making it easy to manage different test environments.
  • Wide Browser Support
    Selenoid supports a wide range of browsers and versions, which offers flexibility in testing and can cater to various application requirements.
  • Video Recording
    Selenoid has built-in support for video recording of browser sessions, which is beneficial for debugging failing tests and auditing test execution.

Possible disadvantages of Selenoid

  • Docker Dependency
    Selenoid requires Docker to run, which may introduce an additional layer of complexity for teams not already using Docker in their infrastructure.
  • Compatibility Limitations
    Not all features and extensions available in standard Selenium may be fully supported or behave the same way in Selenoid due to its containerized nature.
  • Learning Curve
    Teams unfamiliar with containerization or Docker may face a learning curve in adopting Selenoid, requiring time and effort to become proficient.
  • Limited UI
    While Selenoid provides a basic UI called Selenoid UI, it may not be as feature-rich or user-friendly as some alternative solutions with comprehensive dashboards.
  • Potential Performance Overhead
    While containers are generally efficient, users may encounter performance overhead in some scenarios, especially if misconfigurations occur in resource-limited environments.

Playwright videos

Generate tests in VS Code

More videos:

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

Selenoid videos

Selenoid Installation and Demo Application

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Playwright and Selenoid)
Development
95 95%
5% 5
Automated Testing
81 81%
19% 19
Browser Testing
83 83%
17% 17
Software Development
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 Playwright and Selenoid

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...

Selenoid Reviews

We have no reviews of Selenoid yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Playwright seems to be a lot more popular than Selenoid. While we know about 279 links to Playwright, we've tracked only 2 mentions of Selenoid. 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.

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 / 10 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

Selenoid mentions (2)

  • Github Actions for Seleniod Test Scripts
    In this article, we are going to see how to automate a web application using WebdriverIO. Leveraging the cross-browser power of Selenoid, by running it on the GitHub Actions and publishing the test results to GitHub pages. - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
  • Any tips on running selenium on a server?
    Check out Selenoid from Aerokube. Uses docker, super simple and reliable. https://aerokube.com/selenoid/. Source: almost 4 years ago

What are some alternatives?

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

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

Wicked PDF - PDF generator (from HTML) plugin for Ruby on Rails

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.

SEOBOTS.io - Easy to use bots for data mining and growth hacking: parsers, crawlers and much more.

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

ScChrom - ScChrom - Scriptable Chromium. Contribute to Felmachersoft/ScChrom development by creating an account on GitHub.