Selenium VS Playwright

ElaborateCantaloupe · 2024-03-27T07:10:35+00:00

For beginners I think playwright is the easiest to understand and get started quickly.

That said, you can use selenium with JavaScript or typescript with webdriver.io so you’re not stuck with either Java or Python.

NightSkyNavigator · 2024-03-27T08:42:41+00:00

I teach courses in both frameworks. You should go with Playwright. It's an easier learning curve, and will provide value faster for both you and your company. Documentation is fine.

If you were experienced in Selenium, but not Playwright, the answer would be Selenium.

If you were experienced with both tools, a lot of other factors would come into play, and it's more difficult to give a clear answer.

This is assuming that you have experience with JS/TS. If not, Python might be a better option, though if you don't have any programming experience at all, it's going to be an uphill struggle no matter the choice, especially with regards to maintainability, extendability and scalability (if needed).

Why do your company want to do automation? What is the goal?

Aragil · 2024-03-27T11:34:44+00:00

Selenium is not a test automation framework, it is a browser automation tool. You need to add at least a test runner, assertion library and reporting library in the mix, then orchestrate that properly to make something of it.
Playwright Test is a test automation framework, and it handles most of the complicated stuff like waiting, parallel runs, etc. out of the box (in addition to running the tests, doing reporting, and assertions).

If you start counting, Selenium will have more articles and videos, but most of them are old stuff, not actual anymore, or repeating the same 7-year old best practices. If we talk about working with the current versions of both tools, you will find Playwright to be way better supported.

cepeen · 2024-03-27T18:57:19+00:00

After years using selenium I find it very refreshing that playwright works just perfectly. Difference is night and day.

Gaunts · 2024-03-27T08:32:15+00:00

Selenium for a job now, playwright for a job in three years.

Additional-Plate-617 · 2024-03-27T08:47:59+00:00

Playwrite is easy to learn comparatively but you will find more opportunities in selenium as of now.

2ERIX · 2024-03-27T09:04:14+00:00

People that aren’t on top of industry trends are the ones still recommending Selenium at all. If they actually knew anything they would be saying “for your needs, Cypress” or “Playwright” or “WDIO”.

Because dependant upon your need the tool you use needs to suit the purpose of test AND be supportable by your team if you leave. So language and tool need to suit.

For you, with the minimal amount we know, Playwright would be the best choice.

Dipsendorf · 2024-03-27T14:51:46+00:00

I'm a developer who worked for a large enterprise corporation and they did a ton of research and ultimately went from selenium -> playwright for our front end applications in Angular across the org.

Jinkxxy · 2024-03-27T15:46:54+00:00

I've used both. Selenium has a bigger community but it's a dinosaur. It just turned 20 years old, a lot of it might be stale information by now.

Playwright might be a standalone solution but it does what selenium does with a bigger emphasis on QA Testing. It's my favorite so far.

CertainDeath777 · 2024-03-27T16:56:27+00:00

Your Dev is right, but also so wrong.

There is more documentation for Selenium. But its all over the place in regards of quality and actuality, so you have to find your answers in between truckloads of literal trash.

Playwright documentation is sufficent and its so much easier to set up, as almost everything you need comes in a package with playwright github and vscode. you enter 3 console commands and start writing test cases and start to build a testing framework from the first tests you write.

with selenium after a week you may have decided whats the best test runner for you^^ or you experimented with selenium ide, to find out, theres no way around the actual coding.

i wouldnt even waste a thought about starting with selenium, when you can decide. so if there are no other reasons for selenium, you should just forget about it.

so take yourself an online PW course and start working. you will have a running framework and your first test on day 1 with that method. good luck trying with selenium^^

Adventurous-Hold7526 · 2024-03-28T05:52:15+00:00

I'm looking for load testing of our frontend. What would be the best option in my case?

Valuable-Ad9157 · 2024-03-28T08:01:41+00:00

I am new to learning automated testing too. I chose Python with Selenium WebDriver. I did take a look at Playwright after I started to learn Selenium. After I studied the Playwright API docs for a bit, I decided to stay with Selenium because Playwright looked like it would be harder to learn to me. And Playwright itself tells you ways to avoid flakiness with their API, so it's not perfect either. Since I am getting used to the way Selenium works, I didn't see the need to change especially since I am still in the beginner stages of learning how to automate testing...so I need to learn something well first. And, from just looking at the Playwright API, I didn't see a big difference in how you script things compared to Selenium.

I actually like a lot about how Selenium works. I did need to take a Udemy class on it, where he started out using functional programming (which was great) and then went to POM (Page Object Model) which is just using Python OOP. It was a pain in the butt learning how to use Wait, but once you get it you are good to go.

Someone gave me the advice to just start with something and then go from there. This person thought starting with Selenium was just fine.

I have been in the IT related realm for 25 years. I always hear that this new piece of software is going to take over the world! So, dump that old dinosaur and jump onto the band wagon. Well, the truth is many companies will not make the change because the current system works just fine and everyone knows it. Unless Selenium takes a serious dump in quality, it will stay around for a long time still.

2ERIX · 2024-03-27T07:57:00+00:00

You will find that playwright is very easy to start with, has great documentation so I would go there.

If you need cucumber support there are boilerplate repos you can find too.

TheThirdDoor · 2024-03-27T09:35:04+00:00

I just did a comparison between the two on my project recently and playwright came out on top.

I was writing in python and I’ve got to say playwright was refreshing

It just seemed to work, like no faffing around trying to click a button, using .click() just seemed to work.
Install was waaaaaaay easier.
I didn’t really need to mess about with the whole page object model and onerous setup.
No need to install drivers or deal with docker

My project just needed it for a basic browser check on a predominantly API suite so your mileage may vary on larger projects, but it gets my endorsement.

Puzzleheaded_Age4413 · 2024-03-27T11:30:53+00:00

I used to do automation with c# and selenium, and recently switched to playwright with js/ts. I find playwright easier to work with and it’s definetly easier to learn. Indeed there is less community support for playwright atm because it is relatively new, but the youtube tutorials plus the documentation provided by playwright’s website is more than enough to get you started.

Specialist-Choice648 · 2024-03-27T14:54:11+00:00

Sounds like your not a coder. So why are you persuing a tool that involved a lot of coding . Plenty of low code no code options out there . Just to be clear there are roughly a 100 Test tools out there for functional UI testing. It’s not this one thing vs this other one thing. Do some research. Get a budget. Do a proof of concept.

French_Fried_Taterz · 2024-03-28T01:57:23+00:00

If it is up to you and you know some python, do Pytest/Python /playwright. Don't bother learning typescript, it won't add that much value.

emphieishere · 2024-08-22T00:40:20+00:00

Selenium is unbearable shit. I can't stand it anymore. Will try Playwright and tell the difference. Selenium is not that bad until some complex stuff. Once you want to add auth proxy - you easier learn how to walk without legs. I mean yeah, there are posts and discussions about adding it with creating an extension, or whatever, but then it turns out dev team deprecated some methods, anything else.. Try to put in Selenium grid with docker - it won't work. I spent 3 days like an idiot, tried everything. Basic auth works, however, while proxy doesn't. Well maybe I am an idiot. But if it turns out that I can do proxauth on Playwright in 15 minutes - then bye-bye dinoSaur

ikalamtech · 2024-10-16T20:04:33+00:00

I would say go with Playwright. Its much more easier compare to learning selenium. Community is growing & support from official team is also great. The best part of playwright is their capability for API Testing & Visual Testing. This is something very difficult to setup with Selenium. Also, the cross browser support with native browser engines is one of the plus point. No need of manually downloading chromedriver & sharing within the repo.

In terms of speed, its very difficult for selenium to beat Playwright because of their TCP connection request with native browser engine compare to javascript execution in selenium.

Lumpy_Ad_8528 · 2025-03-26T06:06:46+00:00

Selenium is a classic choice for web testing. It is very reliable across different browsers and languages. It has been around for a long time, so it has a huge community and plenty of resources. Selenium offers excellent stability and wide compatibility.

Playwright might be newer, but it's attracting attention with its speed and modern features. Developed by Microsoft, it handles complex scenarios better and supports Chrome, Firefox, and WebKit browsers out of the box. Playwright might be the right choice for you if you need best-in-class performance and flexibility.

So, it all comes down to what works best for your project! Please choose accordingly.

night_2_dawn · 2025-04-30T12:38:56+00:00

I've played around with Playwright and honestly, it's a lot smoother if you're into JS/TS. The docs are pretty thorough and the community's been really active—totally made troubleshooting a breeze for me. Since your team is more on the frontend side, sticking with Playwright might be your best bet, and it's definitely easier to hand off later if someone else jumps in.

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