Playwright vs Puppeteer: A Comprehensive Guide – NetNut

The Playwright vs Puppeteer has been a long hot topic because these two Node.js libraries are great tools that sometimes make it difficult to pick one over the other. Playwright and Puppeteer typically have the same functions and usage, but there are still some little differences between them. 

But why should we even be having this debate in the first place, and why should you keep reading this article? Well, let’s make something clear to you.

The Frontend Development ecosystem is always changing rapidly. Depending on how you look at it, this can be a blessing and a curse at the same time. But one thing is clear: As the ecosystem changes, so do the tools. This means new tools and updates come with new writing and testing. So, as a front-end developer, the last thing you want to do is jump on a tool without reading through its documentation, update releases, etc, to get a general idea of how the tool works and why you should use it.

This is why we wrote this Playwright vs Puppeteer article: to help you make a well-informed choice.

Playwright vs Puppeteer: A Brief Historical Context

Let’s talk briefly about browser automation.

Browser automation is nothing new to the landscape of tech innovation. In fact, as far back as 2004, Selenium has been the go-to tool for browser automation. Although it was mainly used to test website suites, developers have also found a way to use it to take screenshots or automate several tasks for websites that do not have API capabilities.

With time, developers found out that Selenium was failing. It often had bugs and produced flaky results without any serious reason.

Yes, Selenium is resource-heavy, partly because it was used to run full browsers. As technology evolved, developers began using headless browsers. While these browsers were useful, they weren’t doing justice in rendering the UI. 

Headless browsers were great for testing simple websites only. They could not be used as full browsers due to the complexities involved. With time, headless browsers became less used, especially when you intend to use them heavily.

Everything changed in 2017 after PhantomJS’ author deprecated it. He did so following Google’s headless Chrome announcement, which was first deployed in Chrome 59. Later on, Firefox followed along with a headless model.

After Selenium dominated the scene for a long time after launching in 2004, in January 2018, Google released its first major version of Puppeteer. This was two years before Microsoft released Playwright.

Now, this is where the Playwright vs Puppeteer debate gets interesting. The key contributors of Puppeteer are Andrey Lushinikov and Joel Einbinder. These guys are also a part of the Playwright team. 

Puppeteer has similar features as Playwright. The team probably took all the lessons they learned while working at Puppeteer. 

You may ask why they didn’t improve these features on Puppeteer but decided to build a new tool altogether. As we forge ahead in the Playwright vs Puppeteer guide, we will understand the differences between these tools and why you can choose one above the other.

What is a Headless Browser?

These are browsers that do not display the interface of the browser. If you want to open a webpage, click, or type anything, then you must write the code to instruct the browser to take those actions. Headless browsers are very commonly used in web automation. It can help you carry out tasks faster.

Playwright and Puppeteer, by default, adopt the headless mode but can still be changed to enable them to run headful. To do this configuration, use this JavaScript command:

let browser; (async() => { if(!browser) browser = await puppeteer.launch({headless: false});

What is Playwright?

Playwright is a Node.js end-to-end web scraping and testing automation library. Microsoft released the first version of Playwright on January 31, 2020. As an automated UI testing tool, Playwright helps developers run E2E tests in later browsers like Firefox, Webkit, Chromium, Microsoft Edge, etc.

Playwright’s ability to work on some of these popular browsers is one of its key features. Many programmers often prefer this tool to others. Playwright is easy to install and has a testing-friendly API. While executing tests, a developer can easily intercept them with the Developer option of the browser or by using the VS Code Debugging tool.

Features of Playwright

Here are some of the most popular features of Playwright that make it stand out.

Cross-Browser Support

The Playwright Node.js library supports a range of libraries like Firefox, Chrome, WebKit, etc. Also, Playwright always stays up-to-date with the latest software updates of these browsers, so you do not need to worry about mismatches.

Does Not Require Setup

Just like Puppeteer, you can easily set up your Playwright framework in minutes using the npm init playwright@latest command.

Community Factor

Playwright has a robust community of experts on Slack, Stackoverflow, Ambassadors, and YouTube. This means you can always get answers to your questions and updates easily. They also have a serious community on X.

Multiple Language Support

This is another great feature of Playwright Proxy. The library has versatile support for several languages, among which are JavaScript, Java, TypeScript, Python, etc.

What is Puppeteer?

This is an open-source library containing a set of top-level APIs that lets you programmatically manipulate browsers like Chrome, Firefox, etc, using JavaScript in headless mode.

Features of Puppeteer

Let’s look at some outstanding features of Puppeteer.

Chrome-Centric

Most users feel more confident while using Puppeteer because the same team that made the Google Chrome browser maintains the Puppeteer library. This team handles discrepancies and thus ensures that installing Puppeteer automatically means downloading a compatible version of Chromium. This is with some extra benefits for Chrome users.

Does Not Require Set Up

Like Playwright, Puppeteer is NPM compatible, meaning you can install it easily using the npm command in CLI. There are no complex configurations; just install it via npm, and you are good to go.

Community Factor

During its launch in 2017, Puppeteer’s major contributions came from the community. That was quite some figures for an open-source project, and this means one thing: it has a huge supportive community. You can check out these communities on Stackoverflow or their official contribution page. It is possible that any issue you are facing already has answers in these places.

Playwright vs Puppeteer: Similarities

In this Playwright vs Puppeteer guide, we have established that Playwright and Puppeteer are two powerful Node.js tools that are used for web automation and other core tasks. These are some of the similarities we outlined in this Playwright vs Puppeteer comparison guide.

• Both are great tools for programmatically browser manipulation
• Both are used for data mining and web scraping
• They can be used for several kinds of automation testing. For example, performance testing, UI testing, service worker testing, end-to-end testing, Chrome Extension testing, etc.
• Both can emulate the device’s timezone, location, and type of device
• Both can perform web automation, RPA, and workflow automation like automatic data entry and submitting forms online
• Both can be used to take screenshots, automatically generate PDFs of webpages, record videos, etc
• They can both be used to generate pre-rendered content and crawl Single-Page Application (SPA) 
• They can both be used to create an API for a site that doesn’t have a public API.

Playwright vs Puppeteer: Major Differences

Playwright and Puppeteer are browser and web automation and testing Node.js libraries. Although they are very similar, as already outlined previously, there are some major differences between them. In this section of the playwright vs puppeteer debate, we will explore some of these differences using the table below.

Playwright vs Puppeteer: Comparison

In this Playwright vs Puppeteer debate, let us compare and contrast under the following factors.

Playwright vs Puppeteer Comparison: Speed

This is tricky here. Although Puppeteer has zero performance overhead and, hence, very fast, Playwright is equally fast. If you are looking for speed, both work fast here.

Playwright vs Puppeteer Comparison: Reliability

Puppeteer used to take the lead here. In the past, due to Playwright’s cross-browser feature, it used to have reliability issues, especially with WebKit and Firefox, and this made it look less reliable than Puppeteer. But today, most of these issues are already fixed, and this might mean Playwright is no longer less reliable. If you are experiencing bugs, just reinstalling will fix it.

Playwright vs Puppeteer Comparison: Languages

Another thing to consider for the Playwright vs Puppeteer debate is what languages you prefer. 

If you prefer writing codes in Python, Java, or C#, then Playwright is the winner here. Puppeteer only supports TypeScript and JavaScript.

Playwright vs Puppeteer Comparison: Browsers

Here, you need to ask yourself questions like,

• Are you web scraping or testing?
• Are you looking for a more versatile browser?

If you answered Yes to the questions above, then Playwright takes the lead here. Playwright supports several commonly used browsers. In fact, for web scrapers, Playwright is good news. When using Playwright, if you get stuck at any point, you can easily switch to another browser. 

Testers also will benefit from Playwright’s browser versatility support. This is because you do not have to configure a test to suit several browsers; you can write tests once and run them equally across every browser.

Furthermore, testers often conclude that testing all possible outcomes in multiple browsers isn’t worth the time. Most people use Chrome, so you need to consider this too. However, if you are carrying out workflow automation, using multiple browsers may not be a priority for you.

Playwright vs Puppeteer Comparison: Automatic Repetitive Code

Are you looking for a way to automate repetitive code? You can use Playwright’s automatic waits function that helps you set up a waiting option automatically for selectors to be available. This does not mean it would work as an AI, but it would also mean you don’t have to configure the timeout manually. This function gives you enough time to figure out what is going on on the page and for how long. 

In comparing the Playwright vs Puppeteer in this light, the Playwright also brings a lot to the table, especially with the support for selecting elements.

Playwright also stays ahead of Puppeteer with the introduction of innovative tools like CodeGen. This new tool can write out all actions carried out in the web browser as code.

Playwright vs Puppeteer: Pros and Cons

Playwright vs Puppeteer Guide: Playwright Pros 

• Playwright can test several web browsers in parallel
• Playwright supports languages like Java, .NET, and TypeScript, making it suitable for developers or programmers who write non-JavaScript UI tests.
• It has cross-browser and cross-language support. Playwright supports modern browsers like Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, and Safari.

Playwright vs Puppeteer Guide: Playwright Cons 

• Playwright does not support data parsing
• Headless mode in Chrome does not support extensions in Playwright proxy
• It is incompatible with Chrome and Edge policy configurations

Playwright vs Puppeteer Guide: Puppeteer Pros 

• It provides several alternatives to troubleshooting, making it easier.
• It is strongly integrated with Chromium and Chrome.
• You do not need to configure or carry out any setup procedure. If Node.js is installed in your system, you can install Puppeteer using a straightforward command line. This will enable you to start using Puppeteer in any of your Node.js projects.

Playwright vs Puppeteer Guide: Puppeteer Cons

• Puppeteer does not have support for cross-browser. This means it is only useful on Chrome and Chromium. Hence, web applications that do not support Chrome cannot use Puppeteer.
• It only has JavaScript language. This means you or your team need to have a robust knowledge of JavaScript to be able to use Puppeteer.

Playwright vs Puppeteer: How Does Migration Work?

Switching from one tool to the other is very easy. This can be very helpful if you decide to choose one over the other but would like to switch back and forth at any time. This is possible because recall that Playwright can somehow pass as a later version or model of “old” Puppeteer. This means their syntax is the same, and there might be just a minor difference in their construction, for instance, when launching the web browser.

Playwright vs Puppeteer: Which Should You Use?

This is a tough question to answer. The choice in this Playwright vs Puppeteer comparison mainly depends on the user’s preference or use case. These libraries are both powerful and useful, easy to use, and can solve your web browser automation and testing problems.  

However, if we have to pick a winner in this Playwright vs Puppeteer comparison, it would be Playwright, and the reason is plausible. In essence, there is only one strong reason to prefer Puppeteer in a Playwright vs Puppeteer debate, and that is if you already use Puppeteer and have a lot of code written in it. But if this is not the case, or if this is your first time, then you should use Playwright.

Playwright vs Puppeteer: Frequently Asked Questions

Was Playwright built on Puppeteer?

The playwright was NOT built on Puppeteer. Playwright is different and separate from Puppeteer. It was developed more recently and so comes with the latest Node.js web automation functionalities.

However, the same team that built Puppeteer built Playwright, as we have mentioned in this Playwright vs Puppeteer guide. 

Is Puppeteer Better Than Playwright?

You cannot get a straight-jacket answer to this question in any Playwright vs Puppeteer guide. In fact, playwright vs puppeteer comparison guide will only give you an approximate reply. The better tool here is dependent on several factors, like

• Cross-browser support,
• Library support,
• Specific browser automation needs, etc.

Is Playwright the Same As Puppeteer?

No. They are both Node.js testing and web-automating libraries, but they have different APIs. They were also developed in different years and by different companies—nonetheless, the same team. Microsoft developed Playwright, which has cross-browser and cross-language support, while Google developed Puppeteer.

Playwright vs Puppeteer: Final Thoughts

Generally, the playwright vs puppeteer debate will still linger for a while. But, no matter the winner, both libraries are excellent tools for web automation and testing. 

Playwright’s support for several browsers and other modern features make it more endearing. On the other hand, Puppeteer might be your preferred tool if you are carrying out a task that requires peer guidance using Chrome. This is because Puppeteer has been around the scene for quite some time now and may have a more robust community for research-based purposes. Are you interested to learn more about proxies and web servers? Check out our website.