Daniel - June 1, 2021
Puppeteer Vs Playwright Vs Selenium
Puppeteer, Playwright, and Selenium are renowned web automation and testing tools. If you have to pick one, which would you go for? In this article, I’ll be comparing Puppeteer vs Playwright vs Selenium to help you pick the best.
About Puppeteer
Puppeteer is a high-level browser automation tool from Google. The tool is available as an API and was initially launched as an alternative to Selenium. It’s a headless tool and you can use it to automate Chrome and other Chromium browsers. There are lots of things you can do with Puppeteer.
You can automate input using your keyboard, UI testing, form submissions, and more. Puppeteer can take screenshots of your web pages or save them as PDFs. As a testing tool, Puppeteer gives you the advantage of performing tests using the latest Javascript and Chrome browser features.
Furthermore, you can use Puppeteer to test chrome extensions before installing them. If you own a website, you can use Puppeteer to track performance issues as the tool can capture a timeline trace.
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The tool is available for free. You can install it on Windows, Mac, and Linux. When you do, it automatically downloads the latest Chromium version for you to work with.
About Playwright
Playwright is a Microsoft product. It was developed as a fork of Puppeteer but it works with more than Chromium. You can also use Playwright to automate Firefox and Webkit-based browsers; it’ll even work with mobile web browsers. The tool was optimized to work with modern web apps and it’s the latest among all three.
An advantage of using Playwright is that you can program in your preferred language. The API can be used with Python, Java, and JavaScript, TypeScript, and C #. Playwright is relatively fast thanks to features like the Auto-wait APIs, Timeout-free automation, and resilient element selectors.
It’s a powerful web automation tool as you can automate multiple pages, domains, and frames simultaneously. You can test for file uploads, downloads, input, dark mode, and iframes amongst others. There are built-in debugging tools to ensure that your coding is void of error and you can deploy your tests to different CI/CD providers.
About Selenium
Selenium’s release dates back to 2004 which makes it one of the oldest web automation tools. You can use it to automate browsers, test web applications in most modern browsers. It’ll also work for automating various web tasks. The tool will work on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS computers.
Selenium consists of different components. There’s the WebDriver, IDE, and Grid. With the Selenium WebDriver, you can perform browser automation tests and distribute web scripts across different environments. The Selenium IDE is more for browser interactions while Selenium Grid allows you to test multiple environments from a central point.
The tool also features a client API and remote control server. You can write scripts for Selenium using different programming languages. The tool supports C#, Groovy, Java, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, and Scala.
Puppeteer Vs Playwright Vs Selenium – Which Is The Best?
Among all three, Selenium is the most popular and the most used. This is mainly because of its vast web testing tools which makes it versatile. However, Selenium is general and not specific to any browser. You’ll have to install different WebDrivers for each browser type you want to automate.
Puppeteer which is specific to Chrome or Chromium is ideal if you want to automate such browsers. You can automate Chrome or Chromium with Selenium too but it’s a lot easier with Puppeteer as you’ll be working with DevTools Protocol. Playwright, however, has the most advantage. While it’s simple to use like Puppeteer, it’s not limited to just Chromium. You can test Firefox and Webkit as well.
In terms of programming languages, Selenium takes the lead as it supports the most. Playwright supports multiple programming languages as well but as a Chromium-specific tool, Puppeteer is limited to just JavaScript.
Best Proxies For Web Automation and Testing
Whether you go with Puppeteer, Playwright, or Selenium, one thing is certain – you’re going to need a proxy. Most websites don’t allow these tools hence you could be banned if you try accessing them without a proxy.
You can get the best proxies for web automation from ProxyRack. Depending on the tasks at hand, you would want to go for a datacenter or residential proxy. ProxyRack features both proxy types with a high success rate you can rely on. Below are the proxies available:
Residential Proxies
Unmetered Residential Proxies: Starting from $80
Premium GEO Residential Proxies: Starting from $14.95
Private Residential Proxies: Starting from $99.95
Datacenter Proxies
USA Rotating Datacenter Proxies: Starting at $120
Mixed Rotating Datacenter Proxies: Starting at $120
Shared Datacenter Proxies: Starting at $49
Canada Rotating Proxies: Starting at $65
Bottom Line
Both three web automation tools are reliable; the best one to go for will depend on what you’re working on. Puppeteer is limited to Chromium and JavaScript so unless that’s what you’re working with, it’s not ideal. Selenium and Playwright support multiple browser platforms and multiple programming languages. Among both, Playwright is easier to use.
