What is a Playwright?

Playwright, developed by Microsoft, is an open-source web automation framework that provides a high-level API control and is compactable with many browsers such as Chromium, Firefox, etc. It is often used for web testing, scraping, and other browser-related actions.

Advantages of Playwright

1. Cross-browser support: Playwright is used for API controlling and is compatible with many browsers which means that we can write automation scripts that work for different browsers with minimal changes.
2. Programming language support: Playwright supports various programming languages and provides APIs for them including Java, Python, JavaScript, C#, etc. This helps developers in different language ecosystems to easily access the features of Playwright.
3. High-level API: Playwright reduces the amount of boilerplate code by offering high-level user-friendly API for web automation. Common tasks like navigating through pages, Interacting and Integrating web components, etc can be carried out with the help of easy-to-use methods.
4. Headful and Headless modes: Playwright allows us to run browser automation in both modes. i.e. Headful and Headless modes. The Headful methodbehaviour method runs to show the browser’s GUI which provides a user-friendly experience, debugging, and visual inspection. The headless mode runs the browser in the background without GUI making it suitable for server-side actions.
5. Mobile support: The Playwright also supports mobile browser automation on Android and IOS.

Limitations of Playwright

1. Limited Browser Support: Playwright’s browser support is not universal. For some specific browsers, there is a need for an extra workaround.
2. Limited Operating System Support: Playwright is primarily designed for Windows, Linux, and macOS. It might not support other operating systems.
3. Lower Adoption Rate: Playwright is not as much adopted as other third-party libraries and extensions like Selenium.
4. Longer Learning Curve: Its high-level API and advanced features may have a steep learning curve for beginners compared to simpler automation tools.

Automation of web browser interactions is crucial for building and testing real-time applications. Playwright and Selenium are the most popular choices for web automation. While both serve the same fundamental process, they come with distinct features. This article focuses on discussing the differences between Playwright and Selenium.