Initially this conversation was started in the Playwright Github Discussions #11201 forum (here).
This comparison table strives to be as accurate and as unbiased as possible. If you use any of these libraries and feel the information could be improved, feel free to suggest changes (with notes or evidence of claims) using the "Edit this page on Github" link at the bottom of this page.
Feature/Capability Key:
- ✅ 1st-class, built-in, and ready to use with no added configuration or code
- 🟡 Supported, but as an unofficial 3rd party or community library/contribution
- 🔶 Supported and documented, but requires extra user-code to implement
- 🛑 Not officially supported or documented.
| Playwright (Website) | Cypress (Website) | |
|---|---|---|
| Github Repo / Stars |  |
 |
| Their Comparison | (none) | |
| Auto waiting | ✅ | ✅ |
| Network Monitoring & Interception | ✅ | ✅ |
| API Testing | ✅ | ✅ |
| Trace Viewer | ✅ | ✅ |
| Video Recording | ✅ | ✅ |
| Screenshot capture | ✅ | ✅ |
| Test File Level Parallelization | ✅ | ✅ |
| Test Reporter Customization | ✅ | ✅ |
| Test Retries | ✅ | ✅ |
| Mobile Emulation | ✅ | ✅ |
| Free | ✅ | 🔶 Subset of features |
| Hover Support | ✅ | 🔶 |
| iFrame Support | ✅ | 🔶 |
| Geolocation Emulation | ✅ | 🔶 |
| Storybook Support | 🟡 | 🟡 |
| Breakpoint Debugging Support in IDE | ✅ (VS Code) | 🛑 (need to use debug command) |
| General Purpose Browser Automation Tool | ✅ | 🛑 |
| Multiple Domain Support within same test | ✅ | 🛑 |
| Multiple Browser Tab Support within same test | ✅ | 🛑 |
| Multiple User Support within the same test | ✅ | 🛑 |
| Test Block Level Parallelization | ✅ | 🛑 |
| Screenshot diffing | ❔ | ❔ |
| Speed Rank (Scale 1-5, 5 being fastest) | 5 | 4 |
References
- Playwright VSCode extension
- https://playwright.dev/
- https://docs.cypress.io/
- https://blog.checklyhq.com/cypress-vs-selenium-vs-playwright-vs-puppeteer-speed-comparison/
- https://blog.logrocket.com/playwright-vs-puppeteer/
- https://storybook.js.org/addons/storybook-addon-playwright
- https://www.cypress.io/blog/2021/05/19/cypress-x-storybook-2-0/
- https://docs.cypress.io/guides/references/trade-offs#Permanent-trade-offs-1
- https://cathalmacdonnacha.com/cypress-vs-playwright-which-is-best-for-e2e-testing
- https://www.npmjs.com/package/playwright-testing-library
- https://playwright.dev/docs/emulation#geolocation
- cypress-io/cypress#2671
- https://github.com/tomByrer/codecept-playwright-vs-cypressio-fb/blob/master/article.md