Difference between Puppeteer and Playwright

In this article, we will discuss the difference between Puppeteer and Playwright. Before discussing their differences, we must know about Puppeteer and Playwright with their applications and examples.

What is the Puppeteer?

Puppeteer is a node.js library that is developed by Google and provides methods to control headless browsers like Chrome. It is mainly used for automating the web scraping process, testing, and taking screenshots without any human intervention. This tool increases the interaction between developers and web pages and helps in clicking, typing, and navigating automatically.

Daily life analogy:

Just imagine the Puppeteer as a skilled assistant who performs the work instead of you. For example, there is a website where if you fill out a form in the morning, it will send you lunch in the afternoon. Therefore, you will normally open the browser, navigate to that page, enter the data, and submit the form. This is a routine work. Therefore, instead of you, Puppeteer performs all of these for you without you lifting a finger. Here, you must write a program, and then it handles the rest.

Applications of Puppeteer:

Several applications of Puppeteer are as follows:

• Web scraping: The process of web scraping is automated by using puppeteer.
• Automated testing: In order to know the performance of web page, many tests have to be checked, and it can be done automatically.
• PDF generation: Using puppeteer, we can convert web pages into PDFs.
• Screenshot capture: Without human intervention, this tool takes screenshots.
• SEO auditing: This tool is also used to analyse and generate the SEO reports
• Performance Monitoring: It will monitor the webpages and measures page load times, rendering speeds, memory usage, and other performance metrics.

What is the Playwright?

Playwright is also a node.js library that automates interaction with web browsers. This library was developed by Microsoft. It can support Chrome, Firefox, and other WebKit browsers. It is used in automated testing of web applications and web pages on different platforms and browsers. It is more reliable, and can stimulate user interactions.

Daily life analogy:

Playwright is a digital assistant that can perform the same action and work seamlessly in different browsers and environments. We tell the Playwright what to do in one language (API), and it translates those instructions to work correctly in any browser.

Applications of Playwright:

Several applications of Playwright are as follows:

• Cross-Browser Testing: If a developer team creates a web application, that application's web pages can be tested on many platforms and other browsers with the help of a playwright.
• End-to-End testing: This tool helps in testing the entire application from start to end and tests every component of the application
• Headless browsing: It can also run the browser in headless mode where aand graphical interface is absent for faster execution.

Key differences between the Puppeteer and Playwright:

There are several key differences between the Puppeteer and Playwright. Some main differences are as follows: