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BrowserStack vs Playwright: What are the differences?

Introduction

BrowserStack and Playwright are two popular tools used in web development and testing. While both offer similar functionality, there are key differences that set them apart. In this article, we will explore these differences to help you make an informed decision on which tool to choose for your website.

  1. Automation Support: BrowserStack primarily focuses on providing a platform for cross-browser testing. It offers an extensive range of real devices and browsers for testing. On the other hand, Playwright is designed to automate browsers and supports not only multiple browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, and Safari but also multiple platforms like Windows, macOS, and Linux. This makes Playwright a more versatile option for automating browser interactions across different platforms.

  2. Programming Languages: BrowserStack supports testing in a wide range of programming languages like Java, Python, C#, Ruby, and JavaScript. Playwright, on the other hand, has a strong focus on JavaScript and provides first-class support for popular frameworks like Node.js and TypeScript. This makes Playwright a preferred choice for JavaScript-based web applications and developers who are more comfortable with JavaScript.

  3. Browser Automation Features: Playwright offers an extensive set of built-in automation features that go beyond what BrowserStack provides. Playwright allows users to perform actions like taking screenshots, emulating mobile devices, intercepting network requests, and mocking geolocation. These comprehensive browser automation features make Playwright a powerful tool for testing and developing complex web applications.

  4. Parallel Testing: BrowserStack allows running tests in parallel across multiple devices and browsers. It provides excellent scalability and performance which is ideal for large-scale test automation. Playwright, on the other hand, does not natively support parallel testing. However, it can be integrated with other tools like Jest or Puppeteer to enable parallel test execution.

  5. Community and Support: BrowserStack has been in the market for a longer time and has a strong user community. It offers extensive documentation, tutorials, and support resources. Playwright, although relatively new, has gained popularity quickly due to its powerful features and flexibility. It has an active community and provides comprehensive documentation and support resources.

  6. Pricing Model: BrowserStack follows a subscription-based pricing model. It offers different pricing plans based on the number of parallel sessions and devices required. Playwright, on the other hand, is an open-source tool and free to use. This makes it a cost-effective option for small or budget-constrained projects.

In summary, BrowserStack is primarily focused on cross-browser testing with extensive device and browser support, while Playwright is more versatile in terms of supporting multiple browsers and platforms for browser automation. Playwright also offers more comprehensive browser automation features and is a preferred choice for JavaScript-based web applications. However, BrowserStack has a longer market presence and more extensive community and support resources. Additionally, BrowserStack follows a subscription-based pricing model, whereas Playwright is free and open-source.

Advice on BrowserStack and Playwright

I am looking to purchase one of these tools for Mobile testing for my team. It should support Native, hybrid, and responsive app testing. It should also feature debugging, parallel execution, automation testing/easy integration with automation testing tools like Selenium, and the capability to provide availability of devices specifically for us to use at any time with good speed of performing all these activities.

I have already used Perfecto mobile, and Sauce Labs in my other projects before. I want to know how different or better is AWS Device farm in usage and how advantageous it would be for us to use it over other mentioned tools

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Replies (3)
Aaron Evans
Testing Strategist at One Shore · | 3 upvotes · 5.8K views

A SaaS offering like Sauce Labs (or BrowserStack or LambdaTest, etc) will provide a remote Selenium/Appium Grid including the ability to run test automation in parallel (up to the amount based your subscription level) an a wide array of browsers and mobile devices.

These tools can be expensive, but if you can afford them, the expertise and effort of maintaining the grid, browser updates, etc. is worth it.

AWS Device Farm can be significantly cheaper, but is much more work to setup and run. It will not give you as many devices, or the reporting and screen/video capture you get with the the services. And there is no support for AWS Device Farm, and very poor documentation. I have used it, but do not recommend it. Running your own grid and physical device lab is better, but I'd stick with a service like Sauce Labs or Perfecto which will save you time and give you better services despite the higher price tag.

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Stability - Just works. Availability - More than 15 datacenters. Enterprise features like SSO, local testing and SOC2/GDPR compliant.

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Jaymie Falconi
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BitBar's Dedicated Devices would be a great option for you. It allows you to dedicate (reserve) devices for your use only which also having access to all of the devices in the shared cloud. BitBar has the features and integrations that you are looking for as well.

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Pros of BrowserStack
Pros of Playwright
  • 134
    Multiple browsers
  • 75
    Ease of use
  • 63
    Real browsers
  • 43
    Ability to use it locally
  • 26
    Good price
  • 20
    Great web interface
  • 18
    IE support
  • 16
    Official mobile emulators
  • 14
    Instant access
  • 14
    Cloud-based access
  • 11
    Real mobile devices
  • 7
    Selenium compatible
  • 7
    Screenshots
  • 7
    Multiple Desktop OS
  • 6
    Can be used for Testing and E2E
  • 5
    Pre-installed developer tools
  • 4
    Video of test runs
  • 3
    Webdriver compatible
  • 3
    Many browsers
  • 3
    Supports Manual, Functional and Visual Diff Testing
  • 3
    Favourites
  • 2
    Cypress Compatible
  • 2
    Test automation dashboard
  • 2
    Unify and track test cases
  • 2
    Free for Open Source
  • 2
    Test Management
  • 2
    Cross-browser testing
  • 2
    Bi-directional Jira Sync
  • 1
    Speed is fast
  • 1
    Real devices
  • 0
    Web accessibility
  • 0
    Test WCAG Compliance
  • 0
    Visual testing and review
  • 13
    Cross browser
  • 10
    Open source
  • 9
    Test Runner with Playwright/test
  • 7
    Promise based
  • 7
    Well documented
  • 5
    Integrate your POMs as extensible fixtures
  • 5
    Execute tests in parallel
  • 5
    API Testing
  • 4
    Python Support
  • 4
    Capture videos, screenshots and other artifacts on fail
  • 3
    Inbuild reporters html,line,dot,json
  • 3
    Context isolation
  • 1
    Fastest

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Cons of BrowserStack
Cons of Playwright
  • 2
    Very limited choice of minor versions
  • 12
    Less help
  • 3
    Node based
  • 2
    Does not execute outside of browser

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What is BrowserStack?

BrowserStack is the leading test platform built for developers & QAs to expand test coverage, scale & optimize testing with cross-browser, real device cloud, accessibility, visual testing, test management, and test observability.

What is Playwright?

It is a Node library to automate the Chromium, WebKit and Firefox browsers with a single API. It enables cross-browser web automation that is ever-green, capable, reliable and fast.

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What are some alternatives to BrowserStack and Playwright?
Browserling
We run the browsers on our servers. Fully interactive sessions, not static screenshots. No flash, no applets, nothing to install. Powered entirely by <canvas> and javascript.
LambdaTest
LambdaTest platform provides secure, scalable and insightful test orchestration for website, and mobile app testing. Customers at different points in their DevOps lifecycle can leverage Automation and/or Manual testing on LambdaTest.
Ghost Inspector
It lets you create and manage UI tests that check specific functionality in your website or application. We execute these automated browser tests continuously from the cloud and alert you if anything breaks.
AWS Device Farm
Run tests across a large selection of physical devices in parallel from various manufacturers with varying hardware, OS versions and form factors.
Appium
Appium is an open source test automation framework for use with native, hybrid, and mobile web apps. It drives iOS and Android apps using the WebDriver protocol. Appium is sponsored by Sauce Labs and a thriving community of open source developers.
See all alternatives