10 Reasons Why Playwright is Better Than Cypress?
Choosing the best cross-browser testing platform from among the many available options can be difficult. Cypress and Playwright are two notable alternatives to Selenium that are gaining ground in the automated testing space and empowering development teams to properly test according to their own requirements.
If you’re trying to decide between Playwright and Cypress as a cross-browser testing solution for your app, this article will provide you with the information you need to make an informed decision. We’ll examine each testing platform in further detail and tell you what we think is the automated testing tool of choice for software engineers and programmers.
What Is Playwright?
One of the most popular options for cross-browser testing is Microsoft Playwright, which was created by the same people that gave you Puppeteer. Playwright and Puppeteer are very similar; however, Playwright, just like its counterpart Puppeteer, excels at being a puppeteer behind the scenes to avoid detection while conducting cross-browser testing.
The playwright is a cross-platform framework that works with macOS, Linux, and Windows. It uses a unified API to communicate with popular continuous integration (CI) servers like Jest, Mocha, and Jasmine. The writer has the ability to switch between languages with ease.
The playwright has additional features such as:
- Mobile Safari may mimic Google Chrome on Android in all but name.
- Desktop and cloud-based mobile rendering engine.
- Automatic waiting, web-first assertions, and tracing.
- The practice of monitoring network traffic in order to sabotage or otherwise ridicule network requests.
- Standard support for the mouse and keyboard.
- The capacity to store and retrieve data.
- A playwright is an excellent option for developers and testers looking for a versatile JavaScript-based framework for mobile and online applications because to its numerous useful features.
What is Cypress?
Cypress is not based on Selenium like many other automation tools are, hence it does not have the same limitations as Selenium. Complete system verification is its main concern. All of the tests are written in JavaScript. Cypress is an end-to-end testing framework that features its own runner and reporting. Important browsers like Firefox, as well as Chrome, Edge, and Electron Apps (which are all based on Chromium), are supported. The software includes a recording feature that can capture video and screenshots while testing is being carried out.
Cypress 10, which was released not too long ago, is an update to the popular testing platform that includes new tools including component testing, a migration assistant, and a redesigned user interface.
Cypress also has the following additional features:
- Time travel mode
- Real-time debugging
- Monitoring and testing of APIs for control of the network.
- Modern methods of stumbling, mocking, and testing parts.
- Compatible with a variety of add-ons, including AXE’s accessibility tools.
The new Cypress 10 version added more functionality. With this latest release, Cypress has further established itself as a go-to JavaScript-based web test solution for development teams, engineers, and testers.
Playwright Vs Cypress
While both Cypress and Playwright are end-to-end testing systems, they approach testing in quite different ways. Cypress provides a folder structure containing sample files that can aid testing teams, therefore it is more of a “package offering” than Playwright. However, testers are limited by the current test runner infrastructure.
In contrast, Playwright doesn’t generate files and gives you the freedom to use any test runner framework you like. The playwright has more customization options than Cypress and is compatible with more browsers. Let’s have a look at the differences and similarities between these two methods.
Recommendations for Runners
Cypress and Playwright provide their own runner implementation. The playwright automation testing tool is also flexible enough to work with other runners, such as JUnit or Jest. To my knowledge, Cypress does not offer this.
Playwright is the best option because it offers the most customization options and allows us to recycle our existing runners from previous test levels.
Compatibility
It’s important to include cross-domain support in our tests. It is common practice for many of the applications to use external authentication services, such as Azure Active Directory, to verify user identities. In contrast to Selenium and Playwright, Cypress is not built to support cross-origin. That’s why the latter two options are preferable in that situation.
Able to Open Multiple Tabs
Playwright supports tests with many tabs, unlike Cypress. This is why Selenium and Playwright work so well together.
Performance
In order to decide which option between Cypress and Playwright is better, we conducted some basic internal benchmark tests. Playwright was the fastest of the languages we tested, followed by Cypress and Selenium. We should note that the simplicity of our experiments means they are probably not typical of every possible circumstance. We also investigated third-party performance monitoring tools like checkly. Using the report’s findings, we determined that Playwright was the best option for our requirements.
Allows Users to Easily Move Items Using a Drag and Drop Interface
Drag-and-drop solutions are available in both of these programs. But Playwright offers the most convenient solution. The function is quite basic, with just two parameters: a draggable selection and a drop area selector. We think the playwright method fits best because it is the simplest to implement.
Dynamic Wait
For us, “dynamic wait” refers to the time spent waiting for an event to be confirmed as true. If the evaluation of the event cannot be completed in a certain amount of time, then the event will be considered false.
The fluid wait structure is at the heart of both Cypress and Playwright. When interacting with elements, it is relied on by all of their API actions. There are ways to accomplish this with Selenium, but they generate far more code. Because of this, Cypress and Playwright are the superior options in that field.
Static wait
Static wait refers to the ability to pause the test execution for a specified amount of time. Both Selenium and Cypress have built-in answers to this problem. It’s also achievable on Playwright, but only with the use of trickery. More appropriate elements would be selenium or cypress.
Selection for Individual Elements
There, you’ll find a collection of selectors for UI elements. Selectors based on xpath, CSS, text, and custom syntax are all supported by the three options for speedy element localization. As an added bonus, all tools make combining selections simple. That’s why we can use them all.
Testing in parallel
We need a system that can run tests in parallel to speed up the execution time. Both Playwright and Cypress’s professional edition are capable of this. Utilizing external tools like TestNG, Selenium can accomplish this. Sorry Cypress is an open-source project that allows us to do parallel testing for Cypress without a paid subscription. No specific tool is needed because they can all meet the criteria.
Documentation
Having images and even videos of test execution can help with documentation and reduce uncertainty when attempting to understand why a test failed. These features are standard issue in Cypress and Playwright. There are add-ons available for Selenium. So, it seems like any instrument would fit nicely here.
Support for Web Kit
Although it is a very new framework, Playwright has extensive built-in support from Microsoft and its environment. It already has features like cross-platform support that put it on par with industry leaders. While Playwright’s compatibility with WebKit is not a distinctive feature, it is one of the few frameworks that offer it. You can do a lot more than you could with previous frameworks thanks to WebKit, the engine that drives the Safari browser.
Methodological Framework for testing
Selenium and Playwright, in contrast to Cypress, have APIs available in several languages. Java, JavaScript, and Python are required in many cases. In this case, Playwright is the preferable option.
Headless by default
You may have noticed that Playwright, by default, runs tests headlessly; this is because you typically don’t need to remotely view tests running in the browser. Also, if a test fails, Playwright will present nice test results in the browser outlining the issues.
Our verdict
If you’re just getting started with web development and are looking for something straightforward, Cypress is your best bet. Not as useful for gathering evidence of test results as network capture or video capture, but great for screenshots. Cypress has substantial documentation and community support, making it simple to work around any obstacles you may have.
Microsoft Playwright is a high-quality product with a robust support staff because it was created by Microsoft Corporation. When testing Web Kit and Chromium with Dev Tool Protocols, or when your scenarios span many pages and websites, the Playwright is your best bet.
If you are looking for testing solutions across Playwright and Cypress, then Lambda Test can be your best assistance. With 40+ browser versions on the cloud, Lambda Test let’s you execute and Analysis Cypress testing scripts online and deploy quality builds faster. You can also use the Lambda Test Cloud to run your Playwright test scripts instantly on 50+ browser and OS combinations. Furthermore, it allows you to run Playwright testing in parallel to significantly reduce test execution time.
