End-to-end (E2E) testing is essential for ensuring your web app works as users expect. Two of the most popular tools for automating E2E tests are Playwright and Cypress.
Both tools aim to make frontend testing fast, reliable, and developer-friendly, but they take very different approaches in how they execute tests, interact with browsers, and fit into your workflow.
🔍 What are they?
- Cypress is a JavaScript-based testing framework that runs inside the browser. It provides a rich, interactive GUI and is great for writing tests quickly and debugging visually.
- Playwright, developed by Microsoft, is a Node.js library (also available in Python, Java, and .NET) that automates real browsers externally, with full support for modern browser features and parallel execution.
⚙️ Feature comparison
| Feature | Cypress | Playwright |
| Language support | ❌ JS/TS only | ✅ JS, Python, Java, .NET |
| WebKit/Safari support | ❌ | ✅ |
| Runs inside the browser | ✅ | ❌ |
| Visual test runner | ✅ GUI | 🟡 Trace Viewer (CLI) |
| Mobile emulation | ❌ Viewport only | ✅ Real emulation |
| Multi-tab support | ❌ | ✅ |
| Native parallelism (no cloud) | ❌ | ✅ |
| API mocking/stubbing | ✅ cy.intercept() | ✅ route() |
| Debugging tools | ✅ Time-travel UI | ✅ Trace replay, logs |
| Network control | ✅ | ✅ |
| Built-in assertions | ✅ | ✅ |
🧪 Key differences
🧠 Developer experience
Cypress shines with its interactive runner, which lets you see the app, inspect the DOM, and replay actions step by step. It’s ideal for quick feedback and debugging.
Playwright offers CLI tools and trace viewing with snapshots, logs, and performance data. It’s less visual during test writing but powerful when analyzing failures.
🌐 Browser support
Playwright supports Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit, which means it can test across Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, all using real browser engines.
Cypress supports Chromium-based browsers and Firefox, but not WebKit, meaning no Safari testing.
📱 Mobile testing
Playwright includes real device emulation (user agent, screen size, input methods), which is helpful for responsive and mobile-specific flows.
Cypress allows viewport resizing, but not full emulation of mobile environments.
⚙️ Parallel execution
Playwright includes native support for parallel test execution through its test runner, useful for scaling in CI/CD pipelines.
Cypress supports parallelism through the Cypress Cloud, which requires setup and may have usage limits for free plans.
🔒 Testing complexity
Playwright allows for more complex testing scenarios like:
- Multi-tab and multi-window flows
- Geolocation and permissions testing
- Context-level setup (e.g., different users, sessions)
Cypress is excellent for typical web flows and SPAs, but doesn't support multiple tabs or native browser dialogs out of the box.
🧠 Conclusion
Both Cypress and Playwright are powerful tools for E2E testing. The right choice depends on your goals:
- Choose Cypress if you want a simple setup, fast feedback loop, and are working mainly in JavaScript.
- Choose Playwright if you need cross-browser support, mobile emulation, parallel execution, or you're using other programming languages.
There’s no universal best tool, just the one that fits your project’s requirements, team preferences, and test complexity.