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Playwright vs Cypress: open-source browser automation tools compared

Metrics as of , from the GitHub or GitLab API of each repository. Refreshed monthly.

Summary

Playwright: Web automation and testing framework for Chromium, Firefox and WebKit, with a test runner, library, CLI and MCP server.

Cypress: Browser testing tool for end-to-end, component, accessibility and API tests, run from a local app or CLI.

Both are listed under Browser automation. The table gives repository metrics from the GitHub API with their fetch date, then the documented facts used for every comparison in this category, each linked to the README or docs page it comes from. A cell reads "not documented" when the fact was not found in the project's documentation (1 of 14 fact cells here); that does not mean the feature is absent.

Side by side

Playwright and Cypress: metrics and documented facts, in the fixed row order used for browser automation comparisons.
FactPlaywrightCypress
Stars96,507151,0211
Forks6,48213,6421
Contributors81315571
Last release2026-09-0412026-09-151
Last commit2026-09-2212026-09-221
Commits in 90 days63015841
LicenseApache-2.01MIT1
Primary languageTypeScript1TypeScript1
Statusactive1active1
Languages for writing testsTypeScript; Python, .NET and Java versions source: READMEJavaScript and TypeScript (.js, .jsx, .ts, .tsx spec files) source: Docs: Writing and Organizing Tests
BrowsersChromium, Firefox, WebKit; branded Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge source: Docs: BrowsersChrome-family browsers (including Edge and Chrome for Testing), Firefox; WebKit experimental source: Docs: Launching Browsers
Test authoring formatCode (TypeScript test files with the Playwright Test API) source: READMECode (spec files with Mocha structure and Chai assertions) source: Docs: Writing and Organizing Tests
Parallel or distributed executionParallel by default across configured browsers source: READMEnot documentednot found in the project's documentation as of
CI integrationSample configs for GitHub Actions, Azure Pipelines, CircleCI, Jenkins, Bitbucket Pipelines, GitLab CI and others source: Docs: Continuous IntegrationAny CI provider; named: GitHub Actions, CircleCI, GitLab CI, Jenkins, AWS CodeBuild source: Docs: Continuous Integration
Report formatsList, line, dot, HTML, blob, JSON, JUnit XML; custom reporters source: Docs: ReportersMocha reporters (spec by default), teamcity and junit built in; custom reporters source: Docs: Reporters
Install methodnpm (npm init playwright@latest, or npm i -D @playwright/test) source: READMEnpm (npm install cypress --save-dev), yarn or pnpm source: README

1 Fetched from the GitHub or GitLab API on . Hover a value for its own date.

When each fits

Written from each project's documented scope, not from preference. Neither tool is ranked.

Playwright

Fits projects that test web applications end to end in Chromium, Firefox and WebKit from one API; its README describes a test runner with browser isolation, auto-waiting and web-first assertions. source: README

Cypress

Fits projects that test applications running in a browser; its docs describe end-to-end testing, component testing and accessibility testing in one locally installed app. source: Docs: Why Cypress?

More on these tools

Sources

  1. GitHub REST API: repository, read
  2. GitHub REST API: repository, read
  3. GitHub REST API: contributors, read
  4. GitHub REST API: contributors, read
  5. GitHub REST API: latest release, read
  6. GitHub REST API: latest release, read
  7. GitHub REST API: commits, read
  8. GitHub REST API: commits, read
  9. README, read
  10. Docs: Writing and Organizing Tests, read
  11. Docs: Browsers, read
  12. Docs: Launching Browsers, read
  13. Docs: Continuous Integration, read
  14. Docs: Continuous Integration, read
  15. Docs: Reporters, read
  16. Docs: Reporters, read
  17. README, read
  18. Docs: Why Cypress?, read

Documented facts collected 2026-09-22. See the methodology for how metrics and facts are gathered.