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Playwright vs Selenium: 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.

Selenium: Browser automation project built on W3C WebDriver, with language bindings, a record-and-playback IDE and Grid.

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 (2 of 14 fact cells here); that does not mean the feature is absent.

Side by side

Playwright and Selenium: metrics and documented facts, in the fixed row order used for browser automation comparisons.
FactPlaywrightSelenium
Stars96,507134,5111
Forks6,48218,7191
Contributors81319481
Last release2026-09-0412026-09-091
Last commit2026-09-2212026-09-221
Commits in 90 days63013581
LicenseApache-2.01Apache-2.01
Primary languageTypeScript1Java1
Statusactive1active1
Languages for writing testsTypeScript; Python, .NET and Java versions source: READMEJava, Python, C#, Ruby, JavaScript, Kotlin source: Docs: The Selenium Browser Automation Project
BrowsersChromium, Firefox, WebKit; branded Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge source: Docs: BrowsersChrome, Edge, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari source: Docs: Supported Browsers
Test authoring formatCode (TypeScript test files with the Playwright Test API) source: READMECode (WebDriver API in each language binding) source: Docs: The Selenium Browser Automation Project
Parallel or distributed executionParallel by default across configured browsers source: READMESelenium Grid routes WebDriver commands to browsers on remote machines source: Docs: Grid
CI integrationSample configs for GitHub Actions, Azure Pipelines, CircleCI, Jenkins, Bitbucket Pipelines, GitLab CI and others source: Docs: Continuous Integrationnot documentednot found in the project's documentation as of
Report formatsList, line, dot, HTML, blob, JSON, JUnit XML; custom reporters source: Docs: Reportersnot documentednot found in the project's documentation as of
Install methodnpm (npm init playwright@latest, or npm i -D @playwright/test) source: READMELanguage packages: Maven, pip install selenium, NuGet, gem install selenium-webdriver, npm install selenium-webdriver source: Docs: Install a Selenium library

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

Selenium

Fits projects that automate web browsers through the W3C WebDriver interface; its README describes an umbrella project of tools and libraries for web browser automation. source: README

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: The Selenium Browser Automation Project, read
  11. Docs: Browsers, read
  12. Docs: Supported Browsers, read
  13. Docs: Grid, read
  14. Docs: Continuous Integration, read
  15. Docs: Reporters, read
  16. Docs: Install a Selenium library, read
  17. README, read

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