Playwright
Metrics as of , from the GitHub or GitLab API of each repository. Refreshed monthly.
What Playwright is
Playwright is a web automation and testing framework that drives Chromium, Firefox and WebKit through one API. All three browsers run headless or headed on Linux, macOS and Windows. Playwright Test is its end-to-end runner, with auto-waiting, web-first assertions and a separate browser context per test. Tests run in parallel by default. Traces with screenshots and video open in a Trace Viewer. The Playwright library covers scripts such as scraping, PDF generation and device emulation without a test runner. A CLI and an MCP server let AI agents control browsers. A VS Code extension adds test running, debugging and code generation. Python, .NET and Java versions exist.
Written from the project's README, read .
- Category
- Browser automation
- License
- Apache-2.0
- Language
- TypeScript
- Changelog
- Releases on GitHub
Repository metrics
Status
activeLast commit within 90 days of the fetch date.Computed from the last commit date and the archive flag on the fetch date. See the status rules.
Alternatives
Listed browser automation tools, same primary language first, then by GitHub stars. Each line gives one fact from the tool's documentation where it differs from Playwright's, with its source. See also Playwright alternatives.
Cypress: Languages for writing tests: JavaScript and TypeScript (.js, .jsx, .ts, .tsx spec files). source: Docs: Writing and Organizing Tests
WebdriverIO: Languages for writing tests: Node.js. source: README
Testplane: Languages for writing tests: TypeScript with ts-node. source: Docs: Testplane × Typescript
Selenium: Languages for writing tests: Java, Python, C#, Ruby, JavaScript, Kotlin. source: Docs: The Selenium Browser Automation Project
React Testing Library: Languages for writing tests: TypeScript, with types for react and react-dom. source: Docs: React Testing Library Introduction
Playwright for Python: Languages for writing tests: Python (sync and async APIs); Playwright also available for Node.js, .NET and Java. source: README
Nightwatch.js: Languages for writing tests: JavaScript or TypeScript (Node.js). source: Docs: Install Nightwatch
Robot Framework: Languages for writing tests: Robot Framework plain text syntax; Python as the primary language for extending it. source: README
Comparisons
How to install
npm init playwright@latestQuestions
Is Playwright open source?
Yes. Playwright is released under Apache-2.0, an OSI-approved license, as reported by the GitHub API on 2026-09-22.
Is Playwright maintained?
On 2026-09-22, the last commit to the default branch was on 2026-09-22, so the listed status is active. Rule: Last commit within 90 days of the fetch date.
How many GitHub stars does Playwright have?
96,507 stars on 2026-09-22, from the GitHub API. The number is refreshed at each monthly update.
What language is Playwright written in?
The repository's primary language, as reported by the GitHub API, is TypeScript.
How do I install Playwright?
The README gives this command: npm init playwright@latest
Sources
- GitHub REST API: repository, read
- GitHub REST API: commits, read
- GitHub REST API: latest release, read
- GitHub REST API: contributors, read
- README, read