Playwright vs Cypress: Complete Comparison Guide
Compare Playwright and Cypress on browser support, speed, parallel testing, and debugging. Discover which end-to-end test framework best fits your project.
Playwright
A modern end-to-end test framework developed by Microsoft. Playwright supports all major browsers (Chromium, Firefox, WebKit), offers auto-wait functionality, parallel test execution, codegen for recording tests, and powerful selectors. The framework works with multiple languages (JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, Java, C#) and provides native support for multiple tabs, iframes, and mobile emulation.
Cypress
A developer-friendly end-to-end test framework renowned for its excellent debugging experience. Cypress offers real-time reloading, time-travel debugging with snapshots of every test step, automatic wait mechanisms, and an interactive test runner. The framework runs inside the browser itself, enabling unique capabilities for intercepting network requests and manipulating the DOM.
Comparison table
| Feature | Playwright | Cypress |
|---|---|---|
| Browser support | Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit (Safari) — all major engines | Chrome, Edge, Firefox — no native WebKit/Safari support |
| Parallel testing | Built-in parallel execution with sharding across multiple machines | Parallelization only via paid Cypress Cloud or third-party tools |
| Auto-wait | Intelligent auto-wait on elements, navigation, and network activity | Automatic retry-ability with built-in assertions |
| Debugging | Trace viewer, video, screenshots, VS Code extension for debugging | Time-travel debugging with DOM snapshots — exceptionally visual |
| Test generation | Codegen: record tests by clicking through your app | Cypress Studio (experimental) for recording interactions |
| Multi-tab/iframe | Full support for multiple tabs, windows, and iframes | Limited multi-tab support, iframes via cy.iframe() plugin |
Verdict
Playwright and Cypress are both excellent E2E test frameworks with different strengths. Playwright wins on technical capabilities: broader browser support, better parallelization, and support for complex scenarios with multiple tabs. Cypress wins on developer experience: the time-travel debugging and interactive test runner are unmatched. For CI/CD-intensive teams needing cross-browser coverage, Playwright is the better choice. For frontend teams wanting to iterate quickly, Cypress offers a lower barrier to entry.
Our recommendation
At MG Software, we use Playwright as our primary E2E test framework. The broad browser support including WebKit, powerful parallel execution in our CI/CD pipelines, and codegen functionality for quickly scaffolding tests perfectly align with our workflow. We combine Playwright with Vitest for unit and integration tests, giving us a complete testing pyramid. For clients already using Cypress, we provide support for optimizing existing test suites.
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