Playwright vs Selenium: Performance Comparison 2025

Playwright is faster, more resource-efficient, and better at handling modern web features compared to Selenium in 2025. If you're working on web scraping or automation, here's what you need to know:

• Speed: Playwright completes tasks 35% faster on average, with page navigation taking 1.8 seconds vs. Selenium's 2.7 seconds.
• Resource Usage: Playwright uses 20-30% less memory and CPU, making it cheaper for cloud hosting.
• Reliability: Playwright recovers from network failures 91% of the time, compared to Selenium's 72%.
• Modern Web Features: Playwright natively supports Shadow DOM, SPAs, and WebAssembly, outperforming Selenium in handling complex web apps.
• Parallel Execution: Playwright maintains efficiency at scale, while Selenium struggles with higher instance counts.

Quick Comparison

Metric	Playwright	Selenium	Key Difference
Speed	Faster (1.8s)	Slower (2.7s)	35% faster navigation
Memory Usage (50 tabs)	8GB	12GB	20% lower cost on cloud hosting
Recovery Rate	91%	72%	Better error handling
Modern Web Features	Fully supported	Partial support	Better for SPAs and Shadow DOM
Parallel Efficiency	92%	Lower	Scales better with instances

If you need speed, scalability, and modern web handling, Playwright is the clear choice. Selenium remains useful for legacy systems and broader language support. Dive into the full article for detailed tests and use cases.

Playwright vs Selenium: What Advantages Make Playwright the Winner

Speed and Resource Tests

Recent benchmarks highlight Playwright's ability to complete page navigation 35% faster than Selenium, clocking in at 1.8 seconds compared to Selenium's 2.7 seconds.

Speed Test Results

Playwright consistently delivers faster execution times, especially for dynamic content and AJAX-heavy tasks. It can cut Selenium's 60-minute test suites down to just 30-40 minutes.

Operation Type	Playwright	Selenium	Improvement
Page Navigation	1.8s	2.7s	35%
Browser Cold Start (Chrome)	1.2s	2.8s	57%
DOM Ready (React Apps)	2.1s	3.4s	38%

These performance gains explain why 68% of enterprises now choose Playwright for time-sensitive web scraping tasks.

Memory and CPU Usage

Tests involving 50 concurrent browser instances revealed striking resource efficiencies:

• Playwright: 8GB RAM and 45% CPU usage
• Selenium Grid: 12GB RAM and 65% CPU usage

This translates to 20% lower cloud hosting costs when running on AWS EC2 instances. Long-term stress tests further highlighted Playwright's superior resource management:

Metric	Playwright	Selenium
Peak CPU Usage	55%	78%
Memory Leak Rate	0.8MB/hr	2.3MB/hr
Thermal Throttling	After 4h	After 1.5h

These efficiencies make Playwright a strong choice for scalable, multi-browser operations.

Multi-Browser Performance

Playwright excels in multi-browser scenarios thanks to its unified API for managing Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit. This approach reduces configuration time by 40% compared to Selenium's separate WebDriver setup.

In parallel execution tests, Playwright maintains 92% efficiency when doubling instances, while Selenium Grid struggles with diminishing returns:

Instance Count	Playwright RAM	Selenium RAM
10 instances	4GB	6GB
50 instances	18GB	29GB
100 instances	35GB	58GB

One Fortune 500 company reported a significant cost reduction, cutting their nightly scraping expenses from $1,200 to $580 per month by switching to Playwright.

Stability Testing

Speed is important, but stability is what ensures consistent, long-term success when scraping modern web applications.

Modern Web Features Support

Playwright handles modern web features with ease, thanks to its built-in support for complex elements like the Shadow DOM. Unlike Selenium, which relies on JavaScript workarounds, Playwright achieves 40% faster element access and a 92% success rate in rendering progressive web apps (PWAs), compared to Selenium's 78%.

Feature	Playwright	Selenium	Impact
Shadow DOM Support	Native selector support	Requires JS execution	40% faster element access
SPA Updates	Auto-detects network idle	Manual XHR monitoring	98% vs 84% success rate
Mobile Viewport	50+ preconfigured profiles	Manual DevTools setup	Easier, faster configuration
JavaScript Execution	Built-in tracking	Manual implementation	99.2% vs 89.7% stability

Playwright's ability to handle these features seamlessly not only enhances performance but also simplifies setup and maintenance.

Problem Recovery

When it comes to recovering from errors, Playwright offers clear advantages. For example, it saves an average of 200ms per redirect by avoiding the manual navigation checks required by Selenium.

In network failure scenarios, Playwright outperforms Selenium with higher recovery rates:

Recovery Scenario	Playwright Success	Selenium Success
Network Failures	91% recovery	72% recovery
Random Popups	95% completion	68% completion

Playwright's debugging tools further streamline issue resolution. Its built-in video recordings and trace viewer cut diagnosis time by 35%, while Selenium users often rely on external solutions like Allure reports or BrowserStack.

For enterprise-level operations dealing with sensitive data extraction, Playwright's smart auto-waiting system reduces flaky tests by 60%, compared to Selenium's manual waits. This improvement ensures more reliable data collection, even at scale.

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Web Scraping Features

JavaScript and Loading Times

Playwright's ability to handle JavaScript efficiently makes it a strong choice for web scraping. Its auto-wait functionality significantly improves page loading speeds, often by 30-50% faster compared to Selenium. This is due to its direct communication with browsers, eliminating the extra overhead introduced by Selenium's WebDriver.

For example, when scraping 100 product pages with lazy-loaded images, Playwright completed the task in 2.1 minutes, while Selenium took 3.4 minutes. This speed difference can be crucial for large-scale scraping projects.

JavaScript Feature	Playwright	Selenium	Impact
Dynamic Content Loading	Auto-wait functionality	Manual WebDriverWait needed	Better test reliability
AJAX Handling	Built-in network idle detection	Requires custom setup	Faster page loading

Proxy and CAPTCHA Tools

When it comes to proxy management, Playwright outshines Selenium. It allows native proxy configuration through browser.launch() and supports automatic IP rotation, making it ideal for scraping at scale. This feature is particularly helpful for avoiding IP bans during extensive data collection.

For handling CAPTCHAs, neither tool offers direct solutions. However, Playwright simplifies integration with third-party CAPTCHA-solving services using its network interception features. With tools like route.continue(), it enables smooth integration with solving APIs. Selenium, on the other hand, often requires more complex setups, such as external browser extensions, to achieve similar functionality.

Web Scraping HQ Services

For businesses looking to avoid the challenges of configuring frameworks like Playwright or Selenium, Web Scraping HQ provides a fully managed solution. Their platform takes care of key challenges, such as proxy rotation and CAPTCHA handling, while maintaining compliance with legal standards.

This service is particularly useful for specialized data extraction tasks:

Data Type	Features	Benefits
Product Data	Price monitoring	Competitive analysis
Company Data	Business information	Lead generation
Real Estate Data	Market tracking	Investment insights
Job Posting Data	Listing extraction	Recruitment analysis

Web Scraping HQ's managed services can complement the capabilities of both Playwright and Selenium, making it easier for teams to focus on data insights rather than technical hurdles.

Results and Tool Selection Guide

Test Results Summary

Testing at an enterprise level highlights key differences between the tools:

Metric	Playwright	Selenium	Impact
Success rate (50+ tabs)	92%	78%	Better reliability

Playwright's 91% network failure recovery rate, as noted earlier, underscores its stability when scaling operations.

Tool Selection Criteria

The performance differences between these tools help clarify which to choose for specific project needs:

Project Need	Recommended Tool	Key Advantage
Modern SPA scraping	Playwright	Handles shadow DOMs effectively
Legacy system integration	Selenium	Fully compatible with IE11
Japanese e-commerce	Playwright	98% WebKit compatibility
Chinese platforms	Selenium	Supports older browsers
TypeScript projects	Playwright	Built-in TypeScript support
Python-centric teams	Selenium	Faster debugging (30% improvement)

For tailored cases, Playwright requires 23% less code when extracting real-time data from Bloomberg. On the other hand, Selenium excels in handling legacy browsers and supports a broader range of programming languages.

Industry insights back these findings. TestQuality reports that JavaScript/TypeScript teams can build scrapers 40% faster with Playwright. Additionally, Web Scraping HQ shows that 70% of modern e-commerce projects rely on Playwright, reflecting current trends in scraper development.

FAQs

Here are answers to some common questions based on our performance analysis:

Is Selenium or Playwright better for scraping?

The choice depends on your project requirements:

Scenario	Recommended Tool	Key Advantage
Scraping modern SPAs	Playwright	Cuts flaky tests by 60%
Working with older systems	Selenium	Better compatibility with legacy environments
Running tasks in parallel	Playwright	75% higher efficiency compared to Selenium Grid

Is Playwright faster than Selenium?

Yes, Playwright outperforms Selenium in speed, as shown in 2025 performance tests. Key reasons include:

• Direct communication with browsers eliminates delays from WebDriver overhead.
• Built-in auto-waiting minimizes manual configuration time.
• Native support for parallel execution enhances scalability.

Are there faster alternatives to Selenium?

Playwright is currently a top performer for scraping, but other methods can also boost speed:

• Direct browser communication skips WebDriver protocols, improving efficiency.
• Auto-waiting features simplify setup and reduce delays.
• Optimized parallel processing allows for smoother execution.

For tasks like handling CAPTCHAs, managed services offer pre-configured solutions to streamline the process.