Cypress vs Playwright

Compare Cypress vs Playwright features, pricing, and performance metrics side-by-side to find the optimal platform for your engineering workflow.

Quick Verdict

Cypress excels at core workflow integration; Playwright wins on built-in capabilities. Choose Cypress if you prioritize core workflow integration; choose Playwright if you need built-in capabilities.

Cypress vs Playwright Feature Comparison

Cypress vs Playwright Feature Comparison
Feature Cypress Playwright
End-to-End Testing Supported Yes Core feature: browser-based E2E testing Supported Yes Core feature: cross-browser E2E testing
Code Quality Gates Supported Yes Cypress Cloud analytics and flake detection Supported Yes HTML reporter and trace viewer
Unit Testing Not supported No Unit testing not supported — E2E focused Not supported No Unit testing not supported — E2E focused
Load Testing Not supported No Not a load testing tool Not supported No Not a load testing tool
Code Coverage Supported Yes Built-in code coverage via Istanbul/nyc Supported Yes Built-in coverage via v8/istanbul
Cross-Browser Support Supported Yes Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Electron Supported Yes Chromium, Firefox, WebKit from single API
CI/CD Integration Supported Yes GitHub Actions, CircleCI, Jenkins, and more Supported Yes GitHub Actions, Azure, and all major CI/CD
Visual Regression Supported Yes Cypress Cloud visual regression (paid) Supported Yes Trace viewer and screenshots for visual debugging
Parallel Execution Supported Yes Cypress Cloud parallelization Supported Yes Test sharding for parallel execution
API Testing Supported Yes cy.request() and cy.intercept() Supported Yes API testing, request mocking, HAR recording

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About Cypress

Disclosure: We may earn a commission if you click any of these links and make a purchase, at no additional cost to you. This does not influence our reviews.

Cypress is a JavaScript-based end-to-end testing framework that runs directly in the browser alongside your application. Features: time-travel debugging, automatic waiting, network traffic control, screenshot/video recording, and cross-browser testing. Cypress Cloud adds parallelization, flake detection, and analytics. Most popular E2E testing tool for web applications.

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About Playwright

Disclosure: We may earn a commission if you click any of these links and make a purchase, at no additional cost to you. This does not influence our reviews.

Playwright is a cross-browser end-to-end testing framework by Microsoft supporting Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit from a single API. Features: auto-waiting, network interception, parallel execution via test sharding, codegen (record and generate tests), and trace viewer for debugging. Supports TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, Java, and .NET. Growing faster than Cypress due to multi-browser support and faster execution.

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