Cypress vs. Playwright: The Great Test Framework Debate

Cypress and Playwright are excellent end-to-end test frameworks for web apps, and they have very similar features in their latest updates. This is a fair comparison and demo of subtle differences between them so that web developers can understand which may cater to their needs better than another.

Cypress and Playwright are two excellent popular modern frameworks for testing web applications. They are open source, frequently updated, and have dedicated communities with excellent support. But when it comes time to choose one for your project, which one should you select? Which trade-offs are better for your situation? Do you need very fast performance? Do you need to be able to test on multiple browsers? Do you need a tool that will help you write multiple levels of tests (i.e. at the component level in addition to end-to-end)?

In this talk, I will demonstrate the best features offered in the very latest version of each testing library and share a fair comparison. I will even show what it takes to set up new projects and run actual tests. And even though both have their advantages, I will share which one was a better fit for our team when we tried both hands-on, and we will poll to see which testing tool is able to win more hearts and minds.

Target audience is web developers and testers, especially who have familiarity with Cypress, Playwright, or any similar test framework, as they would benefit most and have the most context. But all are welcome who wish to attend and all terms will be explained. This talk is the result of weeks spent at work trying both Cypress and Playwright and taking notes of the pros and cons that both have offered. While this subject is already covered in multiple articles and web videos, they are all basically outdated already given the rapid update cycles of each product, and many articles and sessions I have read and watched on this subject leave out information that was very important for my team when considering, and I want to be able to share our unique perspective, as I feel that even people who have researched these two frameworks in the past and made a decision may not realize how both frameworks have already changed. This talk is a mix of slides to explain definitions and sharing my screen to actually create and run projects on the fly. Requires Internet connection if at all possible to show demonstration of cloud features and CI/CD. I have speaking experience at several conferences in the past year with a talk about technical debt (Atlanta Code Camp, Big Mountain Data & Dev, & Devnexus).