I’m a manual tester planning to start automation testing for my company’s website. After researching, I found that Playwright with JS/TS is highly recommended. However, one of my devs suggests starting with Selenium due to its larger community and better documentation. I’m leaning towards Playwright, as it aligns with the frontend tech (JS/TS), but I’m unsure. What’s your experience with Playwright-JS/TS? How’s the documentation and community support? Also, I might leave the company soon, so I want to ensure the automation can be easily handed over to someone else.
So, I’ve been working in test automation for a few years now, mostly with JS/TS-based frontends — and from that lens, Playwright with JS/TS is an excellent choice. It’s relatively new compared to Selenium but feels more aligned with how modern apps are built today. It has features like auto-waiting and parallel execution out of the box. The documentation is solid, and although the community is smaller than Selenium’s, it’s active and growing.
If you’re asking “Selenium vs. Playwright: Which should I choose for automation testing?” — and your stack is JS-heavy — I’d say go with Playwright. It’s faster to get started with, and the syntax is much cleaner, which is especially helpful if someone new will be picking it up after you.
Yeah, I second that. Having worked on both Selenium and Playwright across projects, I’ve found Playwright particularly strong for JS-based apps. Its ability to handle modern web components — like Shadow DOM and single-page apps — is a big win. Compared to Selenium, tests tend to be faster and more reliable without needing a ton of additional tooling.
So, when considering “Selenium vs. Playwright: Which should I choose for automation testing?”, Playwright just feels more in tune with modern development workflows. The setup is smoother, scaling test suites is easier, and your future QA person will likely thank you for not sticking them with legacy tooling.
Absolutely agree with both of you. I’ve been using Playwright heavily over the last year in a JS/TS-heavy environment, and honestly, it fits in seamlessly. Features like built-in retries, auto-waiting, and multi-browser support are game-changers. What I’ve also noticed is how Playwright reduces flakiness, which saves debugging time later.
So, if you’re still wondering “Selenium vs. Playwright: Which should I choose for automation testing?”, and you’re already working in a modern JS ecosystem, Playwright is a no-brainer. Even the learning curve is smoother for someone new — they can dive into the docs or GitHub discussions and get going pretty quickly.