Playwright vs Selenium Speed Comparison

Selenium WebDriver is slightly faster than Playwright.

Zhimin Zhan

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A repost of my daughter’s article with permission. I added a few notes.

In the previous article, I compared the syntax of Playwright and Selenium WebDriver. One feedback I have heard is that “Selenium is slower”, I disagree. Both are fast in terms of test execution, from my experience.

Today, I did a quick benchmark to verify the timing difference.

Table of Contents:
· Test Setup
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Test Script
·
Benchmark Results (raw)
·
Refactored Versions
Benchmark Results (POM)
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Findings
Why I did not include Cypress?
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Zhimin’s notes
The language factor is minor, in terms of test execution speed

Test Setup

  1. Test Machine: iMac (2015 model, macOS 12.6.2)
    I chose a relatively slow machine purposefully.
  2. Target website: https://travel.agileway.net
    This a simple test site created by my father for training purposes.
  3. Execution method
    I developed both versions in TestWise IDE. To remove…

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Zhimin Zhan

Test automation & CT coach, author, speaker and award-winning software developer. Help teams succeed with Agile/DevOps by implementing real Continuous Testing.