Playwright vs Cypress: When to Use Each

Teams choose E2E tools without understanding the tradeoffs, then hit friction — Cypress's single-tab limitation in multi-window flows, or Playwright's steeper setup curve.

Choose based on your specific requirements.

// Playwright — better for:
// - Multi-browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari/WebKit)
// - Multi-tab/window tests
// - Non-browser automation (API + UI)
// - CI performance (parallel by default)

import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';

test('checkout flow', async ({ page, context }) => {
  const page2 = await context.newPage(); // Multi-tab — easy in Playwright
  await page.goto('/shop');
  await page.getByRole('button', { name: 'Add to Cart' }).click();
  await expect(page.getByTestId('cart-count')).toHaveText('1');
});

// Cypress — better for:
// - Time-travel debugging (DOM snapshots per step)
// - Component testing (Cypress CT)
// - Real-time browser dev experience
// - Simpler setup for single-browser apps

// cy.intercept() for network mocking (Cypress)
cy.intercept('GET', '/api/users', { fixture: 'users.json' });

Playwright runs in a separate process from the browser, enabling multi-tab and cross-browser testing. Cypress runs in the browser, giving better debugging but limiting multi-context tests.