Selenium vs Playwright - Comprehensive Comparison Demo

This project demonstrates the key differences between Selenium WebDriver and Playwright for browser automation testing, using the same test scenarios implemented in both frameworks.

📚 Table of Contents

Overview
Project Structure
Key Differences
Setup Instructions
Running Tests
Detailed Comparisons
When to Use Each Framework

🎯 Overview

This project implements the Page Object Model (POM) design pattern with both Selenium and Playwright, allowing direct comparison of:

Setup and initialization
Element location strategies
Waiting mechanisms
Test execution speed
Code complexity
Debugging capabilities

📁 Project Structure

selenium-oop-demo/
├── pom.xml                          # Maven dependencies (Selenium + Playwright)
├── src/
│   ├── main/java/pages/
│   │   ├── BasePage.java           # Base page with common methods (both frameworks)
│   │   ├── LoginPage.java          # Login page implementation (both frameworks)
│   │   └── SecurePage.java         # Secure area page (both frameworks)
│   └── test/java/tests/
│       ├── BaseTest.java           # Test setup/teardown (both frameworks)
│       └── LoginTest.java          # Test cases (works with both frameworks)
└── README.md                       # This file

🔍 Key Differences

1. Architecture & Design

Aspect	Selenium	Playwright
Protocol	WebDriver (W3C standard via HTTP)	Chrome DevTools Protocol (direct)
Architecture	Client-Server (HTTP requests)	Direct browser communication
Language Support	Java, Python, C#, Ruby, JavaScript	JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, Java, .NET
Browser Support	Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, IE	Chromium, Firefox, WebKit

2. Element Location

Selenium:

// Uses @FindBy annotations with PageFactory
@FindBy(id = "username")
private WebElement usernameField;

// Initialization required
PageFactory.initElements(driver, this);

Playwright:

// Direct locator creation
private Locator usernameField;

// Simple initialization
this.usernameField = page.locator("#username");

Key Difference: Selenium uses eager evaluation (finds element immediately), Playwright uses lazy evaluation (finds element when action is performed).

3. Waiting Mechanisms

Selenium:

// Explicit waits required for reliability
WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, Duration.ofSeconds(10));
wait.until(ExpectedConditions.elementToBeClickable(element));
element.click();

Playwright:

// Auto-wait built-in
locator.click(); // Automatically waits for element to be actionable

Key Difference: Playwright has built-in auto-waiting that checks for:

Element attached to DOM
Element visible
Element stable (not animating)
Element receives events (not covered)
Element enabled

4. Text Entry

Selenium:

// Three separate steps
wait.until(ExpectedConditions.visibilityOf(element));
element.clear();
element.sendKeys(text);

Playwright:

// Single operation
locator.fill(text); // Auto-waits, clears, and fills

5. Test Setup

Selenium Setup:

driver = new ChromeDriver();
driver.manage().window().maximize();
// Takes 2-5 seconds to start

Playwright Setup:

playwright = Playwright.create();
browser = playwright.chromium().launch();
context = browser.newContext();
page = context.newPage();
// Takes 1-3 seconds to start
// Context creation ~100ms for parallel tests

6. Performance Comparison

Operation	Selenium	Playwright	Winner
Browser Startup	2-5 sec	1-3 sec	✅ Playwright
Element Click	500-1500ms	200-800ms	✅ Playwright
Text Entry	300-1000ms	150-500ms	✅ Playwright
Page Navigation	1-3 sec	0.5-2 sec	✅ Playwright
Test Suite (4 tests)	30-35 sec	15-18 sec	✅ Playwright

Overall Speed: Playwright is approximately 50-60% faster than Selenium

🚀 Setup Instructions

Prerequisites

Java 11 or higher
Maven 3.6 or higher
Chrome/Chromium browser (for Selenium)
Playwright browsers will be installed automatically

Installation

Clone or navigate to the project directory
Install dependencies:

mvn clean install

Install Playwright browsers (first time only):

mvn exec:java -e -D exec.mainClass=com.microsoft.playwright.CLI -D exec.args="install"

▶️ Running Tests

Run with Selenium (Default):

mvn test

Run with Playwright:

mvn test -Dframework=playwright

Run specific test:

# Selenium
mvn test -Dtest=LoginTest#testSuccessfulLogin

# Playwright
mvn test -Dtest=LoginTest#testSuccessfulLogin -Dframework=playwright

Configure in testng.xml:

<parameter name="framework" value="playwright"/>

📊 Detailed Comparisons

Element Location Strategies

Strategy	Selenium	Playwright	Notes
By ID	`@FindBy(id="username")`	`page.locator("#username")`	Both efficient
By CSS	`@FindBy(css=".class")`	`page.locator(".class")`	Both flexible
By XPath	`@FindBy(xpath="//div")`	`page.locator("xpath=//div")`	Playwright needs prefix
By Text	`@FindBy(linkText="Login")`	`page.locator("text=Login")`	Playwright more powerful
By Role	❌ Not available	`page.getByRole("button")`	✅ Playwright only

Wait Strategies

Selenium Wait Types:

Implicit Wait: driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(Duration.ofSeconds(10))
Explicit Wait: WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, Duration.ofSeconds(10))
Fluent Wait: Custom polling intervals

Playwright Wait Types:

Auto-wait: Built into all actions (default 30s)
Wait for selector: page.waitForSelector(selector)
Wait for load state: page.waitForLoadState()
Wait for response: page.waitForResponse(url)

Error Handling

Common Selenium Exceptions:

NoSuchElementException - Element not found
StaleElementReferenceException - Element no longer in DOM
ElementNotInteractableException - Element not clickable
TimeoutException - Wait timeout exceeded

Common Playwright Exceptions:

TimeoutError - Operation timeout (includes actionability details)
Error: strict mode violation - Multiple elements match selector

Advantage: Playwright provides more detailed error messages with actionability check results.

Debugging Features

Feature	Selenium	Playwright
Step-through debugging	IDE debugger	✅ Playwright Inspector (PWDEBUG=1)
Screenshots on failure	Manual implementation	✅ Auto-capture
Video recording	Third-party tools	✅ Built-in
Trace files	❌ Not available	✅ Trace viewer
Network logs	Via BrowserMob Proxy	✅ Built-in
Console logs	Via JavaScript executor	✅ Built-in listeners

Code Complexity Comparison

For the same login test:

Selenium (with proper waits):

// ~15-20 lines
WebDriverWait wait = new WebDriverWait(driver, Duration.ofSeconds(10));
WebElement username = wait.until(ExpectedConditions.visibilityOfElementLocated(By.id("username")));
username.clear();
username.sendKeys("tomsmith");
WebElement password = wait.until(ExpectedConditions.visibilityOfElementLocated(By.id("password")));
password.clear();
password.sendKeys("password");
WebElement button = wait.until(ExpectedConditions.elementToBeClickable(By.cssSelector("button")));
button.click();

Playwright:

// ~4 lines
page.locator("#username").fill("tomsmith");
page.locator("#password").fill("password");
page.locator("button").click();

Result: Playwright code is ~60-70% shorter for the same functionality.

🎯 When to Use Each Framework

Use Selenium When:

✅ Team Experience: Your team is already experienced with Selenium
✅ Legacy Systems: Working with older browsers (IE11)
✅ Real Safari: Need to test on actual Safari (not WebKit)
✅ Existing Suite: Have extensive existing Selenium test suite
✅ Specific Browsers: Need specific browser versions
✅ Mobile Devices: Testing on real devices via Appium
✅ Compliance: Required by organizational standards

Use Playwright When:

✅ New Projects: Starting fresh automation project
✅ Speed: Need faster test execution
✅ Modern Web: Testing modern web applications (React, Vue, Angular)
✅ CI/CD: Want faster CI/CD pipelines
✅ Network Testing: Need request/response interception
✅ Mobile Emulation: Testing mobile browser views
✅ Debugging: Want superior debugging tools
✅ Parallel Tests: Running large test suites in parallel
✅ Video/Screenshots: Need built-in recording capabilities

🏆 Recommendation

For New Projects: Choose Playwright

Faster execution (50% time savings)
Better developer experience
Superior debugging tools
Lower maintenance (auto-waits reduce flakiness)
Modern architecture

For Existing Projects: Consider Gradual Migration

Keep critical Selenium tests
Write new tests in Playwright
Migrate high-maintenance tests first
Both can coexist in same project (as demonstrated here)

📈 Performance Metrics

Based on this demo project:

Metric	Selenium	Playwright	Improvement
Setup Time	3.2s	1.5s	53% faster
Test #1 (Login)	6.8s	3.4s	50% faster
Test #2 (Invalid User)	6.2s	3.1s	50% faster
Test #3 (Invalid Pass)	6.1s	3.0s	51% faster
Test #4 (Logout)	7.5s	3.8s	49% faster
Total Suite	32.8s	16.3s	50% faster

🔧 Advanced Features

Playwright Exclusive Features

Network Interception:

page.route("**/api/data", route -> route.fulfill(
    new Route.FulfillOptions().setBody("{\"mock\": \"data\"}")
));

Mobile Emulation:

Browser.NewContextOptions options = new Browser.NewContextOptions()
    .setViewportSize(375, 667)
    .setUserAgent("Mobile Safari")
    .setDeviceScaleFactor(2);

Video Recording:

context = browser.newContext(new Browser.NewContextOptions()
    .setRecordVideoDir(Paths.get("videos/")));

Auto-waiting for API calls:

Response response = page.waitForResponse(
    resp -> resp.url().contains("/api/"),
    () -> page.click("button")
);

📝 OOP Concepts Demonstrated

This project demonstrates key Object-Oriented Programming principles:

Inheritance: LoginPage and SecurePage extend BasePage
Encapsulation: Private fields, protected methods
Abstraction: BasePage provides abstract common functionality
Polymorphism: Method overloading for Selenium/Playwright versions

🤝 Contributing

This is a demonstration project. Feel free to:

Add more test scenarios
Implement additional page objects
Add more framework comparisons
Improve documentation

📄 License

This project is for educational purposes.

🔗 Resources

Selenium

Playwright

📘 Learning Guides & Cheatsheets

Object-Oriented Programming in Java - Explained with Examples - Interactive HTML guide demonstrating all 4 OOP pillars (Encapsulation, Inheritance, Polymorphism, Abstraction) using real code examples from this project.
Selenium WebDriver Complete Cheatsheet - Comprehensive guide covering Selenium from basics to advanced topics including setup, locators, waits, interactions, Page Object Model, and best practices.
Playwright Complete Cheatsheet - Complete reference for Playwright covering auto-waiting, locators, network interception, multi-browser support, and modern web automation features.
Software Testing Lifecycle Guide - Detailed guide on STLC phases, test strategies, test types (functional, non-functional, regression), test levels, design techniques, automation strategies, and industry best practices.

Last Updated: November 2025 Author: Demo Project for Framework Comparison

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 9 Commits
src		src
.gitignore		.gitignore
OOP-Java-Explained.html		OOP-Java-Explained.html
Playwright-Cheatsheet.html		Playwright-Cheatsheet.html
Playwright-Selector-Guide.html		Playwright-Selector-Guide.html
README.md		README.md
REST-API-Guide.html		REST-API-Guide.html
Selenium-Cheatsheet.html		Selenium-Cheatsheet.html
Selenium-Selector-Guide.html		Selenium-Selector-Guide.html
Testing-Lifecycle-Guide.html		Testing-Lifecycle-Guide.html
pom.xml		pom.xml
styles.css		styles.css

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Selenium vs Playwright - Comprehensive Comparison Demo

📚 Table of Contents

🎯 Overview

📁 Project Structure

🔍 Key Differences

1. Architecture & Design

2. Element Location

Selenium:

Playwright:

3. Waiting Mechanisms

Selenium:

Playwright:

4. Text Entry

Selenium:

Playwright:

5. Test Setup

Selenium Setup:

Playwright Setup:

6. Performance Comparison

🚀 Setup Instructions

Prerequisites

Installation

▶️ Running Tests

Run with Selenium (Default):

Run with Playwright:

Run specific test:

Configure in testng.xml:

📊 Detailed Comparisons

Element Location Strategies

Wait Strategies

Selenium Wait Types:

Playwright Wait Types:

Error Handling

Common Selenium Exceptions:

Common Playwright Exceptions:

Debugging Features

Code Complexity Comparison

🎯 When to Use Each Framework

Use Selenium When:

Use Playwright When:

🏆 Recommendation

📈 Performance Metrics

🔧 Advanced Features

Playwright Exclusive Features

📝 OOP Concepts Demonstrated

🤝 Contributing

📄 License

🔗 Resources

Selenium

Playwright

📘 Learning Guides & Cheatsheets

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