Playwright and Selenium both automate browsers programmatically, but they were built for different eras with different priorities. Here's a direct comparison.
Selenium
Released 2004. The original browser automation framework. Supports every browser via WebDriver protocol. Mature ecosystem, massive community, supports Java, Python, C#, JavaScript, Ruby.
Strengths: Widest language support, works with any browser/driver combination, massive existing codebase and documentation, WebDriver is a W3C standard.
Weaknesses: Slower than Playwright, no built-in async, harder shadow DOM handling, requires separate driver management (though Selenium Manager helps), verbose API.
from selenium import webdriver
driver = webdriver.Chrome()
driver.get('https://example.com')
driver.find_element('id', 'username').send_keys('user')
driver.find_element('id', 'submit').click()Playwright
Released 2020 by Microsoft. Built on Chrome DevTools Protocol. Supports Chromium, Firefox, WebKit. Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Java, C#.
Strengths: 2–3x faster than Selenium, built-in auto-waiting (no explicit waits needed), network interception, great async support, excellent trace viewer for debugging.
Weaknesses: Newer/smaller ecosystem, no support for older IE, requires Playwright-specific browser binaries (~200MB per browser).
from playwright.sync_api import sync_playwright
with sync_playwright() as p:
browser = p.chromium.launch(headless=True)
page = browser.new_page()
page.goto('https://example.com')
page.fill('#username', 'user')
page.click('#submit')Which to Choose?
- New project, Python: Playwright — faster, better DX, auto-waiting
- Existing Selenium codebase: Keep Selenium, it's fine
- Cross-browser testing: Playwright covers Chromium + Firefox + WebKit
- Legacy browser support: Selenium
- Anti-detect requirements: Both work with stealth plugins; use undetected-chromedriver for Selenium or playwright-stealth
ZeroPhantom's automation tools use browser automation for complex workflows.