The Best Puppeteer Alternative: Why Playwright (and BrowserCat) is the Purr-fect Choice

Introduction

If you’ve been using Puppeteer for web automation or testing, you may have encountered its limitations—restricted to Chromium, lacking built-in parallel execution, and requiring extra work to handle flaky tests. If you’re searching for a Puppeteer alternative, you’re not alone! Many developers are looking for a tool that offers cross-browser support, better performance, and more reliability.

Meet Playwright—the feature-packed browser automation framework from Microsoft that improves on Puppeteer in many ways. And if you’re looking for a hosted Playwright solution that scales effortlessly, BrowserCat’s cloud-based automation is a game-changer. In this guide, we’ll explore why Playwright is the best alternative to Puppeteer, compare performance, and highlight how BrowserCat makes automation even smoother.

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Why Look for a Puppeteer Alternative?

Puppeteer is a fantastic tool, but it does have its limitations:

• Chromium-Only: Puppeteer does not natively support Firefox or WebKit, restricting testing across multiple browsers.
• No Built-in Parallelism: Running multiple browser instances requires extra setup and orchestration.
• More Flaky Tests: Without automatic waits, Puppeteer scripts can fail due to timing issues.
• Limited Debugging Tools: While Chrome DevTools is useful, Puppeteer lacks a built-in trace viewer.

If you’re running into these challenges, Playwright (and especially BrowserCat) provides a seamless alternative.

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Playwright vs. Puppeteer: Key Differences

Feature	Puppeteer	Playwright
Browser Support	Chromium only	Chromium, Firefox, WebKit
Parallel Execution	Requires manual setup	Built-in parallel execution
Automatic Waiting	No	Yes (reduces flaky tests)
Network Interception	Limited	Advanced support
Tracing & Debugging	Basic	Built-in trace viewer
Multi-Language Support	JavaScript/TypeScript	JavaScript, Python, C#, Java

Let’s dive deeper into these differences.

1. Cross-Browser Support

Puppeteer only works with Chromium-based browsers like Chrome and Edge. This makes it difficult to test how a website behaves on Safari or Firefox.

Playwright, on the other hand, supports Chromium, WebKit (Safari), and Firefox—all with a single API. This makes it the ideal choice for end-to-end testing across different browsers without needing multiple automation tools.

Example: Launching Different Browsers in Playwright

const { chromium, firefox, webkit } = require('playwright');

(async () => {
    const browser = await chromium.launch(); // Chrome
    const browser2 = await firefox.launch(); // Firefox
    const browser3 = await webkit.launch(); // Safari
    await browser.close();
    await browser2.close();
    await browser3.close();
})();

With Puppeteer, you’d be limited to just Chromium.

2. Parallel Execution

Running multiple browser instances in Puppeteer requires manual orchestration with extra Node.js workers or third-party tools.

Playwright simplifies this with built-in parallel execution, allowing tests to run in isolated browser contexts effortlessly. This is especially useful for large-scale automation and CI/CD pipelines.

Example: Running Tests in Parallel

const { chromium } = require('playwright');

(async () => {
    await Promise.all([
        (async () => { const browser = await chromium.launch(); await browser.close(); })(),
        (async () => { const browser = await chromium.launch(); await browser.close(); })()
    ]);
})();

This means faster execution times and more efficient resource utilization.

3. Better Reliability with Auto-Waiting

One of the biggest pain points in Puppeteer is flakiness—tests failing because elements load at different speeds.

Playwright automatically waits for elements to be ready before interacting with them. This reduces false failures and makes automation scripts more reliable.

Example: Auto-Waiting in Playwright

const { chromium } = require('playwright');

(async () => {
    const browser = await chromium.launch();
    const page = await browser.newPage();
    await page.goto('https://example.com');
    await page.click('#some-button'); // Waits for button to be visible
    await browser.close();
})();

With Puppeteer, you’d have to manually add waitForSelector calls to avoid race conditions.

4. Advanced Debugging & Tracing

Puppeteer relies on Chrome DevTools for debugging, which is great but limited.

Playwright includes built-in tracing tools that let you visually inspect execution, analyze network requests, and debug failed tests with screenshots.

Example: Enabling Tracing in Playwright

const { chromium } = require('playwright');

(async () => {
    const browser = await chromium.launch();
    const context = await browser.newContext();
    const page = await context.newPage();
    await context.tracing.start({ screenshots: true, snapshots: true });
    await page.goto('https://example.com');
    await context.tracing.stop({ path: 'trace.zip' });
    await browser.close();
})();

This makes debugging significantly easier compared to Puppeteer.

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The Ultimate Playwright Solution: BrowserCat 🐱

While Playwright is an excellent alternative to Puppeteer, setting it up on your own infrastructure can still be challenging. That’s where BrowserCat comes in!

Why Use BrowserCat’s Hosted Playwright?

✅ Cloud-Based Execution: Run Playwright automation without managing servers.
✅ Scalability: Effortlessly run tests in parallel across browsers.
✅ No Setup Hassle: Instantly access Playwright without installations.
✅ API-Based Automation: Simplify web scraping and automation workflows.

Instead of maintaining complex Playwright infrastructure, BrowserCat lets you automate at scale with ease.

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Conclusion

If you’re looking for a Puppeteer alternative, Playwright is the best choice for cross-browser support, better reliability, and advanced debugging. And with BrowserCat’s hosted Playwright solution, you can skip the setup and scale automation instantly.

Ready to experience effortless browser automation? Try BrowserCat’s Playwright Cloud today! 🐾