In the development of quality and functional software applications, test automation is an important phase. It not only reduces dependency on manual testing but also makes regression testing faster and supports parallel testing. To achieve this, teams now look for tools that can handle modern web applications with speed and reliability. 

 

To this, Playwright test automation started gaining attention because it offers faster testing, cross-browser support, auto-waiting and other features. If you are into software development and testing, this guide on Playwright automation testing will help you learn about its features, how it works, and how you can use it to create more reliable tests.

Overview of Playwright Testing Framework

Playwright is a modern open-source Node.js library developed by Microsoft. It gives you a single API that works with all major browser engines like Firefox, Chromium and WebKit. This API allows you to write only one set of test scripts to execute Playwright end-to-end testing of web apps/websites. For example, you can just use JavaScript code to develop a new web page and interact with all elements in an easy way. Not only this, Playwright test automation allows you to handle scenarios like upload of files, API testing, emulation of mobile devices and many more. 

Key Features of Playwright Test Automation

The main purpose of the Playwright framework is to create and execute test automation for the development of quality software. Here are the key features of Playwright test automation that make it possible and support QA teams and developers in reliable testing: 

• Cross-platform testing: Playwright automation testing can be executed on multiple platforms like Windows, Linux and others.
• Browser support: Allows Playwright cross browser testing across different browsers like Apple Safari, Firefox, Chrome and others.
• Language support: It supports different programming languages like Java, Python etc.
• Element handling API: Playwright’s API lets you easily pick elements on a page and interact with them.

• Multiple browser contexts: Playwright helps to automatically create browser contexts. This means you can work on multiple tabs and sessions in just a single test.

• Visual regression testing: In Playwright automation testing, you execute visual regression testing. This allows you to easily compare the screenshots of pages across diverse browsers.

• Real-time user interactions: Provide an API that allows automation of real-time user interactions like clicking and scrolling. With this, you can test user interaction with your developed applications.

• API request handling: Send HTTP requests to RESTful or GraphQL endpoints and validate users’ responses as part of your test flow.

• Code generation tool: It includes a code generation tool that records user interactions on a page and automatically creates test scripts from them.

Why Choose Playwright Test Automation for QA

What makes Playwright special is not just its main features but the few extra features that come with it. These small but handy options are what make daily QA work feel a lot easier. Here are some practical advantages of Playwright test automation. 

• Auto-wait

Playwright testing framework offers the advantage of auto-wait, which makes testing easier. It may happen that during QA test automation, you can encounter an element in the DOM, but it is not yet visible or clickable. This may lead to test failure, no matter how accurately the applications may work. Playwright’s auto-wait overcomes the challenge of explicit wait and pauses it until the element appears and becomes interactive.

•  Flexible selectors

When applications use dynamic content or shadow DOM, it may become hard for you to identify a web element. Using the Playwright testing framework addresses this as it offers selectors like CSS, XPath, etc. It also supports working with accessibility attributes and handling elements inside pop-ups or embedded frames (iframes). 

•  Test isolation

Playwright test automation offers full test isolation. It allows you to run tests in a separate test environment. How is this done? During Playwright test automation, a new browser instance is developed with its own context, including cookies, storage, and cache. You can also investigate test failure and run parallel tests.

•  Mobile testing

Playwright mobile testing allows you to run full test automation for mobile applications directly in browsers by emulating real mobile devices. You can test across different screen sizes, viewports and simulate features such as geolocation and device permissions. This helps verify that your mobile web applications work accurately under different conditions.

 

Though many teams still use Selenium, Playwright is easy to work with. It has all the features mentioned above. Next, we will see the difference between Playwright and Selenium. This will help you decide which tool best suits your testing requirements.

Playwright Testing Framework vs Selenium Framework 

The table below highlights key distinctions between Playwright and Selenium that matter during real test automation.

 

Feature	Playwright	Selenium
Architecture	Direct DevTools protocol for faster, reliable execution	WebDriver protocol adds an extra layer, and slower execution
Network Control	Can intercept, modify, and mock requests	Limited; needs extra tools for network simulation
Debugging & Tracing	Built-in tracing, screenshots, and videos	Requires external setup for logs and screenshots
Parallel Execution	Built-in support in isolated contexts	Requires Selenium Grid or custom setup
Mobile Browser Emulation	Emulates mobile browsers with screen size, geolocation, and permissions	Needs Appium; setup is slower and complex
Event Handling & Timing	Detects element state changes; reduces flaky tests	May act before elements are ready; needs waits or retries
Execution Speed	Faster due to direct browser communication	Slower due to WebDriver overhead

How the Playwright Testing Framework Works

Playwright’s architecture is important to understand because it shows how the testing framework works behind the scenes. The architecture uses a persistent WebSocket connection between client scripts and a Node.js server to enable real-time communication with browsers. Through CDP for Chromium and extended protocols for Firefox and WebKit, it manages rendering, sessions, and network processes, making Playwright reliable for automated testing, web scraping, and other browser-based tasks.

 

Here is exactly how Playwright test automation works: 

 

The test script sends instructions to servers over a WebSocket connection. These instructions will be received by servers and translated into commands that are understood by browser instances. It is done using CDP or CDP+, based on the requirement. Then, the browser instance will run the commands like interacting with an element. Its results are sent to the server again, which is then relayed to the client over a  WebSocket connection. 

 

Now that we understand how Playwright test automation works, let us learn more about its setup, prerequisites, and running of tests. 

Getting started with Playwright Test Automation

Setup and Prerequisites

To get started with Playwright test automation, first, you have to check and install pre-requisites using below links: 

1. Installed Visual Studio Code
2. Installed NodeJS. 

Now, you are ready to create a new project and take the next step in installing Playwright. 

Installation of Playwright and Project Creation

1. Open your VS Code terminal and type:

node -v

npm -v

If both commands show version numbers, you are ready to go. If not, download and install NodeJS

2. In the same terminal, run below command to create a new project:

mkdir playwright-demo

 

3. Now open directories from VS Code. For this, click on File, then open Folder and choose the newly created Folder (playwright-demo).

4. In VS Code, again open the terminal and set the directories using the below cd command to the newly created project folder. Then run the command below to install Playwright for running the tests. 

cd playwright-demo

npm init playwright@latest

The above command will also ask you:

• Which programming language to use (JavaScript or TypeScript).
• Do you want sample tests (choose yes if you are new).
• Do you want GitHub Actions for CI (optional)

After this, your project folder will have

• tests/ → Contains your test scripts (includes a sample test pcloudy.spec.js file by default)
• .gitignore → Ignores unnecessary files in Git.
• package.json / package-lock.json → Manage dependencies and test scripts.
• playwright.config.js → Main config file (browser, options, timeouts, reports).

In this guide, we will use the JavaScript language. 

 Installation of browser

Generally, Playwright is configured on an existing browser. However, this may create issues so it is better to use Playwright browsers using this command – npx playwright install. 

 Running Playwright Test: 

1. Create a test to run: Navigate inside the tests/ folder and create a new test file, for example, pcloudy.spec.js. Here is the Playwright automation example test scenario: 

We will write the test case for this test scenario in file – pcloudy.spec.js :

• Navigate to https://www.pcloudy.com/ 
• Click on Sign In
• Enter the wrong credentials
• Verify if an error message is displayed

const { test, expect } = require(‘@playwright/test’);

test(‘Invalid login shows error message’, async ({ page }) => {

  // Go to website

  await page.goto(‘https://www.pcloudy.com/’);

  // Click on Sign In

  await page.click(‘text=Sign In’);

  // Enter wrong credentials

  await page.fill(‘#email’, ‘wronguser@test.com’);

  await page.fill(‘#password’, ‘wrongpassword’);

  // Click on login button

  await page.click(‘button[type=”submit”]’);

  // Verify error message

  const errorMessage = page.locator(‘.error-message’); 

  await expect(errorMessage).toBeVisible();

});

 

2. Execute Playwright Test Script: As discussed above, Playwright creates playwright.config.js, which has default settings. It has all the value to run on all three browsers during the test process. For example, if we only need Chromium, then we will need to update config like this:

Copy this code to playwright.config.js

// @ts-check

const { defineConfig } = require(‘@playwright/test’);

module.exports = defineConfig({

  use: {

    browserName: ‘chromium’,

    headless: true, // change to false if you want to see browser running

  },

  reporter: [[‘list’], [‘html’]], // terminal + html report

});

Now, run the following command in the terminal:

npx playwright test pcloudy.spec.js -headed

On executing the above command, Playwright test automation will start running in the Chromium browser. 

 

3. Viewing Test Report: By default, Playwright provides a simple HTML report. After running your tests, generate and view the report with command:

npx playwright show-report

This will open an interactive HTML report in your browser. You can check passed/failed tests, logs, errors, and screenshots

 

4. Parallel Execution in Playwright: To run parallel tests in the Playwright testing framework, Playwright Test Runner is used. You can enable it by editing playwright.config.js file:

import { defineConfig } from ‘@playwright/test’;

export default defineConfig({

  testDir: ‘./tests’,         // Test folder

  fullyParallel: true,        // Enables parallel execution

  workers: 3,                 // Number of workers (parallel threads)

  use: {

    browserName: ‘chromium’,

    headless: true,

  },

});

In playwright.config.js, two important settings control parallel execution. 

• First is fullyParallel: true. This allows test running in a single file in parallel. 
• Second is workers: 3. This allows running three tests in parallel. 

 

Playwright Automation Testing on Pcloudy

If you want to scale your Playwright tests on real devices and browsers hosted on the cloud, Pcloudy provides an easy way to do it. With just a few simple configurations, you can learn how to run Playwright tests on real devices directly on their platform using your existing tests.

Prerequisites

Before starting, make sure that:

• You have a registered account on the Pcloudy platform.
•  Your project is imported into Visual Studio Code.
•  Your system has Node.js 16 or above installed.
•  It supports other browsers through the toolkit.

Steps to Run Playwright Tests on Pcloudy

Below are the steps you have to follow to execute Playwright test automation in Pcloudy: 

1. Set Username & Key

• Open config.js.
• Add your Pcloudy username and access key from the Profile section.

 

2. Update Endpoint

• Copy the browser URL from Profile and remove https://

Example:

Profile URL: https://browser.test.pcloudy.com

Endpoint to use in Playwright: wss://browser.test.pcloudy.com/playwright?capabilities= 

 3.Configure OS Version

.In pw-test.js, set OS version (e.g., “Ventura”, “Win10”). 

4. Run the Test

• Open a terminal in Visual Studio Code  and type tir and then  press ENTER to inspect the current directory
• Then navigate to the project by typing cd followed by the path name. Example: cd Playwright-Test-v2
• Now run Playwright test:

node pw-test.js

5. View Live Session

• In Pcloudy, go to My Active Session → click Live View

Best Practices of Playwright Automation Testing

Following are the best practices for Playwright test automation: 

 

• Chain and filter locators: Use .filter() and chaining. It helps you target elements better and avoid flakiness.

 

• Rely on web-first assertions: Assertions like toBeVisible() wait automatically, so you avoid adding manual timeouts.

 

• Avoid fragile selectors: Skip CSS classes or deep DOM paths—use roles, labels, or other user-facing attributes instead.

 

• Try Codegen for locators: Run npx playwright codegen <url> to generate ready-to-use, stable locators.

 

• Debug smartly: Use –debug or –trace on to inspect matches, network calls, and DOM snapshots.

Conclusion

Playwright makes web test automation simple and reliable. Features like parallel execution, auto-wait, screenshots, and video recording save time and reduce errors. It works on multiple browsers, so you catch issues early. Running tests on Pcloudy gives you access to real devices and cloud browsers. This ensures better coverage and accurate results. Take your testing further. Sign up on Pcloudy today and run your Playwright tests in the cloud.