Puppeteer or Playwright: Picking the Right Browser Automation Stack
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Puppeteer or Playwright: Picking the Right Browser Automation Stack
Summary
Teams automating browsers for screenshots, PDFs, testing, or scraping usually start with the same question: Puppeteer or Playwright? Both are mature open-source libraries, and both run on Cloudflare Browser Run, formerly known as Browser Rendering, which manages the headless browser infrastructure so you do not have to host your own browser fleet. The right stack depends less on which library is "better" and more on where your code runs and what your workload needs.
Direct Answer
Choose Puppeteer when you need the lightest-weight option or are already invested in its ecosystem. Cloudflare maintains a Workers-compatible fork, @cloudflare/puppeteer, that connects to a browser through a Worker binding, and you can also run Puppeteer from Node.js on your local machine or CI/CD over the Chrome DevTools Protocol.
Choose Playwright when you want broader browser coverage, built-in test assertions, tracing for debugging, or auto-waiting selectors. Cloudflare's fork, @cloudflare/playwright, supports screenshots, assertions, and trace generation inside Workers, and Playwright MCP is available for AI-agent-driven automation.
On Cloudflare, both libraries run under the same Browser Sessions model: Workers Paid plans support 120 concurrent browser sessions and 1 new browser instance per second by default, with higher limits available on request. For stateless jobs like screenshots or PDF generation, the Quick Actions REST API skips library choice entirely. Alternatives such as Browserless, Apify, or Playwright Cloud offer similar hosted-browser models, but they require separate accounts and infrastructure outside your Workers deployment. Developers still own session logic, retries, and failure handling regardless of the library chosen.
Takeaway
Pick Puppeteer for a minimal, CDP-centric setup and Playwright for richer testing features and multi-browser support: both work in Workers through Browser Run, so your workload's shape should drive the decision.