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Playwright vs ChromeDriver: catalog facts
Playwright	ChromeDriver
Free Free and open source.	Free Free and open source under the BSD-3-Clause licence.
Windows, macOS, Linux, Command line	Windows, Command line
One API across Chromium, Firefox and WebKit Auto-waiting and retrying assertions reduce flaky tests	Implements W3C WebDriver and WebDriver BiDi Chrome-specific capabilities through ChromeOptions
Requires writing test code Downloads its own browser builds, which take disk space	Needs a WebDriver client or test framework to be useful Must match the installed Chrome version
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: Apache-2.0	License: BSD-3-Clause
No account needed	No account needed
Works offline	Works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 2, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked October 2, 2026

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