Playwright vs BugBug

Explore the easier testing alternative

Discover why startups are choosing BugBug for their automated testing needs. Stop wasting your time on complex tools. Scale without worrying about limits and unexpected costs.

Free forever

No credit card required

“With BugBug, we have successfully reduced test building time by an impressive 100%, saving an average of 60 minutes per day. This time-saving benefit enables our team to focus on other critical tasks and enhances overall productivity.”

Robbie MillerMarketing Manager at PS Website Design

At a Glance: BugBug vs Playwright

OVERVIEW

	BugBug	Playwright
Price	Free plan + Paid plans	100% Free (Open-source, Apache-2.0 license)
Ease of Use	Very intuitive UI – no coding, no setup needed	Requires coding knowledge and setup
Test Creation	Visual recorder with full control over steps	Code-based: JavaScript, Python, Java, .NET
Test Maintenance	Easy to re-record or edit steps visually	Requires code updates, but offers trace viewer & debugging tools
Local Testing	Yes – run tests locally or in the cloud	Yes – run locally or in CI
Flexibility	Less flexible than code-based tools	Highly flexible with scripting, network interception, multi-context flows
Supported Browsers	Chromium-based only	Supports multiple browsers
Mobile Testing	Not supported	Supports mobile web emulation (Chrome Android & Mobile Safari)
Collaboration	Unlimited users in all plans for free	Collaboration via code repositories and dev workflows (Git, CI/CD)
Best For	Agile SaaS teams needing speed	Technical teams needing full control

CONFIGURATION & SETTINGS

	BugBug	Playwright
Number of users	Unlimited on all plans	Limited to your team size (collaboration via Git/CI, no built-in unlimited seats)
Setup	No setup required, runs instantly in the browser	Requires installation, environment setup, and programming knowledge
Multi-Tab Support	Yes	Yes
Internal Inbox for Email Testing Use the BugBug inbox feature for user registration and login tests. Generate a unique email address, receive the email with the verification link.	Built-in	Not available (requires integration with external email testing tools)
Documentation	Yes	Yes
Customer support	Yes	No official customer support (community support only)

TEST RECORDING & EDITION

	BugBug	Playwright
Codeless Test Creation	Yes	Code required (JavaScript, Python, Java, .NET)
Test Editing	Edit recorded tests visually	Code editing, requires developer knowledge
Variables & Assertions	Built-in	Supported (via code)
Edit & Rewind Edit test steps in the middle of your test and start the execution from any given point, bypassing the need to wait for earlier steps to complete.	Modify & re-run from any step	Not built-in (requires re-running test scripts manually with updated code)
Real cursor movement	Yes	Yes – supports precise mouse and keyboard events
Smart clicks & scroll You don't need to maintain scroll positions. BugBug intelligently scrolls to the right place. BugBug will try to find the right spot to click an element, even if it's partially covered.	Yes – auto-handles dynamic content	Handles dynamic elements, scrolling, frames, and shadow DOM
Custom JavaScript	Yes – advanced flexibility	Core approach – all test logic is written in JavaScript/Python/Java/.NET

TEST EXECUTION

	BugBug	Playwright
Test Runs To speed up your testing, BugBug gives you an unlimited number of test runs with your own browser.	Unlimited local and cloud test runs on all plans	Unlimited, but requires infrastructure
Execution Speed	Fast Chrome-based execution	Very fast headless browser execution across Chromium, Firefox, WebKit
Parallel Execution	Yes	Yes
Webhooks	Yes	Requires manual setup with scripts or external integrations
Test Runs History	Yes, detailed runs history	No built-in history UI (requires integration with dashboards, e.g., Allure, custom logging)
PDF Reports	Yes, built-in but simple	Not available out-of-the-box (possible with third-party reporting tools like Allure, HTML, etc.)

TEST CASE MAINTENANCE

	BugBug	Playwright
Smart Selectors	Auto-detects and adjusts	Requires manual locator strategies (CSS/XPath) but supports resilient locators via code
Test Debugging	Visual debugging with screenshots, logs, and rewind	Advanced debugging with trace viewer, screenshots, videos, console/network logs
Fix test by re-recording	One-click re-record	Not available
Debug Mode	Execution control: pause, run next step, set breakpoints	Yes – powerful debugging with breakpoints, inspector, step-through execution
Custom Selectors BugBug creates selectors automatically, but also gives you the possibility to create your own manual selectors.	Yes	Yes

INTEGRATIONS

	BugBug	Playwright
CI/CD Support	Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab, etc.	Yes
API Access	Yes	Yes
Zapier	Yes	No
Slack	Yes	No native integration

See all BugBug's features

Industry leaders automate tests with BugBug

Why should you choose BugBug over Playwright?

REASON #1

Truly no-code - accessible for everyone

Playwright is powerful but developer-focused, while BugBug is fully codeless—anyone on your team can build and maintain end-to-end tests with no coding required.

Start free trial

REASON #2

Simple setup & runs locally in your browser

Playwright requires setup and coding, slowing onboarding. BugBug runs instantly through a Chrome extension—record, edit, and run tests in minutes with no setup or dependencies.

See BugBug Features

REASON #3

Generous free plan & transparent pricing

Playwright is free but costly to maintain. BugBug removes overhead with free-forever, flat pricing, and unlimited users—making QA far more cost-effective for startups and small teams.

See BugBug Pricing

BugBug has allowed us to implement automated tests in a number of areas of our product, saving time and effort for the QA team and allowing us to have a base set of tests that can be run at any time.

Josh BentSoftware Tester at Zahara Software

See what our customers are saying

BugBug is super intuitive and lowers the barrier of becoming an end-to-end tester. It reduces development time and significantly lowers the cost of software testing.

— Wojciech, CEO at Davinci-Studio.com

In two days we managed to automate test cases that took us weeks to write up and execute using other software. It is easy to use, yet can still perform advanced testing should the tester want to.

— Panayiotis, Software Tester, ATM Marketing

Very good and fast support from the BugBug team. Have clear documentation which really helps you to get started. Features like scheduling test cases and getting results are perfect for our needs.

— Imalka, QA Engineer at Calcey.com

Spend less time fixing tests and more time releasing

BugBug is the better choice for teams that value simplicity, cost-effectiveness, and scalability.

Speed up your entire testing process

Test easier than ever with an intuitive test recorder.
Faster than coding. With unlimited test runs for free.

Get started Book a demo