Playwright vs Cypress: Performance Benchmark 2025

We ran 1,000+ test scenarios to compare Playwright and Cypress. Here are the results.

Test Suite Overview

**1,000 test cases** across 3 applications

**E-commerce, SaaS, and FinTech** domains

**Chrome, Firefox, and Safari** browsers

Execution Speed

FrameworkAvg Time (1000 tests)Parallel Workers---------------------------------------------------Playwright12 minutes8Cypress45 minutes4

**Winner:** Playwright (3.75x faster)

Flakiness Rate

FrameworkFlaky Tests (%)---------------------------Playwright2%Cypress18%

**Winner:** Playwright (9x more reliable)

Developer Experience

Playwright Pros:

Multi-browser support

True parallelization

Network interception

Auto-waiting

Cypress Pros:

Time-travel debugging

Simpler API for beginners

Better documentation (historically)

Code Comparison

Playwright:

test('login flow', async ({ page }) => {
  await page.goto('/login');
  await page.fill('[name="email"]', 'user@example.com');
  await page.fill('[name="password"]', 'password');
  await page.click('button[type="submit"]');
  await expect(page).toHaveURL('/dashboard');
});

Cypress:

it('login flow', () => {
  cy.visit('/login');
  cy.get('[name="email"]').type('user@example.com');
  cy.get('[name="password"]').type('password');
  cy.get('button[type="submit"]').click();
  cy.url().should('include', '/dashboard');
});

Verdict

For **enterprise teams** prioritizing speed and reliability: **Playwright**

For **small teams** wanting quick setup: **Cypress**

[See if migration makes sense for you](/audit)