head to head · open source
playwright vs cypress
playwright has 96,326 GitHub stars, 6,461 forks, 185 open issues and last shipped yesterday. cypress has 51,019 stars, 3,639 forks, 1,084 open issues and last shipped yesterday. playwright leads on adoption by 89% (96,326 vs 51,019 stars). playwright is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0; cypress is written in TypeScript under MIT. playwright has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, cypress 7%. cypress was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (end-to-end-testing), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| playwright | cypress | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 96K | ★ 51K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.5K | ⑂ 3.6K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick playwright if
- You weight community size — 96K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick cypress if
- You want the cypress feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and cypress fits your workflow better
About playwright
Playwright is an open source, Apache 2.0 licensed TypeScript framework for web testing and browser automation that drives Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit through a single API, built for end to end testers, browser automation script writers, and AI coding agents.
read the full playwright overview →
About cypress
Cypress is a fast, easy and reliable testing framework for anything that runs in a browser, distributed as an MIT licensed TypeScript project on npm and aimed at front end developers and QA engineers who need to test web applications.
read the full cypress overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is playwright or cypress more popular?
playwright has 96,326 GitHub stars and cypress has 51,019. playwright has the larger community by that measure.
Are playwright and cypress free?
Both are open source. playwright is licensed under Apache-2.0 and cypress under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between playwright and cypress?
playwright is written in TypeScript and cypress in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, playwright or cypress?
Choose playwright if you want the larger community (96,326 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose cypress if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.