head to head · open source
react vs playwright
react has 252,080 GitHub stars, 51,601 forks, 1,377 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. playwright has 99,074 stars, 6,777 forks, 185 open issues and last shipped yesterday. react leads on adoption by 154% (252,080 vs 99,074 stars). react is written in JavaScript under MIT; playwright is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. react has attracted 20% as many forks as stars, playwright 7%. playwright was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (javascript), 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
| react | playwright | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 252K | ★ 99K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-31 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 52K | ⑂ 6.8K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick react if
- You weight community size — 252K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick playwright if
- You want the playwright feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and playwright fits your workflow better
About react
React · React is a JavaScript library for building user interfaces. Declarative: React makes it painless to create interactive UIs. Design simple views for each state in your application, and React will efficiently update and render just the right components when your data changes. Declarative views make your code more predictable, simpler to understand, and easier to debug. Component Based: Build encapsulated components that manage their own state, then compose them to make complex UIs. Since component logic is written in JavaScript instead of templates, you can easily pass rich data through your app and…
read the full react overview →
About playwright
🎭 Playwright Documentation API reference Playwright is a framework for web automation and testing. It drives Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit with a single API — in your tests, in your scripts, and as a tool for AI agents. Get Started Choose the path that fits your workflow: Playwright Test Playwright Test is a full featured test runner built for end to end testing. It runs tests across Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit with full browser isolation, auto waiting, and web first assertions. Install Or add manually: Write a test Run tests Tests run in parallel across all configured browsers, in headless mode by default…
read the full playwright overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is react or playwright more popular?
react has 252,080 GitHub stars and playwright has 99,074. react has the larger community by that measure.
Are react and playwright free?
Both are open source. react is licensed under MIT and playwright under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between react and playwright?
react is written in JavaScript and playwright 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, react or playwright?
Choose react if you want the larger community (252,080 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose playwright if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.