Show HN: Which is faster? Puppeteer, Playwright or Selenium(colab.research.google.com)
colab.research.google.com
Show HN: Which is faster? Puppeteer, Playwright or Selenium
https://colab.research.google.com/drive/11qDml4BwXrJ9L6kfEX4kRDvDv42eW7Y-?usp=sharing
4 comments
> Puppeteer (JS), Playwright (Python) and Selenium (Python)
- Why not all JS or all Python?
- Why is the Playwright code scrolling?
- Why is the Playwright code using explicit timeouts?
- Why is the Playwright code using `evaluate` rather than `locators` and `click`?- Language Choice (JS vs Python): Puppeteer in JS and Playwright in Python showed near-identical performance on an AWS c5.large instance. This negated the need to test Puppeteer and Playwright in the same language for this comparison.
- Playwright Scrolling: To emulate a user experience, all three tools employed infinite scrolling, which was necessary since Wallapop doesn't have pagination, you have to scroll to get results.
- Explicit Timeouts: Used for greater stability, especially when contending with network inconsistencies. Initially, I used API response events for triggering scrolls, but this approach was less reliable.
- Evaluate vs. Locators & Click: My initial tests indicated evaluate was marginally faster than locators and click.
I appreciate the scrutiny and I might include a JS vs Python comparison in a future test.
- Playwright Scrolling: To emulate a user experience, all three tools employed infinite scrolling, which was necessary since Wallapop doesn't have pagination, you have to scroll to get results.
- Explicit Timeouts: Used for greater stability, especially when contending with network inconsistencies. Initially, I used API response events for triggering scrolls, but this approach was less reliable.
- Evaluate vs. Locators & Click: My initial tests indicated evaluate was marginally faster than locators and click.
I appreciate the scrutiny and I might include a JS vs Python comparison in a future test.
I think the approach misses the point. Playwright's auto-wait with `locators` is what makes it worth adopting because it means you don't need to use fixed waits. Auto-waits save much of the idle time waiting.
Man I love puppeteer
Far from a comprehensive benchmark, this race is 100% free from advanced configurations, multi-threading or anything complicated. It just opens Wallapop (a second hand marketplace in Spain) and times how long it takes to extract the first 2000 results of a search.
If you like this simple format, have any ideas on how to improve a race like this or have a strong urge to prove Ward Cunningham wright, let me know in the comments!