Comparing
End-to-end browser testing framework that runs tests in Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit.
Next generation testing framework powered by Vite
| Metric | @playwright/test | vitest |
|---|---|---|
| Ecosystem | npm | npm |
| Difficulty | Intermediate ✓ | Advanced |
| Weekly downloads | 5.2M | 44.5M↑ |
| Latest version | v1.47.2 | v4.1.2 |
| Recipes | 3↑ | 1 |
@playwright/test only
Shared
vitest only
Critical user flows (login, checkout, onboarding), cross-browser compatibility checks, visual regression testing, scraping JS-rendered content, accessibility audits.
Use Vitest for any Vite-based project (React, Vue, Svelte) that needs unit or integration tests. It's also a good Jest replacement in non-Vite Node projects that want faster test execution and native ES module support.
Unit or integration testing (Vitest/Jest is faster). Tests that don't need a real browser. Simple API testing (use supertest or fetch).
For Next.js projects, Jest is still the recommended and better-documented choice. Vitest's browser mode (for running tests in a real browser) is still maturing — for end-to-end browser tests, use Playwright or Cypress.
@playwright/test
vitest