// comparison
AegisRunner vs Playwright
Playwright is the best open-source automation framework in 2026 — same engine AegisRunner runs on. The choice isn't either/or; it's whether you want to write the tests or have the AI write them.
Side-by-side
| Feature | Playwright | AegisRunner |
|---|---|---|
| Test creation | You write every test by hand | |
| Time to first test | ~15 minutes (install + write a spec) | |
| Page discovery | You decide which pages to script | |
| Selector strategy | Manual — getByRole / getByText / getByTestId | |
| Auto-heal locators | No — failed selectors fail the test | |
| Visual regression | toHaveScreenshot — pixel diff, no review UI | |
| A11y / SEO / security | Add axe-playwright + Lighthouse plugins yourself | |
| Scheduled runs | Wire up your own CI cron + notifier | |
| Dashboards | BYO (Allure, Playwright HTML, custom) | |
| Test format | Playwright TypeScript natively | |
| Pricing | Free (MIT licence) | |
| Component testing | Yes — first-class |
Comparison reflects publicly available information and may change as products evolve. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.
Frequently asked questions
Is AegisRunner a Playwright wrapper?
AegisRunner uses Playwright as its execution engine. The IP is the crawler, the goal-extraction pipeline, the verification + auto-heal layers. The Playwright export is a feature — if you ever want to leave, the underlying tests are yours.
When is it cheaper to just use Playwright directly?
When you have an engineer with bandwidth to write and maintain ~30–100 end-to-end specs, and you don't need automated discovery, scheduling, or audits. Playwright is free; AegisRunner pays for itself only if (a) you don't have that time or (b) you want AI-discovered coverage hand-authoring misses.
Can I see the Playwright code AegisRunner generates?
Yes — every plan including Free has Playwright export. The generated suite is plain TypeScript with the same patterns a human would write.
Where does Playwright direct win?
Maximum control over every assertion; engineers who enjoy writing tests; you only want critical-path coverage; offline / air-gapped environments; component testing.
Try it on your own site
Paste a URL and get a full regression suite in minutes — free, no card required.
Start free