Selenium vs Playwright in 2026: Which Should You Use for Web Scraping?

Selenium vs Playwright in 2026: Which Should You Use for Web Scraping? Selenium was the default for 15 years. Playwright launched in 2020 and has been steadily taking over. In 2026, the question isn't "should I learn Selenium?" — it's "when does Selenium still make sense?" The 30-Second Summary Use Playwright for new projects. It's faster, has better async support, auto-waits for elements (no more time.sleep()), and handles modern JavaScript apps better. Stick with Selenium if: you have existing Selenium code, your team knows it deeply, or you need a specific browser/version Playwright doesn't support. Feature Comparison Feature Selenium Playwright Speed Slower 2-3x faster Auto-wait No — manual sleeps needed Yes — waits for elements automatically Async support Poor Excellent (native async) Browser support Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, IE Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge Network interception Complex setup Built-in, easy Mobile emulation Limited Full device emulation Shadow DOM Requires wo