I didn’t switch to Playwright just because it’s the “new cool tool.”
I switched because I was tired of writing flaky tests that passed locally and failed on CI.
Selenium, for all its legacy strengths, often left me guessing:
Is the element visible yet?
Did the page fully load? Should I throw in a sleep() just to be safe?
That uncertainty wastes time. That’s where Playwright came in—and more specifically, its built-in assertions.
What hooked me first was auto-waiting.
Playwright’s expect() API waits for an element to meet a condition before throwing an error.
No more chaining complex waits or debugging why a test randomly fails in staging.
Whether I’m checking for toBeVisible(), toHaveText(), or even toHaveAttribute(), Playwright handles the timing internally.
It felt like the framework finally had my back.
Then came soft assertions. This was a game changer.
With Selenium, one failed assertion meant the whole test bailed out. But Playwright allows expect.
soft()—so I can validate multiple things and get a complete report of what failed. Especially in form validation or checkout flows, this saved me hours of reruns.
And the failure diagnostics? Chef’s kiss.
The error messages are clean, show expected vs received values, and I can trace test steps visually. It’s not just a failure—it’s a clue to a fix.
Switching to Playwright wasn’t about hype. It was about stability, clarity, and speed. The assertion engine alone made the move worth it.
If your tests are still a guessing game, you might want to give Playwright a try—not for the name, but for the confidence it brings to every single test.
Referred from my own written blog : Playwright Assertions Free Tutorial & Why It Matters
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