In this article, you will learn what a headless browser is, what it is used for, what headless Chrome is, and which other browsers are most popular in headless mode. We will also discuss the main limitations of headless browser testing.
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Why Are We Trusted by 20 Million Developers?
How do you navigate the complex world of headless browsers? You need a battle-hardened guide who has fought through many holes and won. That's where we come in!
At Scrapeless, we've been exploring web scraping and automation techniques for years. Our team has spent over 15,000 hours researching various headless browser solutions, from old-line solutions like PhantomJS to newer ones like Playwright.
We've seen firsthand how a headless browser can make or break a project. We've debugged and fixed countless issues, optimized performance for large-scale scraping operations, and even developed custom solutions when off-the-shelf options just didn't cut them.
Whether you're looking to automate testing, scrape data at scale, or just learn the ins and outs of headless browsing, we can help!
What Is a Headless Browser?
Let's first understand what these invisible powerhouses are and how they work!
A headless browser is like a ninja of the web world – stealthy, efficient, and powerful. Essentially, it is a web browser that is not equipped with a graphical user interface (GUI). It is mainly used by software test engineers because a browser without a GUI does not need to draw visual content and therefore runs faster. One of the biggest advantages of headless browsers is that they can run on servers without GUI support.
Imagine Chrome or Firefox, but you can't see the page data loading and displaying at all, you control it entirely through code or command line interface.
Have you ever doubted the power of such browsers? Don't be misunderstood anymore! They can perform almost all the functions of traditional browsers:
- Render web pages
- Execute JavaScript
- Manage cookies and sessions
- Handle network requests
The only difference is: they do all this without displaying anything on the screen. This makes them perfect for automation, testing, and data extraction tasks.
Key components of a headless browser
Note: When using a headless browser, pay special attention to the JavaScript engine. Differences in JS engines can sometimes lead to unexpected behavior, especially when dealing with modern web applications.
- Browser engine: The core component that interprets HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Common engines include Blink (Chrome), Gecko (Firefox), and WebKit (Safari).
- JavaScript engine: Responsible for executing JavaScript code. Examples include V8 (Chrome) and SpiderMonkey (Firefox).
- Rendering engine: In a headless browser, this component still handles page layout, but does not produce visual output.
- Network stack: Handles all network communications, including HTTP requests and responses.
- API or command interface: Headless browsers do not provide a GUI, but instead provide an API or command line interface for control and interaction.
- DOM (Document Object Model): A programmatic representation of the structure of a web page.
Main uses of headless browsers
- Web crawling: used to crawl dynamic content and pages that need to execute JavaScript rendering. For example: crawling product information, dynamically generated prices, etc.
- Automated testing: testing the user interface behavior of web applications, but without opening the actual window. Commonly used in CI/CD processes to verify front-end functions.
- Performance monitoring: detecting web page loading time, rendering performance, etc.
- Screenshot generation and PDF export: generating screenshots of web pages or converting them into PDFs.
- Website monitoring: detecting whether the website is running as expected, and whether there are errors or changes.
Disadvantages and Limitations
- Debugging Challenges: Lack of visual feedback can make some issues harder to diagnose. Requires a different debugging approach than mainstream browsers.
- Resource Intensity: While more efficient than full browsers, they can still be resource-intensive for large-scale operations.
- Incomplete Rendering: Some complex visual elements or animations may not render correctly.
- Detection by Websites: Advanced websites may detect and block headless browsers. Additional technology is required to mimic the behavior of a "real" browser.
- Learning Curve: Requires programming knowledge and understanding of web technologies. Each headless browser solution has its own API and features that need to be mastered.
How Headless Browsers Differ from Regular Browsers: 5 Key Differences
| Attribute | Headless Browser | Regular Browser |
|---|---|---|
| User Interface | No user interface (invisible) | Full user interface (windows, menus, etc.) |
| Interactivity | Cannot be directly interacted with via mouse or keyboard | Users can directly operate (click, type, etc.) |
| Performance | Lightweight as it does not render graphics or display page content | Heavier as it renders page graphics and animations |
| Use Cases | Automation testing, web scraping, monitoring, etc. | Everyday browsing, operations, and interactions |
| Resource Consumption | Relatively low, suitable for servers or script environments | Relatively high, requires more system resources |
5 Popular Headless Browsers
Top 1. Scrapeless Scraping Browser - the best headless browser 2025
Scrapeless Scraping Browser is a high-performance headless browser for scraping designed to streamline the process of extracting data from dynamic websites. It enables developers to operate and oversee headless browsers efficiently without the need for dedicated servers, making web automation and data collection more accessible.
Using steps:
- Step 1. Sign in Scrapeless
- Step 2. Enter the "Scraping Browser"
- Step 3. Set parameters according to your needs.
- Step 4. Copy the sample codes for integrating into your project: > Puppeteer
const puppeteer = require('puppeteer-core');
const connectionURL = 'wss://browser.scrapeless.com/browser?token='; //input API token
(async () => {
const browser = await puppeteer.connect({browserWSEndpoint: connectionURL});
const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.goto('https://www.scrapeless.com');
console.log(await page.title());
await browser.close();
})();
Playwright
const {chromium} = require('playwright-core');
const connectionURL = 'wss://browser.scrapeless.com/browser?token='; //input API token
(async () => {
const browser = await chromium.connectOverCDP(connectionURL);
const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.goto('https://www.scrapeless.com');
console.log(await page.title());
await browser.close();
})();
Want to get more details? Our documentation will help you a lot:
Puppeteer:
- Install the necessary libraries
First, install puppeteer-core, a lightweight version of Puppeteer designed to connect to an existing browser instance:
npm install puppeteer-core
- Write code to connect to the scraping browser
In your Puppeteer code, connect to the Scraping Browser using the following method:
const puppeteer = require('puppeteer-core');
const connectionURL = 'wss://browser.scrapeless.com/browser?token=APIKey&session_ttl=180&proxy_country=ANY';
(async () => {
const browser = await puppeteer.connect({browserWSEndpoint: connectionURL});
const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.goto('https://www.scrapeless.com');
console.log(await page.title());
await browser.close();
})();
This way, you can take advantage of the Scraping Browser infrastructure, including scalability, IP rotation, and global access.
- Examples:
Here are some common Puppeteer operations after integration with Scraping Browser:
- Navigation and page content extraction
const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.goto('https://www.example.com');
console.log(await page.title());
const html = await page.content();
console.log(html);
await browser.close();
- Screenshot
const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.goto('https://www.example.com');
await page.screenshot({ path: 'example.png' });
console.log('Screenshot saved as example.png');
await browser.close();
- Run custom scripts
const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.goto('https://www.example.com');
const result = await page.evaluate(() => document.title);
console.log('Page title:', result);
await browser.close();
Playwright:
- Install necessary libraries
First, install playwright-core, a lightweight version of Playwright that connects to an existing browser instance:
npm install playwright-core
- Write code to connect to the scraping browser
In the Playwright code, connect to the Scraping Browser using the following method:
const { chromium } = require('playwright-core');
const connectionURL = 'wss://browser.scrapeless.com/browser?token=APIKey&session_ttl=180&proxy_country=ANY';
(async () => {
const browser = await chromium.connectOverCDP(connectionURL);
const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.goto('https://www.scrapeless.com');
console.log(await page.title());
await browser.close();
})();
This allows you to take advantage of Scraping Browser's infrastructure, including scalability, IP rotation, and global access.
- Examples
Here are some common Playwright operations after integration with Scraping Browser:
- Navigation and page content extraction
const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.goto('https://www.example.com');
console.log(await page.title());
const html = await page.content();
console.log(html);
await browser.close();
- Screenshot
const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.goto('https://www.example.com');
await page.screenshot({ path: 'example.png' });
console.log('Screenshot saved as example.png');
await browser.close();
- Run custom scripts
const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.goto('https://www.example.com');
const result = await page.evaluate(() => document.title);
console.log('Page title:', result);
await browser.close();
Related article: Best AI Scraping Browser to Scrape and Monitor Data from Any Website
Top 2. Playwright
Developed by Microsoft, Playwright provides a single API to manage browsers based on Chromium, Firefox and WebKit. It can be used to automate multiple browsers with a high-level API. Before setting up Playwright for headless browser testing, make sure you have the latest version of Node.JS and npm installed on your system.
Playwright has quickly gained traction in the automation community, in large part due to its unique features:
- Cross-browser support (Chrome, Firefox, Safari).
- Powerful automatic waiting mechanism.
- Powerful network interception capabilities.
- Support for multiple languages (JavaScript, Python, .NET, Java).
Top 3. Puppeteer
Developed by Google, Puppeteer provides a high-level API for controlling Chrome or Chromium via the DevTools Protocol. It is the preferred choice of many JavaScript developers.
- Deep integration with Chrome/Chromium
- Comprehensive API for browser control
- Built-in support for generating PDFs and screenshots
Top 4. Selenium
Selenium is a free, open-source tool that is great for automation. It supports various browsers running on different operating systems. Selenium Web Driver provides enhanced support for dynamic web pages, which can provide excellent results using Selenium Headless. In addition, you can use Headless Chrome or Headless Firefox to perform headless browser Selenium.
- Support for multiple programming languages
- Compatible with various browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge)
- Huge ecosystem of tools and extensions
Top 5. Cypress
Cypree excels in end-to-end testing of web applications, especially single-page applications. Although Cypress mainly focuses on end-to-end testing, it is popular for its developer-friendly approach and powerful debugging capabilities.
- Live reload
- Time travel debugging
- Use native access to DOM and network layer
What Is Headless Chrome Testing?
If you're a developer, you're likely familiar with UI-driven testing, which ensures that applications function correctly over time. However, one of the major challenges with UI-driven testing is stability—particularly when tests fail to interact consistently with the browser.
Headless browser testing offers a solution to this issue. Unlike UI-driven testing, it allows end-to-end testing without loading the application’s user interface. This approach not only speeds up the testing process but also ensures direct interaction with the page, reducing instability. As a result, tests become faster, more reliable, and highly efficient.
When Should You Use Headless Browser Testing?
Headless browser testing is especially useful in scenarios where resources are constrained or when automation tasks need to be executed efficiently. Here are some common use cases:
- Automated HTML Interaction Simulate user actions like form submissions, button clicks, and dropdown menu selections. Headless browsers allow you to verify responses to these interactions effectively.
- JavaScript Execution Testing Test the execution of JavaScript in web pages to validate dynamic content. This is particularly useful for applications with extensive client-side rendering.
- Web Scraping Bypass basic anti-scraping measures, load dynamic content, and extract data from web pages. Headless browsers are ideal for scraping tasks involving complex front-end rendering.
- Network Monitoring and Performance Testing Monitor network requests, analyze load times, and identify performance bottlenecks, making it valuable for website performance optimization.
- Handling Ajax Requests Ensure that pages relying on Ajax for data loading display correctly by capturing and processing these requests.
- Generating Web Page Screenshots Create screenshots to identify layout or content issues during testing, generate documentation, or perform visual checks of web pages.
The Bottom Lines
What a great day! As we docked the headless browsing ship, it was clear that we were at the forefront of a revolution in web automation and data extraction.
Headless browser testing is a faster, more reliable, and more efficient way to test web applications on a browser. However, when you test with a real desktop browser, it provides a true representation of your website.
Can you be headless and real at the same time? Of course! Scrapeless Scraping Browser combines the best of both worlds. It allows you to automate web pages easily.
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