Playwright vs Cypress vs Selenium — which E2E framework in 2026?
Teams choosing or upgrading E2E test frameworks in 2026 must navigate Playwright 1.58 removing _react/_vue selectors and the devtools launch option, Cypress 15.x requiring Node.js 20+ after dropping Node.js 16 in Cypress 14 (January 2025) and Node.js 18 in Cypress 15 (August 2025), and Selenium 4.41 removing CDP for Firefox in 4.29 in favor of WebDriver BiDi. Test suite migration scope, CI runner OS compatibility, and browser coverage vary significantly by framework and current version.
Playwright — broadest browser coverage, fewest breaking changes, best CI integration.
Blockers
- requires_version: framework/playwright/1.58.0 → runtime/nodejs
- requires_version: framework/cypress/15.x → runtime/nodejs/20plus
- dropped
- runtime/nodejs/16 — EOL 2025-01-16
- dropped
- runtime/nodejs/18 — EOL 2025-08-20
- removed
- removed
- removed from browserType.launch()
- macOS 13 WebKit discontinued
- Ubuntu 20.04 and Debian 11 lost WebKit support in v1.49
- removed for Firefox
- Lock-in via protocol/webdriver-bidi
- removed
- requires_version: framework/selenium/4.41.0 → package/selenium-java-bidi-module-subpackage
Who this is for
- enterprise
- small-team
- monorepo
- compliance
- high-scale
Source-linked facts
Facts updated: 2026-03-16
Published: 2026-03-27
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