Playwright vs QA Wolf

Free and open source

Quote on request

Free and open source. Microsoft also sells a hosted parallel-runner service; the library itself has no paid tier.

Annual service contracts. Substantially cheaper than hiring an in-house automation team, substantially more expensive than a tool licence.

Everything, self-hosted

Category standard

Microsoft · since 2020

Emerging

QA Wolf · since 2019

• Auto-waiting and web-first assertions remove most of the sleep() flake that plagues older tools.
• The trace viewer — DOM snapshots, network, console and screenshots per step — is the best failure triage in the category.
• True WebKit support, so Safari bugs are caught on Linux CI without a Mac.

• Removes the maintenance burden entirely — no flaky-test triage on your side.
• You own the Playwright code, so leaving is possible.
• Coverage arrives in weeks rather than quarters.

• No native mobile app support. Mobile means an emulated viewport, not a real device.
• The API surface is large; teams without a conventions document end up with four ways to write the same locator.
• Component testing is still experimental compared to the E2E runner.

• It is headcount, not software — the cost profile is completely different from a licence.
• External team needs deep product context to test meaningfully.
• Fast-moving products can outpace the feedback loop with an external author.

Teams that write their own tests and want the lowest-flake open-source option available.

Funded startups that need coverage now and have no QA hire in the plan.