Playwright (PDF) vs Puppeteer(2026)
Playwright (PDF) is better for teams that need better maintained than puppeteer. Puppeteer is the stronger choice if free and open source. Playwright (PDF) is open-source (from $0) and Puppeteer is open-source (from $0).
Full feature breakdown, pricing details, and pros & cons below.
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Playwright (PDF)
Playwright by Microsoft supports PDF generation via page.pdf() in Chromium — with better multi-browser support, more reliable test infra, and active maintenance compared to Puppeteer.
Starting at $0
Visit Playwright (PDF)Puppeteer
Puppeteer is Google's Node.js library to control Chrome/Chromium — widely used to generate pixel-perfect PDFs from HTML by launching a headless browser with page.pdf().
Starting at $0
Visit PuppeteerHow Do Playwright (PDF) and Puppeteer Compare on Features?
| Feature | Playwright (PDF) | Puppeteer |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | open-source | open-source |
| Starting price | $0 | $0 |
| PDF export (Chromium) | ✓ | — |
| Cross-browser (Chromium/Firefox/WebKit) | ✓ | — |
| Auto-wait | ✓ | — |
| Network mocking | ✓ | — |
| Page.pdf() API | ✓ | — |
| Headless + headed modes | ✓ | — |
| CI/CD optimized | ✓ | — |
| HTML to PDF | — | ✓ |
| Screenshot capture | — | ✓ |
| Full Chrome control | — | ✓ |
| Headless mode | — | ✓ |
| PDF format options (margin, paper size) | — | ✓ |
| Network interception | — | ✓ |
| CDP protocol | — | ✓ |
Playwright (PDF) Pros and Cons vs Puppeteer
Playwright (PDF)
Puppeteer
Should You Use Playwright (PDF) or Puppeteer?
Choose Playwright (PDF) if…
- •Better maintained than Puppeteer
- •Cross-browser testing bonus
- •Reliable auto-wait
Choose Puppeteer if…
- •Free and open source
- •Pixel-perfect output
- •Full Chrome rendering