Selenium vs. Puppeteer: Which One to Use?

Comparing Puppeteer and Selenium helps you pick the right tool for web automation and testing. Puppeteer came out five years ago and became popular fast because it has great features and works well for many different use cases. On the other hand, Selenium has been around since 2004 and is still a favorite for web automation. It can work with many different programming languages and systems. I’ll take you through a detailed comparison of these two frameworks so you can decide which one suits your needs better.

Main Features and Use Cases

Selenium

Selenium is a testing tool that works with more browsers than just Chrome and Chromium — it also supports Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Microsoft Edge. You can write Selenium scripts in JavaScript, Ruby, C#, Java, or Python, which lets developers run advanced tests in their favorite languages and test various browsers using one tool.

Selenium has extra parts like Selenium WebDriver, Selenium IDE, and Selenium Grid. These add-ons make Selenium even more powerful and help users meet different testing requirements.

Selenium is used for various tasks such as:

• Automation testing.
• Web application testing.
• Web performance testing.
• Performance testing.
• Data scraping (You can learn how to scrape the web using Python in our detailed Selenium tutorial).

Puppeteer

Puppeteer is mainly a Node.js library designed for automated testing. Google developed it to control Chrome and Chromium using the DevTools Protocol.

Unlike Selenium, which works with many programming languages, Puppeteer focuses only on JavaScript. It’s like a remote control for Chrome, offering specific control structures. Puppeteer simplifies testing by concentrating on JavaScript and Chrome, unlike Selenium, which has a broader approach.

Puppeteer is widely used by developers for various tasks:

• Testing Chrome extensions is simplified with Puppeteer.
• It helps take screenshots and create PDFs for UI testing.
• Puppeteer facilitates testing on the newest Chromium versions.
• Manual testing processes like form submissions and keyboard inputs are automated with Puppeteer.
• It is also handy for web scraping tasks, with detailed tutorials available for guidance.

Advantages and Disadvantages

To figure out which tool suits your needs best, it’s crucial to compare the pros and cons of Puppeteer and Selenium. Let’s break down the main advantages and disadvantages of both tools in this section.

Selenium

Advantages:

• Works with many browsers, platforms, and programming languages.
• Includes built-in tools like WebDriver, IDE, and Grid for testing and automation.
• Easily integrates with CI/CD for enhanced capabilities.

Disadvantages:

• Installation can be complicated because it supports multiple platforms, languages, and browsers.
• Doesn’t offer the same performance management features as Puppeteer.
• Learning selenium can be challenging.

Puppeteer

Advantages:

• Uses the DevTools protocol to control Chrome, a widely used browser.
• Puppeteer runs faster because it works with just one browser and one language.
• Requires fewer dependencies since it doesn’t need separate browser drivers.
• Offers performance management tools like screenshots and load performance recording.

Disadvantages:

• Only supports JavaScript for programming.
• Limited to working with the Chrome browser.

Differences in Set Up and Web Scraping

Installation

Setting up Puppeteer and Selenium environments is straightforward. The key difference lies in the required libraries. Puppeteer users can install it with a single npm command. On the other hand, Selenium users must follow language-specific installation instructions.

Selenium

1. npm install selenium-webdriver
2. npm install chromedriver

Puppeteer

1. npm install puppeteer

Browser Control and Web Scraping

Both tools let you control web browsers through code. You can do this to grab dynamic content from a webpage. Let’s compare how to do some key tasks, like starting a headless Chrome browser, navigating to a webpage, waiting for content to load, and scraping it.

We’ll use http://quotes.toscrape.com/js/ for our scraping. It’s a dynamic page where quotes load through JavaScript. The quotes are shown in <DIV> elements, each with a quote class.

Step 1 — Dependencies and setting the target

Selenium:

1. const { Builder, By, Key, until } = require(‘selenium-webdriver’);
2. const chrome = require(‘selenium-webdriver/chrome’);
3. const url = ‘http://quotes.toscrape.com/js/';

Puppeteer:

1. const puppeteer = require(‘puppeteer’);
2. const url = ‘http://quotes.toscrape.com/js/';

Selenium works with different browsers, needing their drivers (like Chrome drivers). Puppeteer already includes Chrome driver, so there’s no need to import it separately.

Step 2 — Starting a headless chrome session and going to the desired URL

Selenium:

1. let driver = await new Builder().forBrowser(‘chrome’) .setChromeOptions(new chrome.Options().headless()).build();
2. await driver.get(url);

Puppeteer:

1. const headlessBrowser = await puppeteer.launch({ headless: true });
2. const newTab = await headlessBrowser.newPage();
3. await newTab.goto(url);

Puppeteer launches the browser using the awaitable launch() method. Then, it creates a new browser tab using the newPage() method. Afterward, the tab can navigate any URL using the goto() method.

In contrast, Selenium uses the Builder() constructor to make a new Builder instance, followed by specific options. Finally, the build() method generates and returns a new instance of the webdriver session.

Remember, you need to put awaitable calls inside an asynchronous function.

Step 3 — Waiting for dynamic content to load.

Now, let’s compare how Puppeteer and Selenium handle waiting for specific JavaScript content to load. The code below demonstrates waiting for a <Div> element with the quote class to load.

Selenium:

1. await driver.wait(until.elementLocated(By.className(‘quote’)));

Puppeteer:

1. await newTab.waitForSelector(‘.quote’);

In Puppeteer, you use the waitForSelector() method to wait for a specific element to load. Meanwhile, in Selenium, you use the wait() method and the until property to achieve the same waiting behavior.

Step 4 — Scraping the quotes

In Puppeteer, you employ the querySelectorAll() method to choose and get a list of all the matching elements based on the provided CSS selectors. Conversely, Selenium offers the findElements() method to retrieve the pertinent elements that match the specified By selectors.

Selenium:

let quotes = await driver.findElements(By.className('quote'));
let quotesString = "";
for (let quote of quotes) {
let qouteText = await quote.findElement(By.className('text')). getText();
quotesString += `${qouteText} \n`;
}
console.log(quotesString);

Puppeteer:

let quotes = await newTab.evaluate(() => {
let allQuoteDivs = document.querySelectorAll(".quote");
let quotesString= "";
allQuoteDivs.forEach((quote) => {
let qouteText = quote.querySelector(".text").innerHTML;
quotesString += `${qouteText} \n`;
});
return quotesString;
});
console.log(quotes);

The evaluate() method in Puppeteer enables running a function within the current page context. This lets you interact with and modify elements in the current page’s Document Object Model (DOM). Ultimately, you can return a value from the function, like the quotesString in this case.

Step #5 — Closing the browser

Puppeteer has the close() method for shutting down the browser instance, whereas Selenium offers the quit() method to exit the browser instance and terminate the driver session.

Selenium:

1. await driver.quit();

Puppeteer:

1. headlessBrowser.close();

Puppeteer vs. Selenium: Which Is Better in 2025

Puppeteer and Selenium are two popular tools for automating web browsers, but they have some key differences. Here’s a breakdown:

Which One Should You Choose?

Choosing between Puppeteer and Selenium depends on your specific needs. If you mainly work with Chrome, Puppeteer is the best option. Its easy-to-use features give you great control over the browser, making test setup efficient. Plus, Puppeteer is more focused on web automation, which is handy for tasks like web crawling and scraping.

However, if you need to work with different browsers and programming languages, go for Selenium. Its WebDriver offers support for various browsers, allowing direct interaction. This broadens your testing possibilities without needing extra tools. I’ve found Selenium especially useful when cross-browser compatibility is crucial. So, consider your requirements carefully before deciding which tool best fits your needs.

Final Words

In this article, I’ve compared two of the most popular automation frameworks: Puppeteer and Selenium. Each has unique features and advantages. My aim is to help you identify your specific project requirements and select the most suitable tool.

If you’re unsure which tool to use for your data collection project, explore my other comparisons of web scraping tools. I also offer an overview of top antidetect browsers to aid decision-making.

Consider trying advanced web scraping solutions, which come with built-in features to streamline the process. Whether you’re collecting data or testing websites, there are many tools to enhance efficiency!