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Selenium and Puppeteer, which is Better?

Ava Wilson
Ava Wilson

Expert in Web Scraping Technologies

20-Sep-2024

Two popular open-source frameworks that automate browser interactions and facilitate the extraction of massive volumes of data are Puppeteer and Selenium. While Selenium functions by accepting orders and relaying them to a browser so it can interact with online applications, Puppeteer works by intercepting and transforming Chrome's network requests into commands for the web engine.

To assist you in determining which of these two technologies is most appropriate for your use case, this article will examine their primary distinctions.

Puppeteer: What Is It?

An open source Node.js library called Puppeteer is intended to be used mainly with the Chrome or Chromium browsers, but it can also support other browsers that are compatible with this protocol. Automated testing, page screenshots, PDF creation, Chrome extension testing, search engine optimization (SEO) content rendering, and web scraping are just a few of the many tasks that have been accomplished with Puppeteer.

Selenium: What Is It?

The main purpose of the open-source Selenium framework is to automate web application testing. In order to replicate authentic user interactions while testing, it makes advantage of the WebDriver protocol. using the use of technologies like the Selenium IDE, Selenium WebDriver, and Selenium Grid, complex web application scenarios may be automated using Selenium.

Key Distinctions Between Selenium and Puppeteer

Now that you have a better understanding of each tool on its own, let's compare them using the following criteria:

Browser Support

Brave and the more widely used Chrome are two examples of Chromium-based browsers that are intended to function with Puppeteer. You may now directly access sophisticated Chromium browser capabilities and APIs thanks to this. Furthermore, because of its Chromium integration, it is quite compliant with web standards, which means that test scripts will behave consistently in various situations. It's crucial to remember that it is incompatible with both Firefox and Safari and has restricted functionality and support for other browsers.

On the other hand, Selenium supports a number of browsers, such as Edge, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. More thorough testing scenarios and wider coverage are ensured by doing this. This adaptability can present problems, too, as different browsers read and display online material in different ways. As a result, it takes more time and work to achieve consistent synchronization across multiple browsers.

Ecosystem

The Puppeteer ecosystem is expanding quickly, as seen by the fact that developers are using it more frequently—from 27% in 2019 to 37% in 2021. During the previous two years, it has also had a 101 percent growth in downloads, with 5.6 million downloads at this time. However, it trails behind the more experienced Selenium, which was introduced in 2004, considering that it only entered the market in 2018.

A wide range of frameworks and tools for web automation are available from Selenium. For example, Selenium Grid facilitates the running of tests in parallel on numerous machines, and the recording and playback capability of the Selenium IDE accelerates the development and execution of tests. Additionally, Selenium provides tool integrations and plugins that increase its usefulness and capability in a range of contexts. This reinforces its standing as the go-to option for comprehensive testing solutions.

Language Support

Puppeteer is a natural choice for developers working with Node.js and JavaScript environments because it was primarily intended for such environments. It is useful for efficiently engaging with dynamic web pages and pre-rendering content for JavaScript-heavy websites to display their final state because it can run JavaScript within web pages as well.
Java, Python, C#, Ruby, and JavaScript are only a few of the programming languages that Selenium supports, in comparison. Its ease of integration into diverse development and testing environments further broadens its appeal to a variety of developer groups.

Use Cases

Selenium and Puppeteer are two potent technologies that are frequently used for web scraping for a variety of purposes.

Puppeteer's high-level control over the Chromium or Chrome browsers makes it ideal for activities requiring a deep integration with the functionality of the browser. This includes creating web page screenshots or PDFs, extracting dynamic information from single-page applications (SPAs), and creating SEO-optimized content for websites with a lot of JavaScript. It is the best option for extracting data from online applications that mainly rely on client-side scripting since it can run JavaScript on the page.

Conversely, Selenium performs best in situations when cross-browser compatibility is crucial. For scraping data from websites that need to be evaluated in several browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge, this is the recommended tool. Selenium is useful for automating the gathering of data from interactive web sites because of its strong WebDriver protocol, which guarantees realistic user interactions. This might involve gathering big datasets from several online apps for market research or analysis, scraping user-generated information, and keeping an eye on developments on e-commerce or real estate websites.

Complexity of Selenium Setup vs. Puppeteer

Chromium is pre-installed with Puppeteer, thus no additional driver installation is required. But configuring it and incorporating it into current processes necessitates a solid understanding of the environments and dependencies of Node.js and JavaScript.

However, Puppeteer is easier to set up than Selenium. Installing the Selenium library and driver(s) for different browsers and ensuring compatibility across them is a necessary step in the Selenium process, which can be difficult and demanding, particularly for new users. Additionally, this may make it challenging to integrate Selenium with current development environments and projects.

Speed and Resource Usage

Because Puppeteer optimizes its resources, it is frequently seen as speedier and more efficient, particularly when operating without a head. But Puppeteer comes with the whole Chromium browser, which makes for a big footprint when you install it. Installs become slower as a result, and occasionally this degrades system performance altogether, especially when several instances are operating in a setting with limited resources.

Comparatively speaking, Selenium can be slower and utilize more resources than Puppeteer. This is partly due to the extra overhead that comes with using WebDrivers for browser instance communication. This can use up a lot of system resources and cause performance overheads, coupled with the actual running of Selenium tests in various browsers.

Additionally, you should maintain your scripts on a regular basis, especially if your website has dynamic features with elements whose behaviors vary often. This can increase the time required for maintenance and be labor-intensive.

Community and Documentation

The Google-maintained Puppeteer has a growing user base and good documentation, but Selenium has a large and vibrant community that actively contributes to new feature development; this community is well-established, with user forums, third-party tutorials, and extensive documentation that makes it easier for new users to learn and troubleshoot issues. Selenium has a significant advantage over Puppeteer.

Cross-Browser Testing

Puppeteer is not suited for cross-browser testing due to its restrictions to Chromium-based browsers. Although Puppeteer provides browser extensions, it is not as feature-rich and comprehensive as Selenium. This makes it harder to do cross-browser testing and increases the likelihood that browser-specific bugs may be missed by developers, leading to testing scenarios that don't fairly represent the variety of real-world user experiences.

Selenium offers superior out-of-the-box support for parallel testing across many platforms and devices and is the best option for cross-browser testing due to its broad browser compatibility. Because of this, Selenium is the recommended option for guaranteeing compatibility and functional consistency across various online contexts.

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Conclusion

You have contrasted Puppeteer and Selenium, two well-liked web automation technologies, in this post.

Puppeteer is perfect for settings centered around JavaScript and quick development since it is geared for Chromium-based browser compatibility and offers a simpler setup process. Selenium, on the other hand, is more suitable for intricate cross-browser testing because of its wide range of browser compatibility and multi-language support.

Puppeteer provides the quick and effective testing for Chromium browsers that you want. However, Selenium is a superior choice if you wish to test across a range of online environments and applications, spanning various browsers and programming languages.

At Scrapeless, we only access publicly available data while strictly complying with applicable laws, regulations, and website privacy policies. The content in this blog is for demonstration purposes only and does not involve any illegal or infringing activities. We make no guarantees and disclaim all liability for the use of information from this blog or third-party links. Before engaging in any scraping activities, consult your legal advisor and review the target website's terms of service or obtain the necessary permissions.

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