Visual Testing with Applitools and Playwright | 2025 Guide
A quality assurance activity aimed to verify GUI appears correctly to the user, this goes beyond traditional functional testing that we do, where we actually test functionality.
Check characteristics (layout, color, shape, position, hide, overlap) of each element on the web page.
Why is visual testing crucial?
Because functional tests like Selenium or Playwright tell you if a button works, but not if it’s visible, properly aligned, or styled correctly.. Visual bugs can break the user experience even if all functionalities pass.
Applitools
- AI powered visual testing and monitoring tool
- Support various test tools/frameworks and languages
Selenium, Cypress, Appium, Perfecto
JAVA, C#, JS, Python, Ruby
- Less code to write, Less code to maintain
- Handles dynamic content
- Handles shifting content
- Experience rapid testing on all browsers and devices with second-level screen validation.
Why Combine Applitools with Playwright?
Playwright, developed by Microsoft, is a cutting-edge end-to-end testing framework that enables cross-browser testing, supports multiple programming languages, and ensures fast and efficient test execution.But despite being robust for functional tests, it lacks advanced capabilities to test what your users actually see the visual experience.
It’s the power of Applitools Eyes.The smallest visual discrepancies across different browsers and devices can be applied by AI for detection to ensure your flawless UI throughout.
Key Benefits of Integration:
- Catch visual bugs early.
- Reduce flaky tests.
- Validate responsiveness and design consistency.
- Scale UI testing across environments effortlessly.
Setting Up Applitools with Playwright
Step 1: Node.js should be installed in the system.
Step 2: Install Playwright — By using command
npm init playwright@latest
Step 3: Install the Applitool Eyes SDK — By using command
npm install -D @applitools/eyes-playwright
Step 4: Used Applitools API Key as in global variable
` export APPLITOOLS_API_KEY=<your-api-key>
Step 5: Initialize Eyes for using inbuilt functions
First Test case :
Advantages of Applitools
- Uses AI to detect real visual bugs.
- Smooth integration with major test frameworks.
- Supports various browsers and various device testing.
- A visual dashboard to review, approve, or reject UI change provided easily.
- In pipelines CI/CD tools can identify visual bugs by integration.(Only for paid version)
Disadvantages of Applitools
- The free plan is limited and not suitable for large-scale use.
- Requires the internet as it uploads screenshots to the Applitools cloud.
Related Blog
Originally published at https://www.devstringx.com/visual-testing-with-applitools-and-playwright on July 21, 2025
