Playwright vs Selenium: Which is Best for Scraping in 2026?

The Quick Verdict

1. Speed and Performance

Playwright connects directly to the browser protocol (CDP for Chrome), whereas Selenium sends commands via an HTTP WebDriver server. This makes Playwright significantly faster and less flaky.

In our tests rotating 100 Residential IPs:

• Playwright: 15.2 seconds avg load time.
• Selenium: 22.4 seconds avg load time.

2. Proxy Integration (The Important Part)

If you are scraping at scale, you need to rotate proxies. Here is how both handle it.

from playwright.sync_api import sync_playwright

def run():
  with sync_playwright() as p:
    # Native Proxy Object
    browser = p.chromium.launch(
      proxy={
        "server": "<GATEWAY_HOST>:7777",
        "username": "user",
        "password": "pass"
      }
    )
    page = browser.new_page()
    page.goto("https://httpbin.org/ip")
    print(page.content())
    browser.close()

from selenium import webdriver

options = webdriver.ChromeOptions()

# Selenium doesn't support auth easily
# You often need 'selenium-wire'
proxy = "http://user:pass@<HOST>:7777"
options.add_argument(
    f'--proxy-server={proxy}'
)

driver = webdriver.Chrome(options=options)
driver.get("https://httpbin.org/ip")
print(driver.page_source)
driver.quit()

*Playwright supports authenticated proxies out of the box. Selenium often requires extra plugins (like selenium-wire) or complex extensions just to handle username/password authentication.

3. Anti-Detect & Stealth

Websites can detect bots by checking browser fingerprints.

Selenium is notorious for its navigator.webdriver = true flag, which screams "I am a bot". You need packages like undetected-chromedriver to hide it, which breaks often.

Playwright is stealthier by default, and with the playwright-stealth plugin, it is extremely hard to distinguish from a real user, especially when combined with our High Quality Residential IPs.

Comparison Table

Conclusion

If you are starting a new scraping project in 2026, use Playwright. It is faster, handles modern web apps better, and integrates with proxies effortlessly.

However, the library you choose matters less than the IP address you use. Even the best Playwright script will get blocked if you use cheap datacenter IPs that are already flagged.