--- title: "Cypress vs Playwright; Browser Included" url: https://daily.dev/posts/cypress-vs-playwright-browser-included-znxsw5dqp source_url: https://glebbahmutov.com/blog/cy-vs-pw-browser type: article source: "Gleb Bahmutov" published: 2026-05-31T07:53:42.209Z updated: 2026-05-31T09:13:03.420Z tags: ["testing", "cypress"] reading_time: 5 upvotes: 0 comments: 0 language: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Cypress vs Playwright; Browser Included **[Gleb Bahmutov](https://daily.dev/sources/glebbahmutov)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A hands-on comparison of how Cypress and Playwright differ in browser access during test development. Cypress runs tests inside a real browser with the app in an iframe, sharing the JavaScript event loop — meaning pausing app code also pauses the test and vice versa. Playwright, by contrast, shows DOM snapshots in its UI mode rather than a live browser, and runs the test runner and app as separate processes, so pausing one does not pause the other. Both tools offer step-through debugging via page.pause and cy.pause, but the shared event loop in Cypress provides a tighter debugging experience when inspecting live application state. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Selenium vs Cypress vs Playwright: Choosing Your Test Automation Framework](https://daily.dev/posts/selenium-vs-cypress-vs-playwright-choosing-your-test-automation-framework-3uxew2qph) · Stack Overflow Blog · 4 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#testing](https://daily.dev/tags/testing), [#cypress](https://daily.dev/tags/cypress) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/cypress-vs-playwright-browser-included-znxsw5dqp)