Why Browser Automation?
Static scrapers (BeautifulSoup, Scrapy) fail on SPAs and sites that load content via JavaScript. Browser automation tools render the full page just like a real user would.
Playwright Wins on Speed
Playwright is 2-3x faster than Selenium in most scenarios, supports async/await natively, and has a cleaner API. For new projects, Playwright is almost always the better choice.
Selenium's Strengths
Selenium has a larger ecosystem, more community resources, and better compatibility with legacy test suites. If your team already knows Selenium, the migration cost may not be worth it.
Anti-Bot Handling
Both tools can be detected. Use playwright-stealth, randomised delays, residential proxies, and realistic user-agent rotation to stay under the radar.
Production Setup
Run browser automation inside Docker with a headless Chromium image, schedule with Celery Beat, and store results in PostgreSQL with change detection.
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