playwright node js or playwright python?

I want to first thank you for posting this lol. Because I have asked the same question myself. I initially dove hard into playwright python and created a whole suite of tests. And after looking deeper I have now transitioned over to node.js.

What is nice with node.js is that there are already a lot of things built into playwright for visual comparisons and accessibility stuff and built in slack reporters for ci/cd's and more often than not, developers can easily update/fix tests, it is though a bit of a learning curve.
Python is making a comeback and is very versatile and easy to pickup but you will be going outside of playwright to setup and configure tests and slack integrations and such.

I posted this on the playwright slack channel, but would love to hear other peoples opinions!

Thanks a lot Ian for your response, deeply appreciated. Completely agree that there is learning curve in node-js version. But on the other hand setting up time for python version and is very less and easy to onboard in terms of automation framework

what were your core reasons to shift from py to node-js version? Asking because I am new bee in node-js and experienced in python. But on other hand my team mate is opposite, so we are not able to decide what to choose

I believe it was these: -Visual comparison tool (https://playwright.dev/docs/test-snapshots) which was like a critical element check for python but easier to set up. -Accessibility testing -Developers(on my team) able to assist with issues/questions -I don't see a lot of python users on discord and a ton of node.js(So help is more accessible) -Playwright had a lot more functions to help with network waits and element waiting(waitForResponse, waitForSelector) (And a few others that may come to mind later)

-I don't see a lot of python users on discord and a ton of node.js(So help is more accessible) This is also kind of a what I observe. While working currently with Python. Whatever issue I try to solve or whatever question I have, all the information I see quite often Node.js related. So it seems like Node community for Playwright is way bigger than the Python one, hence you can expect more support. Also, in case you choose Node you will develop new skill as you said, but your co-worker won't, which makes you more valuable at the market 😆

I think its also important to be aware of where you are creating your test suite. If you are mainly writing tests for a typescript/javascript application then I think it also makes sense to have your automation framework in that same language. It simplifies things, and also allows others to contribute a little easier than having them also learn python.

I say this also from the perspective of having a typescript application with our current legacy suite being written in python. It just adds extra complexity on running and having specific python requirements installed. Just my two cents though 🙂

⏫ Definitely a thing to be considered