What popular tools are used for E2E testing of frontend applications?

Popular tools for frontend E2E testing (in detail):

#1) Playwright

• Browsers: Chromium, Firefox, WebKit out of the box (headed/headless).
• Features: auto-waiting, isolated contexts, tracing (video, screenshots, HAR, step-by-step replay), parallel workers.
• Locators: getByRole, getByText, locator() with visibility filters, etc.
• Languages: TS/JS, Python, Java, .NET.
• Pros: high stability, good cross-browser support, fast runner.
• Cons: the ecosystem is younger than Selenium's, but already mature.

#2) Cypress

• Browsers: the Chromium family + Firefox (no WebKit).
• Features: interactive Test Runner, DOM snapshots, time travel, network stubs via cy.intercept, fast local debugging.
• Locators: standard CSS/XPath, with a cypress-testing-library plugin available.
• Languages: JS/TS.
• Pros: fast development cycle, visual debugging, strong DX.
• Cons: limited cross-browser support, architectural quirks of the command queue.

#3) Selenium (WebDriver)

• Browsers: all major ones (Chrome, Firefox, Safari/WebKit, Edge), mobile via Appium.
• Features: the de facto standard, grids/farms, integrations with cloud providers.
• Locators: CSS/XPath, ByRole via helper libraries.
• Languages: Java, Python, C#, JS, Ruby, and others.
• Pros: maturity, compatibility, infrastructure flexibility.
• Cons: more "glue code," harder to stabilize and debug compared to modern runners.

#4) WebdriverIO

• Browsers: via WebDriver and the DevTools protocol; mobile is also possible (Appium).
• Features: its own test runner, waits, a rich plugin ecosystem (Allure, Cucumber, component adapters).
• Locators: standard + convenient helpers, compatible with Testing Library.
• Languages: JS/TS.
• Pros: versatility (WebDriver/DevTools), good integration with reporters/BDD.
• Cons: requires stack setup, a steeper learning curve than Cypress.

#5) Puppeteer

• Browsers: mainly Chromium/Chrome (forks for Firefox exist, but with limitations).
• Features: low-level control via DevTools, a fast start for scraping/automation.
• Locators: CSS, manual waits or utilities.
• Languages: JS/TS (officially).
• Pros: speed and direct access to the protocol, a simple API.
• Cons: not an out-of-the-box E2E test runner, less cross-browser support.

#6) TestCafe

• Browsers: Chrome/Chromium, Firefox, Safari, Edge; no drivers needed.
• Features: an isolated environment, auto-waiting, parallel runs, simple setup.
• Languages: JS/TS.
• Pros: minimal configuration, stable waits.
• Cons: a less popular ecosystem compared to Playwright/Cypress.

#7) Nightwatch

• Browsers: via WebDriver and/or DevTools; mobile support (Appium).
• Features: a built-in runner, assertions, reporters, flexible configuration.
• Languages: JS/TS.
• Pros: a single "all-in-one" framework on top of WebDriver/DevTools.
• Cons: less commonly found in new projects than the leaders.

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#Brief comparison across key dimensions

• Cross-browser support "out of the box": Playwright, Selenium/WebDriver.
• Fast local debugging and DX: Cypress, Playwright.
• Minimal boilerplate: Cypress, TestCafe, Playwright.
• Broad language support: Selenium, Playwright.
• Flexible infrastructure/grids/clouds: Selenium/WebDriver, WebdriverIO.
• Low-level control for automation outside of tests: Puppeteer.