Playwright provides the ability to automate browser tasks in Chromium, Firefox and WebKit[6] with a single API.

It supports all modern web features including network interception and multiple browser contexts and provides automatic waiting, which reduces the flakiness of tests.

[11] It was developed to address the need for a unified API for cross-browser testing and to overcome limitations in existing tools like Puppeteer and Selenium.

[12] Playwright introduced features like automatic waits, multi-browser support, and network interception, making it a powerful tool for modern web testing.

Its development was largely based on the need to have a specialized runner that can leverage the full potential of the Playwright API and make end-to-end testing more robust and straightforward.