Comparison
Regresco vs Playwright Cloud
A straight answer about Microsoft Playwright Testing and Regresco. We use Playwright under the hood ourselves, so this isn't a hit piece. It's where the two tools actually overlap and where they don't.
The short version
Playwright Cloud if you already have a Playwright suite and want it run at scale. Regresco if you want regression coverage without writing the suite first.
Both run real browser tests in the cloud. The difference is who's writing the tests and who's deciding what failed.
A note on names
"Playwright Cloud" is the shorthand most people use. The official product is Microsoft Playwright Testing, in preview on Azure. We'll use both names interchangeably below. Either way, it's Microsoft's managed-execution layer on top of the open-source Playwright framework.
Why we built this in the first place
Playwright is a great framework. We use it. The pattern we kept seeing was small SaaS teams adopting Playwright, writing 30 or 40 tests in a sprint, and then watching the suite drift over the next six months while feature work took priority. Microsoft Playwright Testing solves the execution side beautifully. It doesn't solve the authoring or maintenance side, because that's not what it's for.
Regresco picks up where the suite would have been. You point it at a staging URL, define five or ten flows in a UI (or generate them from a crawl), and the platform handles selectors, baselines, classification, and auto-heal. No .spec.ts files to maintain, no fixtures to refactor when the login form changes.
The side-by-side
Only the things that actually matter when a small team is picking a tool:
| Regresco | Playwright Cloud | |
|---|---|---|
| No-code flow definition | ||
| AI flow generation from site crawl | ||
| Import existing Playwright .spec.ts | native | |
| Managed cloud runners | ||
| Full Playwright API (fixtures, custom JS, network mocks) | ||
| Cross-browser (Chromium + Firefox + WebKit) | ||
| Lives in your repo | ||
| Baseline comparison across runs | ||
| Failure classification (regression / broken / flaky) | ||
| Auto-heal broken selectors at runtime | ||
| Per-step screenshots | ||
| Trace Viewer with timeline scrubbing | ||
| Scheduled runs (daily/weekly) | via Azure | |
| CI/CD webhook trigger | ||
| Email notifications on completion | ||
| Microsoft Entra ID / Azure integration |
"Native" means the feature is the product's primary use case. "Via Azure" means you wire it through Azure DevOps or a separate Azure service.
What you'll pay
Regresco
Flat monthly price. Compute included.
- Free: $0 for 5 runs a month, 1 project
- Pro: $49/month for 200 runs, 20 projects
- Business: $149/month for 1000 runs, 100 projects, priority queue
Every feature works on every tier. Only the limits and queue priority change.
Playwright Cloud
Per test-minute on Azure.
- Framework: free and open source
- Microsoft Playwright Testing: metered, billed via Azure subscription
- Self-hosted Playwright in your CI: free, you pay your CI compute
Check learn.microsoft.com/azure/playwright-testing for the current per-minute rate.
When Playwright Cloud is the right call
Pick Microsoft Playwright Testing if any of these describe you:
- You already have a working Playwright suite and just need parallel execution at scale
- Cross-browser coverage on Firefox and WebKit is non-negotiable for your release process
- You write tests with fixtures, custom matchers, network interception, or any Playwright API your team relies on
- You're already paying for Azure and want the billing in one place
- Your team treats Trace Viewer as a primary debugging tool
- You have an engineer who owns the test suite as part of their job
When Regresco is the right call
Pick Regresco if any of these describe you:
- You're 5 to 50 engineers shipping weekly or biweekly with no dedicated QA engineer
- You don't have a Playwright suite and don't want to build one from scratch
- You want managed runs with predictable flat pricing instead of per-minute Azure metering
- Chromium-only is fine for your regression coverage today
- You want failures classified for you (regression vs flaky vs broken locator) so triage doesn't fall on whoever's on call
- You'd rather a non-engineer (PM, support, founder) define a flow than wait on engineering to write a test
Where we fall short
Microsoft is one of the biggest software companies on earth. We're a small team. Pretending we match them everywhere would be insulting. Where Playwright Cloud beats us:
Cross-browser coverage.
Regresco runs Chromium. That's it. Microsoft Playwright Testing runs Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit (Safari engine) on managed pools. If your customers hit you on all three and you've been bitten by browser-specific regressions, that's a real reason to pick them.
Trace Viewer.
Playwright's Trace Viewer is the best post-mortem tool we've used in any browser-testing product. Timeline scrubbing, network panel, console panel, DOM snapshots at every step. We have per-step screenshots, console capture, and Sentry integration, and that covers most failures we see. It is not Trace Viewer.
Code-level power.
Regresco flows are five step types: navigate, click, fill, assert, and API. That covers most critical user paths. It does not cover a test that needs a JavaScript expression, a custom retry strategy, a network mock, or a complex fixture. Playwright Cloud gives you the full TypeScript API. Anything Playwright can express, you can run there.
Ecosystem.
Playwright launched in 2020 and has had explosive adoption. There's a vast plugin and tutorial ecosystem, integrations with every CI provider, and answers to almost every question on Stack Overflow. Regresco is new. If a mature ecosystem is part of your decision, that's a fair point against us.
Questions we get a lot
Is Regresco a Playwright Cloud alternative?
For some teams, yes. Microsoft Playwright Testing executes the Playwright tests you've already written on managed browsers. Regresco runs regression flows you build in a UI (or import from a .spec.ts), classifies the failures, and compares each run to the previous one. If you already have a Playwright suite and just need scale, Playwright Cloud is the closer fit. If you want regression coverage without owning the test code, that's where we come in.
Can I use my existing Playwright tests with Regresco?
Yes. Paste a .spec.ts file into the import page and Regresco parses navigate, click, fill, assert, and request.get/post/put/delete calls into flows. Custom JavaScript inside test bodies isn't carried over — we cover the actions, not arbitrary code. Most CRUD-style E2E tests import cleanly. Tests that lean on fixtures, page object methods, or expect chains with custom matchers won't.
What does Regresco do that Playwright Cloud doesn't?
AI flow generation from a site crawl, baseline comparison against the previous run, failure classification (regression vs broken locator vs flaky), auto-heal for broken selectors, and a no-code editor your non-engineers can use. Playwright Cloud is excellent at running Playwright tests. It doesn't replace the work of writing and maintaining them.
What does Playwright Cloud do better than Regresco?
Three things. Cross-browser: it runs against Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit. We're Chromium-only. Code: you have the full Playwright API, fixtures, custom retry logic, network interception, anything you can write in TypeScript. Trace Viewer: Microsoft's trace UI is genuinely the best in the industry, and it ships natively. We have screenshots, console capture, and per-step error context, but no equivalent timeline scrubbing.
What's the pricing difference?
Regresco is flat: $0 free, $49/month Pro, $149/month Business, with run counts you can predict. Microsoft Playwright Testing is metered by test minute on Azure, so the bill scales with how long your suite runs. Predictable for steady workloads, less so when the suite balloons. Check learn.microsoft.com for the current per-minute rate.
Do I need an Azure account to use Playwright Cloud?
Yes. Microsoft Playwright Testing runs in Azure and bills through your Azure subscription. If you don't already have one, you'll set up Entra ID, Azure billing, and Workspace configuration before your first run. Regresco is a regular SaaS signup with email or Google.
Other comparisons
- Regresco vs Cypress — code-first framework vs managed regression service
Try it on your staging URL
Free plan is 5 runs a month. No credit card. Point it at your staging URL and you'll see a regression pass in under 10 minutes. If it fits your team, upgrade. If it doesn't, no hard feelings.