Choose your cross-browser test list from the browsers, operating systems, and devices your product promises to support—and from evidence about who uses it. Start with Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit as a practical automated baseline, then add branded browsers, versions, and real devices when your users, commitments, or technical risks justify them. No single browser list fits every product.
Which browsers should I test?
Begin with the support policy you actually offer, not a global browser-share chart. Your list should reflect active users and important journeys, contractual or procurement requirements, accessibility or regulatory commitments, support history, and the differences that can affect your product.
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For automated testing, Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit are a useful starting point. Playwright’s default browser projects cover those three engines, but that baseline is not a guarantee that three projects cover every customer or browser behavior you need to support. See Playwright’s browser documentation and project configuration documentation.
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#1 Best Overall
Build the matrix from user needs and risk
- Write down your support promise. Record the browser, OS, and device combinations named in your public policy, customer contracts, procurement requirements, or other commitments.
- Review first-party evidence. Use product analytics and support tickets to identify the environments and journeys that matter. A single global market-share table does not tell you which environments your customers use or which journeys matter most.
- Map combinations to engines and platforms. Use Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit as the initial automation baseline when your framework supports them. Add an environment when it brings a meaningful rendering engine, OS integration, input method, policy, feature behavior, or known defect into scope.
- Add branded browsers selectively. Chromium is not always a complete stand-in for branded Chrome or Microsoft Edge. Include the branded channel when current-browser regressions, enterprise policies, codec-sensitive media, or an explicit support requirement makes its behavior relevant.
- Choose mobile combinations, not a generic “mobile” box. Consider device, OS version, browser, viewport, and input behavior. Emulated mobile and tablet profiles help with some checks; use real devices when the product risk or user need depends on actual hardware and OS behavior.
- Set a version policy. Use current stable versions for routine regression. A beta or upcoming channel can provide early warning before a public browser release. Keep older versions in the matrix when real audience evidence or a support commitment calls for them.
- Prioritize high-impact journeys. Give attention to paths such as authentication, checkout or payment, file upload and download, media, complex CSS, browser APIs, and known defect reproductions when they apply to your application.
- Revisit the matrix. Update it as usage, support patterns, commitments, and product risks change.
Decide what belongs in every run
More projects increase execution time and maintenance. Keep blocking pull-request coverage focused on the environments and journeys where a failure would have the greatest impact. Run broader coverage on a schedule, before a major release, or when a change touches browser-sensitive code.
Playwright projects let teams configure the same tests across multiple browsers or configurations and select which project to run. Keep the configuration aligned with your support policy, and review the Playwright projects documentation for current project behavior.
Rank #2
| Decision factor | Question to answer |
|---|---|
| User reach | Which active users and important journeys depend on this browser, OS, or device? Which geographies are represented? |
| Support promise | Is the combination required by policy, contract, procurement, or a public commitment? |
| Technical difference | Does it add a distinct engine, OS integration, rendering behavior, input method, or browser policy? |
| Feature or failure risk | Does the product rely on codecs, browser APIs, complex layout, extensions, authentication, or behavior that varies by environment? Is there a known defect? |
| Device fidelity | Is emulation sufficient, or does the use case require a real phone or tablet and a specific OS version? |
| Execution cost | How much runtime, grid capacity, and maintenance does it add? Does it need to block every change? |
| Tool availability | Can you run this exact browser, OS, and device combination locally, in CI, or on a hosted grid? |
Use Playwright to run a practical baseline
Playwright supports Chromium, Firefox, WebKit, branded Chrome and Microsoft Edge, and emulated tablet and mobile devices. Its browser documentation recommends keeping Playwright current so you can use newer features and test newer browser versions, helping catch failures before those versions reach the public. See Playwright browser support.
For an existing Playwright Test project, run its configured browser projects with:
npx playwright test
To select a configured project, use:
npx playwright test --project=chromium
Use the project name defined in your configuration; it need not be chromium. A baseline might define Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit projects, while additional projects can target branded channels or configurations that your Playwright setup supports. Consult the live documentation before relying on specific browser versions or channel behavior.
When local testing is not enough
Local automation and emulation are useful, but they do not provide every real device and OS combination. If your required matrix includes environments you cannot access locally, a hosted browser grid is one option. For example, BrowserStack documents browser and OS choices for Playwright. Check the provider’s current matrix before committing to exact combinations: available versions and selectors can change.
Rank #4
- Used Book in Good Condition
BrowserStack’s documentation describes version selectors such as latest and latest-1 for relevant branded browsers. Its real-device documentation also warns that a Chrome for Testing request on a real mobile device may fall back to regular mobile Chrome, so verify the environment actually returned. See BrowserStack’s browser and device selection documentation.
Or skip the browser setup
For a screenshot check, ScreenshotNeo takes a screenshot with one GET request; it is a screenshot API, not a replacement for running your full cross-browser test suite. Cookie banners, popups, and chat widgets are removed before capture. Bot checks, blank pages, and failed loads are never billed, and an MCP server lets AI agents take screenshots.
cURL:
curl -G "https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot" -d access_key=YOUR_API_KEY --data-urlencode url=https://example.com -o shot.webp
Best Value
See the ScreenshotNeo API documentation for setup and options. The free plan includes 1,000 screenshots a month with no card; paid plans start at $5 for 3,000. Sign up for free.
Quick Recap
Common matrix mistakes
- Treating an engine as every branded browser. Chromium is a useful engine baseline, but add branded Chrome or Edge where their policies, channels, or media behavior matter.
- Calling emulation real-device coverage. Emulated profiles do not answer every question about actual hardware and OS behavior. Use real devices for combinations where that fidelity matters.
- Pinning versions without a support reason. Include older versions only when audience evidence or an explicit commitment supports the cost. Check live provider matrices before depending on a version or device combination.
- Running the broadest matrix on every change. Keep high-impact coverage blocking and schedule or selectively trigger wider projects to manage runtime and maintenance.
- Assuming a requested environment ran as requested. Hosted grids can have specific fallback behavior; inspect the returned environment, especially for mobile browser requests.
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