Playwright has emerged as the most powerful and reliable browser automation tool, offering a streamlined setup process, highly reliable Chrome execution due to direct integration with Chrome DevTools Protocol, comprehensive debugging capabilities, and extensive documentation. In contrast, Selenium's complexity and performance overhead, limited browser support, and lack of deep integration with Chrome's DevTools make it less suitable for modern web automation needs. Puppeteer, while powerful for Chromium-specific automation, has limitations in browser support, language options, and the need for manual waiting patterns. Stagehand, an AI-powered successor to Playwright, offers seamless integration with Browserbase and enables developers to turn their Playwright code into a single line of code, making web automation more accessible to non-technical users and less vulnerable to UI/DOM changes.