Katalon
Depends
Confidence: Medium
Buy if your QA team needs unified test automation plus test management and can absorb per-node CI fees.
Comparison
Katalon vs Playwright
Katalon lands on Depends, and Playwright lands on Worth it.
Playwright
Worth it
Confidence: Medium
Buy if your team writes code: Playwright is free, open source, and repeatedly cited as the default modern E2E testing framework.
| Compare | Katalon | Playwright |
|---|---|---|
| Verdict | Depends | Worth it |
| Best for | QA teams automating web, mobile, API, desktop | Dev teams shipping web apps |
| Who it's not for | Solo devs doing simple smoke tests . Selenium IDE is free | Teams with zero developers |
| Privacy | No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.² | No known public vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed. |
| Support quality | Reviewers praise responsive support and active community. | No support evidence in sources |
| Public sentiment | Feedback is split: beginners praise the templates, support, and community, while experienced testers sometimes leave for plain-code frameworks.10 | Third-party reviewers consistently describe Playwright as fast, reliable, and increasingly the default E2E framework, though direct user quotes are scarce. |
| Biggest gotcha | Runtime Engine for CI/parallel runs is paid per node; 5 engineers plus 2 nodes modeled at $7,200-$9,600/yr.⁴ | Framework is free, but scaled parallel runs route through Azure's pay-as-you-go Playwright Testing service. |
Pick Katalon when
- QA teams automating web, mobile, API, desktop
- Low-code testers with light coding skills
- Teams wanting management and execution in one tool
- Jira shops open to AI-written test cases
When Katalon is not a fit
- Solo devs doing simple smoke tests . Selenium IDE is free
- Code-first teams happier in Playwright or in-house frameworks
- Small teams that can't absorb per-node CI execution fees
- Buyers needing transparent upfront pricing . Enterprise is quote-only
Pick Playwright when
- Dev teams shipping web apps
- QA engineers automating browsers
- CI/CD pipelines
- Teams testing apps and AI agents
When Playwright is not a fit
- Teams with zero developers
- No-code buyers wanting record-and-playback only
- Manual testers who won't maintain code
- Buyers needing vendor-SLA support on the free tier
Sources
- Katalon official sitekatalon.comofficial
- Katalon product security pagekatalon.comsecurity
- Katalon Pricing Page Hubpricingpagehub.comreview
- Katalon Pricing: Studio vs Runtime Engine (Autonoma AI)getautonoma.comreview
- Vendr: Katalon Studio pricingvendr.comreview
- Katalon Review 2026 . AI Testing Guideaitestingguide.comreview
- Software Advice: Katalon Studio reviewssoftwareadvice.comreview
- Trustpilot: katalon.com reviewstrustpilot.comreview
- Tekpon: Katalon reviewstekpon.comreview
review
- Gartner Peer Insights: Katalon True Platformgartner.comreview
- Katalon Studio . Wikipedia (Gartner Visionary 2025)en.wikipedia.orgnews
- LeadIQ: Katalon company overviewleadiq.comnews
- Katalon Docs: trial and subscription plansdocs.katalon.comofficial
- Playwright official siteplaywright.devofficial