Playwright alternative

A Playwright alternative that monitors your tests instead of making you maintain tests.

Describe your tests in a sentence. Smoketest re-runs them in a real browser after every deploy and tells you the moment one breaks.

No Playwright code. No selectors. Your first run in about two minutes.

smoketest.sh/dashboard
Board
Tickets currently moving through QA
Development1
Jira · APP-917
Invite member from workspace settings
App QANot tested
Testing2
Linear · WEB-284
Apply annual discount at checkout
Checkout QARunning
Linear · AUTH-126
Recover account with magic link
Authentication QANeeds attention
Passed1
Jira · BILL-442
Show updated invoice after seat change
Billing QAPassed
The problem

You didn't set out to maintain a test suite.

Locators need upkeep

Role-based locators survive some changes, but renames and restructures still break them, and keeping them current is your job.

Tests still go flaky

Auto-waiting helps, but timing and environment differences still fail runs for the wrong reasons.

Nobody owns it

Writing and maintaining the suite is a job no one on a small team has time for.

Prod still a mystery

Green CI doesn't mean checkout works in production right now.

What a test looks like

No selectors. No test file.

you write
Start on the pricing page.
Choose the Pro plan.
Create a new account with the test email.
Complete checkout using the test card.
Confirm the workspace has Pro features enabled.
smoketest does the rest
Opens a real browser and runs each step
Pulls test credentials from your environment secrets
Records the full session
Returns a pass or fail result with its reasoning
Saves the transcript, screenshots, and a Playwright trace
Playwright vs Smoketest

Playwright vs Smoketest, at a glance.

Need
Playwright
Smoketest
Write a test
TypeScript or JavaScript code
A few sentences
Selectors
Locators you write and maintain
The agent reads the page each run
When the UI changes
Resilient locators survive some changes; others break until you fix them
The agent re-reads the page; fails only if behavior broke
Setup
Framework, fixtures, CI harness
Paste a URL, write a test, run it
A failure gives you
Trace, screenshots, logs
Recording, transcript, result, plus the trace
Who it's for

Playwright or Smoketest?

Smoketest fits when you

Ship weekly and want a handful of critical tests watched without owning test code
Have no QA engineer and no time to keep a suite green
Want a recording and a result you can share, not just a red build
Care whether the test works in production, not only in CI

Stay on Playwright if you

Want a coded suite you own and extend, reviewed in pull requests
Need deep control: network mocking, multiple tabs, reused auth state
Have engineers who want a free, self-hosted, deterministic test artifact
Run component or API assertions alongside end-to-end tests
Use cases

Cover the tests that matter.

Login

User logs in with email and password and lands on the dashboard.

Checkout

User adds an item, checks out with the test card, and sees the order confirmation.

Onboarding

New user signs up, completes the setup wizard, and reaches an empty project.

Billing

User upgrades to Pro and the workspace shows Pro features enabled.

Magic link

User requests a magic link, opens it, and lands authenticated.

PR previews

Your critical tests, pointed at the pull request's preview URL.
When it fails

The whole story, not just a red X.

Every failed run hands you a recording, a transcript, the result, and the downloadable Playwright trace.

signup-test.webm
00:00↑ 00:06 · sign-up00:07
step log
Opened /pricing
Clicked “Start free”
Filled email · password
Submitted sign-up form
Expected dashboard · got 500 error
Session recording
Screenshot at failure
Step-by-step transcript
Downloadable Playwright trace
How it works

Jira or Linear starts the Test.

Keep the workflow where QA already works. Smoketest adds execution, evidence, and routing without becoming another board.

workspace · connections
Lhealthy
Linear
Acme workspace
Jhealthy
Jira
acme.atlassian.net
01

Connect Jira or Linear

A workspace owner authorizes Jira or Linear once. Smoketest keeps Connection identity, permissions, token health, and webhook health visible.

new test source
Listen to
Checkout board · QA
Passed
Ready to release
Failed
Development
Run at
staging.acme.com · Desktop
Permissions and direct transitions validated
02

Define the QA handoff

Choose the team or board, exact QA status, direct Passed and Development statuses, then set the URL, Environment, device, and access settings.

test request · attempt 1
WEB-284 enters QA
Ticket + linked PR frozen
Generated Test created
Browser Run in progress
03

Let the ticket start testing

When a ticket enters QA, Smoketest freezes current context, enriches it from an eligible ticket-linked pull request, generates one Test, and runs it automatically.

result · synchronized
PASSEDWEB-2841m 42s
Attempt comment updated with evidence
Authenticated recording and transcript linked
QAReady to release
04

Return the Result safely

Smoketest posts evidence to one evolving Attempt comment. Passed moves forward, Failed returns to Development, and No Result stays in QA. Newer human changes always win.

FAQ

Playwright switchers ask these.

Smoketest runs your tests in a real browser through a managed agent and saves a downloadable Playwright trace with every run. You never write or maintain any Playwright code yourself.

No. You describe each test in a sentence or two and add test logins as environment variables. There are no selectors or scripts to keep alive.

Playwright's role-based locators survive some changes, but a human still writes and maintains them. Smoketest's agent re-reads the page on each run, so a renamed button or moved element does not break the test. A run fails only when the behavior actually broke.

Yes. Every failed run hands you a recording, a step-by-step transcript, a pass or fail result with the agent's reasoning, and a downloadable Playwright trace.

About two minutes for the first one: paste a URL, write the steps, run it once to confirm, then schedule it or fire it on every deploy.

Start testing in a sentence.

Write your first test, run it in a real browser, and know in minutes whether your core journeys still work.

Read the docs