Direct comparisons of the tools teams actually shortlist — capture models, baseline mechanics, real pricing, and when to pick the other one.
Percy uploads your DOM and re-renders it; Chromatic renders in its own cloud from Storybook. The difference decides your coverage, your baseline headaches, and your bill — with the mechanics from both vendors' docs.
The three tools most teams shortlist, compared on the axes that decide the outcome — capture model, comparison engine, baseline mechanics, real pricing, and who authors the coverage.
Applitools compares perceptually and prices in checkpoints; Percy re-renders your DOM and no longer publishes pricing. What each actually does, the checkpoint trap, and when to pick which.
Chromatic tests Storybook stories for $179/month; Applitools tests anything with perceptual comparison for $667. They rarely compete for the same job — here is how to tell which job you have.
Argos is $100/month against Chromatic's $179 and captures locally in your own test browser. Where that architecture wins, where TurboSnap closes the gap, and which one fits your coverage.
Playwright's screenshot assertions are free and unlimited; Percy adds a hosted review workflow you cannot build cheaply. What you actually trade, and the point where self-hosting stops paying.
Playwright ships image comparison; Selenium ships getScreenshotAs and nothing else. What that costs you in practice, the determinism gap, and why it is still usually wrong to migrate.