Lost Pixel alternatives
Lost Pixel was archived in April 2026 when its team joined Figma. If you are still running it, here is what it did well, which tools replace which part, and how to move without losing your baselines twice.
The Lost Pixel repository was archived on 22 April 2026 when its team joined Figma, with the product sunset. The repository is read-only. If you are still running it, nothing has broken yet — archived code keeps working — but it will not be updated for browser changes, security issues, or anything else.
What Lost Pixel did, and who replaces each part
Its appeal was breadth: open source, and it covered Playwright, Storybook, Cypress and Ladle from one tool. No single replacement covers exactly that footprint, so the honest answer depends on which part you actually used.
| If you used it for… | Closest replacement | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Storybook component shots | Chromatic, Loki, or the Vitest addon route | $0–$179/mo |
| Playwright page shots | Playwright's built-in toHaveScreenshot | Free |
| Hosted review UI | Argos | Free to 5,000, then $100/mo |
| Open source, self-hosted | BackstopJS or reg-suit | Free |
| Cypress | A Cypress plugin — see the guide | Free |
The main options
Best for: Teams who want the open-source spirit of Lost Pixel with a maintained hosted review workflow.
- License
- Open-source core, hosted commercial tier
- Pricing
- Hobby free 5,000 screenshots/mo · Pro $100/mo for 35,000 · Storybook overage $0.0015
For most teams leaving Lost Pixel this is the path of least resistance, and it gains you the review workflow that was the biggest gap in the original. It also publishes its own Lost Pixel migration guidance, which is a reasonable signal that they expect this traffic.
- Open-source core, so it is philosophically the closest successor
- Playwright and Storybook integrations, covering most Lost Pixel use
- Adds a proper review and approval UI, which Lost Pixel never had
- Actively developed, with a published Vitest SDK
- The genuinely useful tier is paid — as a free tool it is a 5,000-screenshot allowance
- No Ladle support
- You are moving from self-hosted to hosted, which is a different trust decision
Best for: Teams whose Lost Pixel usage was mostly page-level Playwright shots.
- License
- Apache 2.0
- Pricing
- Free
If you were pointing Lost Pixel at Playwright anyway, this removes a dependency rather than replacing one. See the setup guide.
- No vendor, no bill, and you very likely already run Playwright
toHaveScreenshot()retries until the image is stable before comparing- Actively developed with a fast release cadence
- No review UI at all — a real regression from Lost Pixel's reporting
- Baselines become committed binaries, with the platform-naming trap
- No Storybook story coverage without extra work
Best for: Storybook-only usage, staying fully open source and self-hosted.
- License
- MIT (1.9k stars)
- Pricing
- Free
The closest match if what you valued about Lost Pixel was that it was free, open source, and yours. It covers less ground, but the ground it covers it covers well.
- Still actively maintained, unlike Lost Pixel
- Purpose-built for Storybook with little configuration
- Docker rendering for reproducibility across machines
- Also targets iOS simulators and Android emulators
- Storybook only — no page-level coverage
- CLI approval, no review UI
- Smaller community
Best for: Storybook design systems willing to pay for the best review workflow available.
- License
- Commercial
- Pricing
- Free 5,000 billed snapshots (Chrome only) · Starter $179/mo · Pro $399/mo
A significant change from Lost Pixel rather than a migration, but if the sunset has prompted a rethink and your coverage is Storybook-shaped, it is the strongest product in that niche. Trade-offs in Chromatic alternatives.
- Built by the Storybook team; the deepest integration in the category
- TurboSnap cuts billed snapshots by copying unchanged stories
- Strongest baseline handling across branches and merges
- The largest jump in cost and in philosophy from a free self-hosted tool
- Storybook only
- Multi-browser needs the $179 tier
Migrating without paying twice
- Do not try to port baselines. They are not interchangeable between tools, and reconstructing them is wasted effort. Re-baseline on the new tool from a known-good commit on main.
- Run both for a fortnight. Keep Lost Pixel authoritative while the replacement builds baselines and you assess its noise level. You get a free comparison of false-positive rates.
- Re-tune thresholds; do not port your config. Comparison algorithms differ, so a threshold tuned for one will be wrong for another.
- Remove the integration last. Stripping it before the replacement is trusted leaves you with no visual coverage at all, which is worse than an archived dependency.
- Check your first real redesign. An intentional change is the honest test of a review workflow. If approving it is painful, you chose wrong and now is the cheapest time to find out.
The determinism work carries over unchanged whatever you pick — fonts, animation, clocks and live data behave the same everywhere. Fixing flaky visual tests applies to all of these.
The broader lesson
Lost Pixel is the second notable exit in this category recently — BackstopJS's README is asking for a new maintainer, and Percy's published pricing disappeared behind a sales team. Open-source visual testing tools have a consistent sustainability problem: they are infrastructure-shaped work with no obvious funding model.
That is not an argument against open source. It is an argument for choosing tools whose baselines and test artifacts you can walk away with, and for noticing maintainer signals before you build three hundred scenarios on something.
Frequently asked questions
Is Lost Pixel shut down?
Yes. The repository was archived on 22 April 2026 when the team joined Figma, and the product is sunset. The code is read-only and still runs, but it will not receive updates for browser changes, dependency advisories, or anything else.
What is the best Lost Pixel alternative?
It depends which part you used. Argos is the closest successor for teams wanting an open-source core with a hosted review workflow, at $100/month for 35,000 screenshots. Playwright's built-in assertions are free if your usage was page-level. Loki is the closest fully open-source, self-hosted match for Storybook coverage.
Can I migrate my Lost Pixel baselines to another tool?
No — baseline images are not interchangeable between tools, and comparison algorithms differ enough that ported thresholds would be wrong anyway. Re-baseline on the new tool from a known-good commit, and run both in parallel for a couple of weeks before removing the old integration.
Sources
- Lost Pixel repository (archived)checked 2026-09-14
- Argos pricingchecked 2026-09-14
- Chromatic pricingchecked 2026-09-14
- Loki repositorychecked 2026-09-14