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MultiStep Checks, Browser Checks, and Playwright Check Suites use Playwright for synthetic monitoring. The different check types vary in capabilities, flexibility, and use cases. After logging into the Checkly web application, you can use the built-in editor to write Playwright code to monitor your APIs and sites. Use MultiStep and Browser checks to get started quickly via the user interface. Checkly handles code storage, configuration of advanced settings, and dependency updates with runtimes. However, when your monitoring setup needs to scale with your growing project requirements, you’ll quickly look for ways to version-control your checks using the Monitoring as Code approach (MaC). All Playwright-based checks can be created, updated and configured as code. But, when should you use which?

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When to use MultiStep Checks

Choose MultiStep Checks when you need to monitor complex API workflows with sequential requests using the familiar Playwright API. MultiStep Check runs are based on a single spec.ts file, limited to making HTTP requests (there’s no browser available) and the max check run duration is capped at .

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When to use Browser Checks

Choose Browser Checks when you need to monitor end-to-end user flows and realistic interactions with automated browser testing using Playwright. Browser Check runs are based on a single spec.ts file, support the headless Chromium/Chrome browser and the max check run duration is capped at .

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When to use Playwright Check Suites

Choose Playwright Check Suites when you need cross-browser support, custom dependencies, or when you already have an existing Playwright test suite that includes critical flows that should become monitoring checks. Playwright Check Suites support multiple spec files, advanced global configuration, multiple Playwright projects, tags for selective monitoring, storage state, custom dependencies, and more.
Playwright Check Suites are the native way to run your Playwright project in production.

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Feature comparison

FeaturePlaywright Check SuitesBrowser CheckMultiStep Check
Supports Monitoring as CodeYesYesYes
Test fixturespage, context, browser, browserName, requestpage, context, browser, browserName, requestrequest
Multiple spec filesYesNoNo
Flexible test selection via tags and projectsYesNoNo
Browser compatibilityChromium, WebKit, FirefoxChromium, Chrome—
Storage stateYesNoNo
Multiple Playwright ProjectsYesNoNo
Custom dependencies (public and private)YesNo, fixed runtime dependencies.No, fixed runtime dependencies.
Max Check Duration
Playwright feature parityComplete (via playwrightConfigPath)Partial (via playwrightConfig)Partial (via playwrightConfig)
Flaky test detectionYesNoNo
Fake media devicesYesNoNo
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