cheeriovspuppeteer
Cheerio parses HTML server-side with no browser — 10× faster but only works on static HTML. Puppeteer runs a real Chrome — slower but handles JS-rendered pages.
cheerio
github.com/cheeriojs/cheeriojQuery-style HTML parsing for Node, with no browser. Ridiculously fast because it never renders JS. The default when you're scraping server-rendered pages (most blogs, docs, news, marketplace listings).
Full review →puppeteer
github.com/puppeteer/puppeteerChrome-only browser automation from Google. Slightly more raw than Playwright with fewer batteries included, but lighter weight and battle-tested on Chrome quirks. The choice when Playwright's multi-browser layer is unnecessary.
Full review →Which should you pick?
Pick cheerio if…
The page works without JavaScript — view-source contains the content you want.
Skip cheerio if…
The page renders content client-side (SPA, infinite scroll) — you need Playwright/Puppeteer.
Pick puppeteer if…
You're Chrome-only and want a thinner abstraction than Playwright.
Skip puppeteer if…
You need Firefox or Safari support — Playwright handles those, Puppeteer does not.
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