Tech Stack Comparison: All Solutions for 100 Concurrent Automated Tasks #1
Description
Tech Stack Comparison: Automated Web Testing & Authorized Data Extraction
Overview
Comparison of all viable tech stacks for building a desktop/web application that can run 100 concurrent automated browser tasks, each with its own proxy for geo/IP testing, with a live dashboard.
Full Comparison Matrix
| Factor | Electron + Playwright | Tauri + Playwright | NW.js + Playwright | Web Dashboard (Express/Fastify) | Go + Wails + chromedp | Python + FastAPI + Playwright | Rust + Headless Chrome |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| App Type | Desktop (Chromium) | Desktop (Rust + WebView) | Desktop (Chromium) | Browser SPA | Desktop (Go + WebView) | Web Server + SPA | CLI / Server |
| Bundle Size | ~200MB | ~10MB | ~200MB | ~0 (server) | ~15MB | ~50MB | ~5MB |
| RAM for 100 tasks | ~3-4GB | ~2GB | ~3GB | ~2GB | ~1.5GB | ~2.5GB | ~1GB |
| CPU Efficiency | Moderate | Excellent | Poor | Good | Excellent | Good | Best |
| Concurrency Model | Worker threads | Rust Tokio async | Worker threads | Node cluster/workers | Goroutines | asyncio + task pool | Tokio async |
| Proxy per Task | ✅ BrowserContext | ✅ Playwright sidecar | ✅ BrowserContext | ✅ BrowserContext | ✅ Per chromedp ctx | ✅ BrowserContext | ✅ Per connection |
| Live Task Preview | 1 selected task | 1 via WebView | Multiple tabs | Multiple browser tabs | 1 via WebView | Multiple browser tabs | None (headless) |
| Dashboard UI | React/Vue | Svelte/React | React/Vue | React/Vue/Svelte | Svelte/React | React/Vue | Terminal TUI |
| Task Queue | BullMQ / custom | Tokio channels | BullMQ | BullMQ / BeeQueue | Go channels | Celery / asyncio.Queue | Tokio channels |
| Auth Management | Playwright built-in | Playwright built-in | Playwright built-in | Playwright built-in | Manual (CDP) | Playwright built-in | Manual (CDP) |
| Network Intercept | Full (Playwright) | Full (Playwright) | Full (Playwright) | Full (Playwright) | Limited (CDP raw) | Full (Playwright) | Limited (CDP raw) |
| Cross-Platform | Win/Mac/Linux | Win/Mac/Linux | Win/Mac/Linux | Any (browser) | Win/Mac/Linux | Any (browser) | Any (server) |
| Learning Curve | Medium | High (Rust) | Low | Low | Medium (Go) | Low | High (Rust) |
| Ecosystem | Massive (npm) | Growing | Mature | Massive (npm) | Moderate | Massive (pip) | Small |
| Stability at 100 | Good | Excellent | Moderate | Good | Excellent | Good | Excellent |
| Startup Time | ~3s | <1s | ~3s | <1s | <1s | ~2s | <0.5s |
| Auto-Update | electron-updater | Tauri built-in | Manual | N/A (deploy) | Manual | N/A (deploy) | N/A |
| Multi-Browser | Chromium/FF/WebKit | Chromium/FF/WebKit | Chromium/FF/WebKit | Chromium/FF/WebKit | Chromium only | Chromium/FF/WebKit | Chromium only |
Scoring (1-10, higher is better)
| Criteria (Weight) | Electron+PW | Tauri+PW | NW.js+PW | Web Dashboard | Go+Wails | Python+FastAPI | Rust Headless |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Performance (25%) | 6 | 8 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 6 | 10 |
| Scalability (20%) | 6 | 7 | 5 | 9 | 9 | 7 | 9 |
| Developer Experience (20%) | 8 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 6 | 9 | 4 |
| Feature Richness (15%) | 9 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 8 | 5 |
| Bundle/Deploy (10%) | 4 | 9 | 4 | 10 | 8 | 8 | 9 |
| Maintenance (10%) | 7 | 6 | 5 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 5 |
| Weighted Total | 6.65 | 7.05 | 5.55 | 8.40 | 7.85 | 7.40 | 7.35 |
Ranking
- 🥇 Web Dashboard (Express/Fastify + Playwright) — 8.40
- 🥈 Go + Wails + chromedp — 7.85
- 🥉 Python + FastAPI + Playwright — 7.40
- Rust + Headless Chrome — 7.35
- Tauri + Playwright — 7.05
- Electron + Playwright — 6.65
- NW.js + Playwright — 5.55
Recommended Architecture (Any Stack)
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ UI Layer (Dashboard) │
│ - Task list with status │
│ - Live preview of selected task │
│ - Proxy/geo configuration │
│ - Results & logs viewer │
│ - Auth credential manager │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Task Queue / Scheduler │
│ - Priority queue │
│ - Concurrency limiter (100 max) │
│ - Retry logic with backoff │
│ - Rate limiting per domain │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Worker Pool (Browser Contexts) │
│ - 1 browser instance, N contexts │
│ - Each context: own proxy + cookies │
│ - Isolated storage per task │
│ - Auto-wait & smart selectors │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Proxy Manager │
│ - Proxy pool with health checks │
│ - Geo-based proxy selection │
│ - Rotation strategy (round-robin/random) │
│ - Proxy authentication │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ Data Layer │
│ - SQLite/PostgreSQL for task state │
│ - File storage for screenshots/artifacts │
│ - Result export (JSON/CSV) │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Next Steps
See individual issues for deep-dive analysis of each stack:
- Deep Dive: Electron + Playwright #2 Electron + Playwright Deep Dive
- Deep Dive: Tauri + Playwright #3 Tauri + Playwright Deep Dive
- Deep Dive: NW.js + Playwright #4 NW.js + Playwright Deep Dive
- Deep Dive: Web Dashboard (Express/Fastify + Playwright) #5 Web Dashboard (Express/Fastify + Playwright) Deep Dive
- Deep Dive: Go + Wails + chromedp #6 Go + Wails + chromedp Deep Dive
- Deep Dive: Python + FastAPI + Playwright #7 Python + FastAPI + Playwright Deep Dive
- Deep Dive: Rust + Headless Chrome #8 Rust + Headless Chrome Deep Dive
Labels: comparison, architecture, decision