I need recommendations for a browser automation solution that works well with multithreaded .NET apps. Here’s what I’m looking for:
Key Requirements:
Standalone deployment - no server setup needed, just bundle with my app
Modern web support - needs to handle Ajax and HTML5 properly
Element interaction - find elements, click buttons, fill forms, read attributes
Session management - proper cookie handling across multiple sessions
User agent flexibility - ability to change browser identification
Thread safety - support many concurrent users (potentially thousands)
Performance - fast execution is important
SSL support - needs to work with self-signed certificates
I’ve been researching various options but can’t decide which one fits best. Some candidates I found include browser engines, HTML parsers, and automation frameworks, but each seems to have trade-offs.
Anyone have experience with similar requirements? Looking for practical advice on which solution works well in production environments with high concurrency. Code examples would be really helpful too.
Based on your requirements, I’d strongly recommend Playwright for .NET. We’ve been using it in production for about 8 months now handling around 2000 concurrent sessions without major issues. Playwright checks all your boxes - it bundles the browser binaries directly with your application, so no external dependencies or server setup required. The thread safety is excellent when you properly isolate browser contexts per thread. We typically create separate browser contexts for each user session which gives you the cookie isolation you need. For SSL certificates, Playwright handles self-signed certs well with the IgnoreHTTPSErrors option. User agent spoofing is straightforward through the context options. Performance-wise, it’s significantly faster than Selenium in our benchmarks, especially for concurrent operations. One gotcha we encountered: make sure to properly dispose of contexts and pages to avoid memory leaks during high-concurrency scenarios. Also, consider using headless mode for better resource utilization unless you specifically need the GUI. The API is clean and intuitive compared to other solutions we tested. Documentation is solid and the community support has been responsive when we’ve hit edge cases.
puppeteer-sharp has been solid for us with similar reqs. handles thousands of concurrent sessions pretty well if you manage resources properly. the headless chrome engine bundled nicely and ssl stuff works out of box. main thing is disposing contexts correctly or you’ll get memory leaks fast.
We went through this exact decision process last year and ended up with Selenium WebDriver after testing several options. While it gets criticized for being slower, the maturity and stability under heavy concurrent loads proved crucial for our production environment. The key was implementing proper WebDriver pooling and using ChromeDriver in headless mode with custom options for SSL bypass. Thread safety required careful session isolation but once configured correctly, we’re running about 1500 concurrent sessions reliably. The standalone deployment works fine since you can bundle ChromeDriver executable with your application. User agent switching is straightforward through ChromeOptions. One advantage over newer solutions is the extensive documentation and community support when troubleshooting edge cases. Performance improved significantly when we switched from Firefox to Chrome driver and implemented proper connection pooling. Memory management requires attention but disposing driver instances properly solved most issues. The learning curve is steeper than some alternatives but the production stability has been worth it.