I’m running into performance issues with my continuous integration setup. My pipeline depends heavily on automated browser testing for things like authentication workflows, payment processing redirects, and testing multiple user sessions at once.
Right now I’m using Docker containers with headless Chrome and Firefox, but they eat up way too much memory and CPU. Plus sometimes the tests give different results compared to real browsers because of how headless mode handles certain detection methods.
I’m looking for tools or approaches that can give me real browser environments for testing without all the container overhead. Anyone found good solutions for running browser automation that doesn’t slow down the whole CI process?
Switched from containerized browser testing to direct binaries on CI runners about six months ago - huge improvement. Now I just install Chrome and Firefox directly on build agents and run them with Xvfb on Linux or headless when detection isn’t a problem. Memory usage dropped 60% and tests run 30% faster. When headless mode triggers detection issues, I use headed mode with Xvfb - you get real browser behavior without the GUI bloat. Also worth checking out BrowserStack or Sauce Labs for CI - they handle all the infrastructure headaches and give you real browser instances without eating your local resources.
Try browser automation tools that work with native browser protocols - skip the virtualization layer entirely. I’ve had good luck with Selenium Grid in standalone mode where browsers run directly on the host instead of in containers. The trick is setting up proper browser isolation through user profiles and temp directories rather than relying on container boundaries. For detection problems, check out undetected-chromedriver or similar libraries that modify browser fingerprints to dodge anti-automation measures. What worked really well for us was running some tests on actual browser instances on dedicated testing machines instead of cramming everything into CI. This hybrid setup kept our pipeline fast while making sure critical tests ran in real browser conditions.
have you thought about using playwright or puppeteer with local browsers? i ditched docker for tests last year and just run chrome/firefox directly on ci machines. way less overhead, and you can go headless if needed. managing browser versions can be a drag, but some scripts can fix that up.