Using Playwright with WonderProxy for Region-Specific Testing

Playwright makes it easy to automate browser interactions, but testing applications across regions requires more. Sites may need to display local currencies, support different languages, or comply with regional privacy laws. Some content could be blocked entirely based on location. These challenges can greatly affect the user experience.

The problem is that most automation frameworks fail to simulate geo-location behavior out of the box. Developers often find themselves cobbling together workarounds that are slow and unreliable.

A more straightforward approach is to pair Playwright, a modern browser automation tool, with WonderProxy, a service that routes traffic through servers worldwide. Together, they allow you to run accurate, repeatable, region-specific tests. In this article, we will walk through how to combine Playwright and WonderProxy to automate geo-location testing at scale.

Why region-specific testing natters

Users accessing your site from different regions can have very different experiences. A feature that works perfectly in one country might fail or display incorrectly in another.

Region-specific testing catches these issues before they reach customers, ensuring a consistent experience and helping you stay compliant with local rules.

• Content personalization: Users expect content that feels tailored to their local needs. This includes language, currency, and even promotional offers. Without testing, you may display incorrect pricing or messaging, which can confuse or frustrate visitors.
• Geo-blocking and compliance: Certain regions restrict specific content, and laws may require certain notices, such as GDPR banners in the EU or CCPA disclosures in California. Testing across multiple locations keeps your site in compliance with these rules and avoids penalties.
• Performance and reliability: Sites often rely on CDNs, third-party integrations, or APIs that behave differently depending on the user's location. Testing from multiple regions helps identify latency issues or broken integrations that only appear in certain areas.
• SEO testing: Search engines serve different results based on region. Region-specific testing enables you to verify that pages index correctly, meta tags are localized, and users see the relevant content in search results.

A retail site may display different prices for U.S. customers versus those in the European Union. Without testing, a promotion intended for one region may appear in another, resulting in lost revenue or customer confusion. Region-specific testing verifies that your site functions correctly regardless of where visitors access it.

Introducing the tools

To automate region-specific testing, you need two key components: a method to control the browser and a means to simulate traffic from various locations. That's where Playwright and WonderProxy come in.

Unlike Cypress, which has a more contained in-browser architecture, Playwright's design allows for greater control over network requests and is better suited for routing traffic through external proxies, such as WonderProxy.

• Playwright features:
  • Multi-browser support for Chrome, Firefox, and WebKit
  • Headless and headed testing modes
  • Automates navigation, form filling, clicks, and content verification
  • Handles complex flows with minimal setup
  • Scales well for large test suites

Playwright handles the browser interactions you're already familiar with, making it easy to automate repetitive tasks and check that your site behaves as expected. For developers migrating from Puppeteer, many of the same concepts apply, but Playwright offers a more robust set of features.

• WonderProxy features:
  • Global proxy network with 285+ locations
  • Accurate and reliable IP simulation
  • Bypasses regional restrictions and geo-blocking
  • Let's you test pricing, content, and legal notices by region
  • More reliable than local VPNs or generic proxies

WonderProxy complements Playwright by routing traffic through servers worldwide, letting you see how your site behaves in different countries. Together, they enable repeatable, automated region-specific tests, catch location-specific issues, and verify that your site works correctly everywhere. This combination saves time, reduces errors, and boosts confidence in your global testing.

Setting up Playwright for testing

Before adding geo-location testing with WonderProxy, you need a working Playwright setup. Getting started is simple. First, create a new project npm init playwright@latest and follow the prompts. This step installs Playwright along with its test runner and browser binaries.

When you install Playwright, it creates a standard project structure. Your folder will include a 'tests' directory for scripts and a configuration file to adjust settings, such as timeouts or browser options.

import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';

test('homepage loads correctly', async ({ page }) => {
  await page.goto('https://example.com');
  await expect(page.locator('h1')).toHaveText('Welcome');
});

This simple setup allows you to automate navigation, interactions, and assertions. It also provides a solid foundation for adding WonderProxy. Once Playwright is running reliably on your local machine or in a CI environment, you can start integrating regional proxies to test location-specific behavior without rewriting your existing tests.

Integrating WonderProxy with Playwright

Once you have Playwright set up, the next step is routing your tests through WonderProxy to simulate traffic from different regions. Playwright supports proxy configuration directly, allowing you to specify a specific server along with any required credentials.

import { test, expect } from '@playwright/test';

test('homepage loads via proxy', async ({ browser }) => {
  const context = await browser.newContext({
    proxy: {
      server: 'http://your-wonderproxy-server:port',
      username: process.env.WONDERPROXY_USER,
      password: process.env.WONDERPROXY_PASS
    }
  });

  const page = await context.newPage();
  await page.goto('https://example.com');
  await expect(page.locator('h1')).toHaveText('Welcome');
});

A few good practices help keep your setup secure and flexible. Store your WonderProxy credentials in environment variables instead of hardcoding them. That way, sensitive information stays out of your codebase. You can also dynamically rotate or change test regions by swapping proxy server endpoints, allowing the same test to run for multiple locations without script rewriting.

For example, you might run one test using a Canadian server, then repeat it using a server in France, automatically capturing region-specific differences. With this approach, you combine Playwright's automation power with WonderProxy's global reach, creating a reliable foundation for geo-location testing that scales across multiple countries.

Writing geo-specific test scenarios

Once Playwright connects to WonderProxy, you can start writing tests that check how your site behaves for users in different regions. These tests help identify issues that only appear under specific geographic conditions, such as pricing, content, or legal notices.

• Verify localized pricing: Many sites show different prices based on location. For example, a product might cost $50 USD in the U.S., $65 CAD in Canada, and €45 in Europe. A geo-specific test can confirm that the correct pricing appears for each region.
• Confirm compliance banners: Some regions, like the EU, require GDPR cookie notices. You can write a test that verifies these banners appear when visiting from EU IPs, but remain hidden for users in regions where they are not required.
• Check content availability: Certain content may be region-locked, such as video streaming available only in the U.S. Tests can confirm that users outside allowed regions see an appropriate message or are blocked from accessing the content.

To make your tests reusable and scalable, parametrize the region input instead of writing separate scripts for each country. You can loop through multiple WonderProxy endpoints in a single test suite to run the same checks across all desired locations. This approach saves time and maintains consistency.

const regions = ['ca', 'fr', 'us']; // WonderProxy endpoints

for (const region of regions) {
  const context = await browser.newContext({
    proxy: { server: `http://${region}.wonderproxy.com:port` }
  });
  const page = await context.newPage();
  await page.goto('https://example.com');
  // Add assertions for pricing, banners, or content here
}

Parametrized, multi-region tests like this enable your team to automatically catch geo-specific issues and maintain confidence in a globally consistent user experience.

Scaling and best practices

Once your geo-specific tests are running smoothly, the next step is to scale them and follow best practices to maintain their reliability and efficiency.

• CI/CD integration: Incorporate your Playwright tests into your CI/CD pipelines to automatically run tests on every deployment. This ensures that changes don't break region-specific functionality and helps catch issues early.
• Avoid false positives: Caching and CDN behavior can sometimes make tests fail incorrectly. Use proper cache-busting techniques or test on fresh environments to ensure your assertions reflect real user experiences.
• Headless vs. headed browsers: Headless mode is faster and ideal for automated pipelines, but headed browsers are helpful for debugging or visually validating content in different regions. Switch modes depending on your needs.
• Rate-limiting considerations: When using multiple proxy endpoints, be mindful of server limits and request rates. Avoid overloading proxy servers or triggering anti-bot mechanisms by spacing requests and rotating endpoints.
• Logging & monitoring: Keep detailed logs of test runs, including the region and proxy used. Monitoring these logs over time helps identify flaky tests, regional inconsistencies, or performance issues.

Following these practices helps your geo-specific testing remain reliable, scalable, and maintainable. As your coverage grows across regions, these strategies will save time, reduce false alarms, and give your team confidence in delivering a consistent global experience.

Common challenges and how to solve them

Even with a solid Playwright and WonderProxy setup, geo-specific testing can come with challenges. Being aware of them and planning ahead helps keep your tests reliable.

• CAPTCHA and bot detection: Some sites trigger security measures when they detect automated traffic. Using residential-grade proxies, such as WonderProxy, reduces the likelihood of encountering these blocks, allowing tests to run smoothly.
• Latency issues: Network speed and server distance can cause delays in certain regions. Design your tests to handle regional latency by adding which may impact