Visual testing & UI review, in detail
Screenshot-diff testing is billed per snapshot almost everywhere, so your real price is browsers × viewports × components × commits. The overview covered the big SaaS names; here they sit next to the open-source options that trade money for setup time.
| Tool | Free tier | Entry price | Billing unit | Watch out for | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chromatic | 5,000 snapshots/mo | Starter $179/mo (35k) | Per snapshot | TurboSnap helps, but snapshot volume still balloons with viewports | Storybook-native teams — by Storybook's maintainers |
| Percy | ~5,000 screenshots/mo | Bundled with BrowserStack | Per screenshot | Folded ever deeper into BrowserStack bundles since acquisition | Visual diffs if you already pay for BrowserStack |
| Buddy Visual Tests | Included in the free plan | Bundled (Pro €29/mo) | Part of the platform plan | Lives inside Buddy pipelines — not a standalone SaaS | Visual + interaction tests in the same pipeline that deploys |
| Argos | ~5,000 screenshots/mo | Pro from ~$30/mo | Per screenshot | Smaller ecosystem than Percy/Chromatic | Open-source, budget option for Playwright CI |
| Applitools | Small checkpoint allowance | Quote (sales) | Per checkpoint | Opaque pricing; expect a sales cycle | Visual-AI matching when pixel diffs drown you in noise |
| BackstopJS | Unlimited — OSS, self-run | $0 | Your CI minutes | Config-heavy; no review UI or team workflow | Free pixel-diffing wired into your own CI |
| Lost Pixel | OSS mode self-run | Paid cloud plans | Per screenshot (cloud) | Young product; smaller community | OSS-first holistic visual tests (Storybook/pages) |
Pricing models and free tiers change often — check each vendor for current terms. Compiled July 2026; the most volatile figures verified on official pricing pages.
Official pages: Chromatic · Percy · Argos · Applitools · BackstopJS · Lost Pixel
Entry price at a glance
Cheapest paid plan, USD per month — per-user plans shown for a single seat. Hatched bars are usage-based or quote-only; values marked ~ are approximate.
Notes & recent changes
- Chromatic's Starter plan moved to $179/mo (35,000 snapshots) — verify current numbers before budgeting, snapshot tiers change.
- Percy's standalone pricing page has disappeared into BrowserStack's — treat Percy as a BrowserStack line item now.
- The OSS route (BackstopJS, Lost Pixel OSS, Playwright's own toHaveScreenshot) costs zero per snapshot but you own flake management and review tooling.
Which one should you pick?
- You run Storybook → Chromatic.
- You already pay BrowserStack → Percy.
- Visual checks should live next to deploys, unmetered → Buddy Visual Tests.
- Budget-first with Playwright → Argos or BackstopJS.