Percy vs Chromatic: which visual tester wins?
Both catch UI regressions with screenshots and a review UI, but they aim at different teams: Chromatic is Storybook-native, Percy is framework-agnostic.
Pick by where your UI lives and how you want to pay:
- UI in Storybook → Chromatic: snapshots stories directly, with TurboSnap and published pricing.
- No Storybook, snapshots from E2E tests → Percy: framework-agnostic, mature review workflow.
Side by side
Percy vs Chromatic, at a glance
| Dimension | Percy | Chromatic |
|---|---|---|
| Approach | SDK snapshots from E2E tests | Storybook story snapshots |
| Best for | Framework-agnostic teams | Storybook component libraries |
| Free tier | 5,000 screenshots/mo | 5,000 snapshots/mo (Chrome only) |
| Paid from | $199/mo billed annually, $249/mo billed monthly (10k shots) | $179/mo (35k snaps) |
| Overage | $0.036 / screenshot | $0.008 / snapshot |
| Skip unchanged | ✗ | ✓ TurboSnap |
| Public pricing | ✓ | ✓ |
Checked November 2026 (2026-11-02) on each vendor's official pricing page. List prices in USD, excluding tax. Pricing changes often; verify current terms.
Official pages: Percy pricing · Chromatic
Where Chromatic wins. If your components live in Storybook, Chromatic is the natural fit: it snapshots every story, catches regressions per-component, and TurboSnap only re-tests stories affected by a change, so large libraries stay fast. Pricing is public (free 5,000 snapshots/mo on Chrome only, then $179/mo for 35,000), which makes budgeting straightforward.
Where Percy wins. Percy doesn't assume Storybook. You add its SDK to an existing Cypress, Playwright or Selenium suite and it snapshots whatever your tests render: full pages, flows, states. For teams without a component library that already have end-to-end tests, that's less to adopt. The trade-off is a higher entry price ($199/mo billed annually for 10,000 screenshots, against Chromatic's $179/mo for 35,000 snapshots).
Common questions
Percy vs Chromatic: common questions
Is Chromatic better than Percy?
It depends on your setup. Chromatic is purpose-built for Storybook and snapshots your component stories with TurboSnap to skip unchanged components, so it wins if your UI already lives in Storybook. Percy is framework-agnostic and captures snapshots from your end-to-end tests, so it fits teams without Storybook.
How do Percy and Chromatic pricing compare?
Both publish their prices. Chromatic has a free tier of 5,000 snapshots/month (Chrome only), then Starter at $179/month for 35,000 snapshots and Pro at $399/month for 85,000, with overage at $0.008 per snapshot. Percy has a free plan of 5,000 screenshots/month, then Desktop at $199/month billed annually ($249 billed monthly) for 10,000 screenshots, with extra screenshots at $0.036 each.
Do I need Storybook to use Chromatic?
Chromatic is designed around Storybook and is at its best there, though it also supports Playwright and Cypress snapshots. If you have no component library and just want to catch regressions on deployed pages, a framework-agnostic tool like Percy is usually simpler.