vsCompare / Applitools

Visual review without a yearly contract.

Applitools renders your tests again in its own browser grid, and its first plan is $667 a month, billed yearly. stateofpixel reviews the screenshots your CI already takes, free up to 10 GB.

Start free with GitHubSee the switch

Facts about Applitools checked on 27 September 2026, with 11 sources.

One build, step by step.

300 stories at 3 viewports, run through Applitools and through stateofpixel.

Applitoolsstateofpixel

1
Your tests run with the Eyes SDK
Your tests take screenshots900 screenshots
2
The SDK uploads the DOM and resources
The CLI hashes and compares them on the runner900 hashes
3
The Ultrafast Grid renders each browser
Only images we have not seen upload45 changed
4
Visual AI compares and sets the check
The review page and the GitHub check

Billed per checkpoint, yearly900countedEach screenshot in each build

Billed per GB stored0counted45 changed screenshots and their diffs stored

What changes when you switch.

The same pull request, reviewed with less in the way.

01One rendererThe Ultrafast Grid renders the DOM your test captured again, in Applitools' browsers. We compare the pixels your test saw.

02Every price is on the pageApplitools lists Starter and sends the other plans to sales. Our plans start free, bill monthly or yearly, and all of them are on the pricing page.

03Open sourceThe Applitools SDKs use a proprietary license. stateofpixel, server included, is MIT licensed and can run on your own Netlify site.

What your reviewers get.

Each changed screenshot next to its baseline, with the changed pixels in green.

Four views. Side by side, diff, slider and flip.
Keyboard first. j and k to move, a to approve, r to reject.
One check. Green when every change is approved.

Try the review page

The stateofpixel review page, with the baseline and the new screenshot side by side and the changed pixels in green

stateofpixel and Applitools, row by row.

Every row about Applitools links to the page it came from.

stateofpixel

ApplitoolsWhat you pay forStorage. Snapshots, builds and seats are free.

Checkpoints a month, counted per page or per component.¹Free plan10 GB stored. Snapshots are not charged.

A 14-day trial. No free plan is listed.¹²At the plan limitWarns at 80%. After 14 days over, new images are not stored and the check passes with a note.

Admins get an email. The contract allows throttling, overage fees, or ending the contract after three months over.³⁴Who takes themYour CI.

Applitools' Ultrafast Grid, from the DOM your test captures.⁵Where they are comparedYour CI. Only the images upload.

Applitools' cloud, with Visual AI.⁵

Where Applitools is ahead.

We skip some features on purpose. If you need one of these, choose Applitools.

Visual AI match levelsLayout and Ignore Colors match levels skip content or color changes, for a whole image or a region. stateofpixel compares pixels with a color threshold.

Root cause analysisEyes stores the DOM and CSS with each checkpoint and shows which ones changed. stateofpixel stores the images and their metadata.

Browsers you don't runApplitools renders Safari, Edge and mobile devices for you. With stateofpixel, your CI renders every browser you want to compare.

GitLab, Bitbucket and Azure DevOpsApplitools works with all three. stateofpixel works with GitHub only.

Switch in one pull request.

Keep your tests. Change the step that sends screenshots to Applitools. The moving guide has the details.

1Install the GitHub AppPick the repositories. On GitHub Actions there is no token to copy.
2Replace the Eyes stepStorybook stories are captured at each width you list. In Playwright tests, replace eyes.check() with snapshot().
3Merge to mainThat build becomes the baseline. There is nothing to export from Applitools.

Before

.github/workflows/visual.yml

steps:
  - run: npm ci
  - run: npx eyes-storybook
    env:
      APPLITOOLS_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.APPLITOOLS_API_KEY }}

After

.github/workflows/visual.yml

permissions:
  contents: read
  id-token: write

steps:
  - run: npm ci
  - run: npx storybook build
  - run: npx stateofpixel storybook storybook-static --viewports 375,1280

Questions.

What to know before you move from Applitools.

Does Applitools have a free plan?

Applitools lists a 14-day trial. stateofpixel is free up to 10 GB stored, with no time limit.

Does stateofpixel use AI to compare?

No. It compares pixels and ignores color differences under a threshold you set per project or per run. Most noise is fixed where the screenshot is taken, see Stable screenshots in the docs.

Can I keep Cypress or Selenium tests?

Yes. Save screenshots to a folder and run stateofpixel upload on it. Cypress has its own guide in the docs.

Do I lose my Applitools baselines?

You start fresh. The first build on your default branch becomes the baseline, and pull requests compare against it from then on.

Sources

Read on 27 September 2026. Prices are list prices before tax. The stateofpixel column comes from our docs.