Percy automates visual testing. Developers add it to their test suite, and on each code change it captures screenshots of pages and components across browsers and screen sizes. It compares them with an approved baseline and highlights the pixels that differ, so a reviewer can accept intended changes or catch accidental ones before they reach users.
Visual bugs, such as overlapping text, broken layouts, or missing images, often slip past functional tests, which only check behavior. Percy fills this gap and integrates with pull requests, so design and engineering can review changes together. AI helps ignore noise like anti-aliasing differences or dynamic content, which keeps the review list short.
BrowserStack acquired Percy, and it works with common frameworks like Cypress, Playwright, and Storybook. It has a free tier and paid plans by screenshot volume. Visual tests need maintenance as designs change. Alternatives include Chromatic, Applitools, Playwright’s built-in screenshot comparison, and BackstopJS. Percy suits front-end teams that want to catch visual regressions.