Migration recommendation: prefer Vitest browser mode or Playwright for new work

Hey folks,

I want to be upfront about where this library sits in 2026.

user-event was built for a world where most component tests ran in jsdom. It does a great job approximating browser behavior by dispatching the right DOM events in the right order. That still matters if your tests run in jsdom/happy-dom.

But if you can run tests in a real browser, you should. The highest-fidelity "user events" are no longer something you need to simulate in userland:

• Vitest Browser Mode ships a userEvent from vitest/browser that intentionally mirrors this library's API, but drives the browser through CDP/WebDriver instead of faking events. Vitest's own docs recommend that over @testing-library/user-event in browser mode.
• Playwright (and Playwright component testing) has first-class locator actions (click(), fill(), press(), etc.) with auto-waiting and actionability checks. That's a different API, and for E2E/browser component tests it's usually the better tool.

What I recommend

• New browser-based tests: use Vitest's userEvent / locators, or Playwright's locators. Don't add @testing-library/user-event there.
• Existing jsdom/RTL unit tests: this package is still a reasonable choice. No need to rip it out for its own sake.
• If you're choosing where to invest: prefer moving important interaction tests toward a real browser over deepening reliance on event simulation.

Maintenance reality

This repo is not getting active feature work. I'll still try to keep the lights on for security/release breakage when I can, but I don't want people starting new projects on the assumption that user-event is the long-term center of gravity for user interactions.

Cheers,
Kent

The issue names Vitest Browser Mode and Playwright as the entry points, contrasting them with jsdom, happy-dom, and existing jsdom/RTL unit tests. Start by reviewing the linked Vitest and Playwright guidance; done would require a project decision about whether and where to record this migration recommendation.