In the age of information technology, developing and deploying high-quality software products is rather important. So, it becomes necessary to test these products thoroughly before they are launched in the market. But conducting manual testing has many limitations including the time-consuming process, not being effective on the details, error-prone, and more.
However, using Test automation can tighten up all the loose ends. This process is also widely known as the successful enabler of DevOps and Agile adoption. But beware that using low-level automation for tests can only increase your problems. It is of utmost importance that you find a suitable automation testing tool that could help you deliver a top-notch quality product.
If used right, these tools can prove to be an essential aspect of a software development process. There is a wide range of automation testing tools available in the market that you can leverage to deliver the best in your next project. But the real confusion lies in picking the right tool. Therefore in this article, we will discuss the top 7 tools that are widely known and used by developers around the world for automating software tests.
Selenium is an open-source testing tool that is preferred by thousands of companies in the world. Since its initial launch two decades ago, Selenium is keeping up with the evolving development practices, this automation tool has also grown in various capabilities.
It might pique your interest to know that you can customize this tool to meet the required testing scenarios. And being a script-based tool allows it to let QA engineers have granular control over creating and executing the test scripts.
Despite being an open-source and free automation testing tool, developers prefer to use Selenium over other platforms, browsers, and programming languages. Mainly because it supports both iOS and Android platforms for mobile testing and comes with a large library full of plugins, integrations, and extensions.
Although being a free tool, Selenium can’t provide any kind of support but it does have a large community that can help you solve your queries and overcome all the roadblocks. The community consists of users from different industries that came together to support various initiatives like DevOps, Agile, and Continuous Delivery.
Along with many benefits, Selenium has some limitations too. You need to be skilled enough because you have to code the tests for this tool. So, the learning curve for Selenium is very high. And even if you know how to use the tool, the process of setting up and maintaining it is both very costly and time-consuming.
Even though you can just use this automation tool for web-based applications, it neither possesses any type of reporting capabilities nor does it have any support. Tests in this tool need to be hard coded so it will need a lot of maintenance even if a small change is made in the user interface.
Selenium Grid can execute multiple tests in parallel
Can support multiple browsers and operating systems
Can support multiple programming languages
Can run tests while the browser is minimized
High learning curve
Lacks built-in reporting capabilities
Does not have any technical support system
Can be used only for web-based apps
TestRigor helps testers build complex tests in an end-to-end format using only basic commands in the English language. This marks TestRigor as extraordinarily easy to use. Similar to the creation of the test, its execution is also very fast. All thanks to artificial intelligence technology. It also provides seamless integrations with CI/CD pipelines.
TestRigor is not only capable of creating complex automated tests without writing a single line of code, but it also analyzes all the test parameters to make necessary adjustments in the test to make them stable.
If you create tests using this tool then they will need minimum maintenance in comparison to the tests built using other tools. At every stage of the test, screenshots are taken automatically to help the testers with the debugging process.
As it comes with a wide range of integrations, you can use TestRigor for everything including web, mobile, and API testing. These tests are easily scalable and the platform can support more than 2000 client-browser test combinations.
Based on the cloud which makes it easily scalable.
Can create complex tests with just the basic English language.
Tests created using this tool need less maintenance
Does Not have any test management system
Does Not support mobile applications
TestingSigma is the next automated testing platform on the list that enables testers to create exhaustive tests without writing a single line of code. It is an open-source testing tool that enables you to easily develop tests for API, mobile, and web platforms. You can deploy this solution on-premise within a Linux environment. Not many testing solutions out there possess this unique feature.
Defining specific test environments, and conducting parallel tests on multiple operating systems, browsers, and devices is possible when you are using TestSigma. This might just be an ideal testing solution for the Agile development and Continuous delivery teams.
Moreover, you can extend the functionalities of your platform by using integrations such as Jenkins, BrowserStack, Slack, Jira, and more.
Data profiles
AI solutions for test errors
Making tests more resilient by using NLP methods to create them
Unified end-to-end testing solution for API, mobile, and web platforms
Advanced test management features
Can't set up automated linked tests
Can't customize the dashboard
Free plan: Unlimited users, 200 automated testing minutes/month, and 5GB cloud storage
Premium plan: Unlimited users, 50GB storage, and testing minutes for $349/month
Customized plans are also available
Every developer would want to use an advanced tool but not all can. Why? Because some of them are too complicated to use whereas others are too expensive. And some of them might be both. But not Katalon. This automated testing tool is very easy to use and comes at affordable rates. Even its free version offers the basic testing suite. And if you go Pro, you get a complete feature-rich version.
With features like code suggestions, syntax highlighting, and debugging, creating a test is not that much of a big deal. What's truly astounding is that Katalon provides many pre-built templates that you can use to get started with the testing very quickly. More importantly, you don't need an additional integration to conduct API testing.
Katalon comes with a variety of integrations along with an easy-to-use GUI and the most amazing analytics and reporting features. Although an added dual scripting system makes Katalon more versatile, the same can not be said in terms of scripting languages.
Creating tests is easy with pre-built templates
CI workflows are heavily integrated with DevOps
Intuitive reporting and dashboards
Variety of Integrations
Maintenance and reliability issues
Some performance issues
Limited in terms of scripting language support
The free version offers a basic testing suite
The premium version is available at $1899 per user for a one year license.
It also provides a floating license for runtime engine form at $1499 for a year.
TestComplete is a cloud-based test automation tool. Using the workflow and intuitive features of the platform, anyone from novice to expert level can build and run tests. The platform is so versatile that even the methods provided to create tests range largely from simple to complex levels, where simple refers to recording the test step and playback it and complex refers to coding the tests with the help of programming languages.
You can use various programming languages to build end-to-end tests and feature integrations along with CI/CD solutions.
Anyone can create tests
Large numbers of integrations are available
Amazing object recognition
Versatile cloud-based testing
Scalable
UI is very old-fashioned
Name mapping has serious issues
No documentation available for this tool
Fix plans - $1,450 and higher
Flexible plans - $3,260 and higher
Applitools is armed with cutting-edge technologies that can help you provide top-notch automated testing with self-maintaining tests. Applitools offers a visual AI which is basically an AI-assisted computer vision technology. This not only helps in self-maintaining the tests but also in preventing test fragility which could yield better results. You can also easily integrate this testing tool with any major framework.
Visual AI-enabled Applitools enables you to develop powerful self-maintaining tests as well as a comprehensive suite of tests within a few minutes. Equipped with AI-assisted computer vision testing, Applitools can come in handy during visual regression testing or assertion testing. Any test case that includes some dynamic visual content is easy to carry out for Applitools.
Anyhow, there is a big limitation of Applitools. To function properly, it would need the support of a functional testing framework like Cypress or Selenium.
Visual AI-enabled self-maintaining tests
Faster test creation
A comprehensive suite of integrations
Complex and old-fashioned dashboard
Execution of tests is slow
Incomplete JavaScript documentation
In a free account, you can test up to 100 checkpoints
Starter packages and enterprise plans are very flexible.
Appium is armed with features that are designed for the sole purpose of mobile test automation. The process of creating tests with Appium is rather easy and intuitive. It not only enables you to build and run multiple tests but it also helps you keep track of the test results.
You can get really valuable insights when working with Appium as it renders detailed data regarding the tests along with videos and screenshots. The test reports generated with this tool are also very detailed so that they can help the testers understand their products.
Similar to other automated testing platforms, Appium can also conduct parallel tests but what makes it unique is its remote testing capabilities. Appium can allow multiple teams spread across the entire globe to run parallel tests together. This is possible because Appium testing is based on the cloud.
Packed with powerful features
Open-source
Detailed documentation
Large and strong community
Some stability issues are reported
Initial deployment is not easy
No software isn't ever developed in the world that is bug-free or doesn't have any issues. The best thing you can do is thoroughly test the product for bugs and issues and then fix it. You need a team of experienced testers and a suite of powerful testing tools to get things done.
The tools we discussed in this blog are all battle-tested so the only question remains which one of these tools is perfectly capable to fulfill your software testing requirements?