It’s no secret that quality assurance testing automation is rising in the software development lifecycle. This article gives an overview of the best automated software testing tools. It is also worth mentioning that since automation only supplements and does not replace manual testing. It is still essential to provide a strong manual testing process. Further, data-driven testing is flexible as well as changing due to the finely tuned process by usage of varied sets of data according to the needs at hand.
Automation testing means using software for testing another software. If applied correctly, the automation strategy helps reduce costs and contribute to overall engineering and testing culture. Playback tools can also smooth the process though it’s absolutely essential understanding underlying mechanisms.
The sea of contemporary QA automation software can easily overwhelm those seeking the right automation solution. In this post, we’ve cherry-picked some of the best automated software testing tools to take over the time-consuming and resource-intensive tasks that improve the overall performance and the functionality of the product.
Open-Source vs. Commercial QA Automation Software
Another criterion to picked the software is value. There are a lot of free automation tools which are very popular inside the community of the testers. Like Selenium or Protractor.
This has a lot of advantages, but the most important of all is that it adheres to a better licensing pricing strategy. And that the solutions can be customized or extended through collaboration.
Yet, the downsides to open-source automation tools might be quite important.
The one that comes first among them is security. Thus, the open-source QA automation tools may not fit the bill for projects that pay due attention to security parameters, scalability, robust features, and dedicated support. Other cons of the open-source tools are such as taking longer to set up, few features that they have. And also reported with non-specific or even incomprehensible.
Thus, a free solution for automation testing benefits both single testers and small or middle-sized business as well. It is definitely worth keeping in mind that commercial software is big business-oriented, secure. And, if wisely chosen, has the full stack of features necessary for the target testing in question.
Comparative Descriptions of Best Automated Software Testing Tools
1. Selenium (best automated software testing tools)
Selenium remains the first choice among web applications automation testing tools.
It’s a powerful driver of cross browser testing. Selenium framework can be used for many test types, ranging from compatibility and integration to smoke, sanity, end-to-end, and regression testing. It is compatible with major cross browsers (Chrome, Firefox, etc) and platforms providing cross-platform capabilities as necessary in diverse device environments. It can be said that Selenium as WebDriver, IDE, and Grid together comprises not a tool but a toolbox for browser automation. Selenium helps in developing detailed test scripts to help one fine tune workflow empowering organized testing.
There is no requirement of licensing the tool. However, the value is a little bit tricky for Selenium. Since it was an open-source tool initially and thus might require workforce to set and maintain.
2. LambdaTest
Presently, there is a LambdaTest’s online approached cross-browser testing platform for websites which is cloud-based.
The system is executed through the Selenium Automation Grid. Key words here could be online and cloud based. As exactly these two words make it possible to avoid in-house responsibilities of maintenance and running of Selenium infrastructure. It has all the advantages of Selenium Grid that are, running parallel tests in multi browsers and multi environments. This includes features are for the latest and legacy browsers as it supports all operating systems such are Microsoft, Linux, and MacOS.
Another thing about LambdaTest is that it has improved reporting capabilities. Since it offers not only command screenshots but also a video recording of the script execution. It’s one of the best automated performance testing tools for identifying speed and crashes. I is also effective in identifying any issues in UI inconsistencies, design responsiveness, and code validation.
LambdaTest plans start from $15 a month. LambdaTest Lite, which is free, comes with limitations such as 60 minutes/month of real-time browser testing. And six sessions of browser testing of 10 minutes each. The free test suite might be a good choice for individual testers or small businesses. Moreover, LambdaTest provides integration with several CI/CD tools, such as Jenkins, Circle CI, Travis CI, etc.
3. Cucumber
Cucumber is a cross-browser user interface test tool with the BDD (Behavior Driven Development) approach. In case of BDD, the test scenarios are defined before writing the code. All aspects of test scenarios should be written in Given-Then-When-Gherkin syntax. Here’s an example of testing an ATM cash withdrawal scenario from Gherkin Open Studio:
Gherkins presupposes use of “simple English sentences” for the creation of the scenarios. Thus, any member of the team can read, understand, and contribute to the test case. This makes it possible to link business and QA analysts, software engineers, automation. And manual testers, product owners, and developers through its specific readable syntax. Cucumber is also easy and may be a great tool for new testers in UI test automation.
On the other hand, the fact that Cucumber involves more dependencies may become an issue as well, And parallelization might become problematic.
4. Protractor
Protractor is one of the best automated software testing tools for integrating testing in Angular and AngularJS applications. The objective of integration testing is to check the operation of separate subsystems, When they are joined together as a single system. The legend says that Protractor was built by Google. In order to test Angular apps which was later released as open-source framework.
Protractor has the most powerful feature because, for instance, it provides the tools and technology combination of NodeJS, Selenium WebDriver, Jasmine, Cucumber, and Mocha within one roof. This is because Protractor was built as a wrapper around Selenium WebDriver, which means that it supports all the Selenium features along with the Angular features. Protractor supports both non-angular and angular applications nowadays. As far as angular-oriented features of Protractor, it can find and manage with various special locators, which include ng-repeater, ng-controller, ng-model and so on.
The other advantage of Protractor is that when testing, it is not necessary to add waits or sleeps to the test, because it takes all pain of webpage and test synchronization from the tester plate.
5. Cypress.io
Cypress is a one of the recently developed best automated software testing tools for end-to-end testing targeted at front-end developers and testers. This is a Javascript-based automation framework and one could also create integration and unit tests. It was built on top of Mocha, and officially their website states that, “Cypress makes it easy to set up, write, run and debug tests.”
It is very attractive to use in the arsenal of end-to-end automation testing as it allows for snapshots while running the tests, simple debugging, network traffic control, automatic waiting, and clearable code. The UI appears correctly across different browsers due to its visual testing capabilities.
However, real jam of Cypress web-based app testing is test execution in a real browser unlike Selenium executions in the headless ones. In fact, this breakthrough counts on behalf of Cypress’s rivalry with Selenium today. Cypress also offers another vital feature which has been “built so that testing and development can occur simultaneously”. This saves time in the development cycle. Can anyone argue that this is a major plus factor when time is of the essence?
Cypress, if it were to be named, JavaScript or die 🙂 This requires high level of JS technical skills, however the developers of the automation tool tend to portray it as an advantage.
Therefore, Cypress may be an excellent option for experienced JS cross-browser testers who seek to switch to something more modern and efficient. It has a free version that comes with limitations, but can be used for individual or small business purposes. The team plan starts at $75/month. Moreover, there are many complete tutorials that help to ease learning process.
6. Apache Jmeter
Apache Jmeter is a shining star in the sky of best automated software performance testing tools. It mainly assesses the speed, responsiveness, and reliability of a computer, network, software, or device. Additionally, Apache Jmeter could be used for performance evaluation and GUI testing to ascertain the interface interacts as planned under different circumstances, offering functionality and usability assurance.
So, what does JMeter do? It mimics the number of users that request the network or server and returns statistics through visual charts.
One of the notable advantages of JMeter is that by using their GUI and following their documentations you can write test scenarios without knowing any programming language.
7. Appium
Mobile app automation testing, so? Appium to the rescue. “According to official Appium website, Appium is an open-source test automation framework for use with native applications, mobile applications, and hybrid applications”. And the slogan is: “Appium makes mobile testing awesome.” And now let’s see how much fun (or not) it may turn out to be in more detail.
One of the most notable attributes of Appium include that the same app tested across platforms since Appium uses Selenium WebDriver API that specifies a client-server protocol that uses vendors’ frameworks under the hood. It is efficient and consistent to reuse test scripts and components in different test cases. The other good thing about Appium is that it is also used for testing on real devices and emulators. This may be crucial to the testing process.
The testing community has labeled some major Appium drawbacks such as a tricky setup, a time-consuming test management, and a steep learning curve. However, Appium has just a few disadvantages, which makes it one of the most popular automation tools.
8. Ranorex
Ranorex is a test automation tool for web, desktop, and mobile. This tool provides numerous benefits, such as codeless test creation, recording and replaying testing phases, and reusable test scripts.
As we can observe, it is a complete and suitable tool both for beginners (since Ranorex provides a codeless interface) and for experts that, for instance, handle open APIs and have a full IDE. Additionally, Ranorex integrates tools, such as Git, Jenkins, TestRail, and Bamboo.
Ranorex’s dynamic IDs provide good object identification. Plus, this tool offers a shareable object repository, which can save testers a lot of time. Another great benefit is that Ranorex offers video reporting of test execution. This feature allows testers to follow everything that happened without re-running tests.
9. Eggplant
Eggplant was developed by TestPlant to provide testers the possibility to execute different types of testing. Similar to Selenium, Eggplant is not a single tool but rather a suite of tools for automation testing, and each tool performs different types of testing.
In that sense, while on the one hand, Eggplant performance is used for performance, stress testing, and load. On the other hand, the functional testing tool is precisely focused on what the name indicates. One of the greatest features is that it allows testers to interact with the applications in the same way the end users will.
Plus, Eggplant’s Digital Automation Intelligence is primarily used for application testing, as well as GUI testing. This suite tool follows an image-based approach, unlike the majority of automation testing tools, which tend to work on an object-based approach. Further, in Eggplant, it is possible to use a single script to execute testing on operating systems like Windows, macOS, Linux, and so on.
10. Kobiton
Kobiton is a cloud-based platform that can perform both manual and automated mobile and web testing. Its AI-driven scriptless approach can automate performance, visual and UX, functional, and compatibility testing. In addition, Kobiton offers automated crash detection, which ensures comprehensive quality.
Kobiton also provides CI/CD integrations (GitHub, TeamCity, Jenkins, etc.) and supports Selenium WebDriver, Katalon Studio, and Appium. This tool stands out for its fast process of testing mobile apps; thus, being a great tool to keep up with DevOps’ speed.
Additional features include the ability to capture users’ interactions and screenshots, as well as the ability to record videos.
Conclusion
So, as software development is heading towards fully automated testing, this article examined 10 best automated software testing tools out there. Automation is important but cannot cover all areas in the system and therefore manual testing still plays a critical role. This decision comes down to issues like safety and scalability.
Discover some particular instruments. With regard to web application testing, selenium stands out, while LambdaTest offers cloud-based cross browser testing and the cucumber encourages collaboration with its readable syntax. Firstly, it concentrates on Angular apps, Cypress.io – contemporary JS-based platform for the full cycle examination, Apache JMeter – champion in performing tests and lastly Appium works at mobile applications automation.
Overall, choosing the best option is dependent upon the correspondence of functions with the test requirements and taking into account security-related issues. Careful selection of tools is crucial to effective software development as organizations opt for efficiency.
People Also Ask
1. What is the best QA automation tool?
There is no single “best” QA automation tool as it depends on your specific needs and project requirements. However, the article highlights several popular tools with their strengths and weaknesses:
- Selenium: Open-source, powerful, and versatile for web applications, but requires more setup and maintenance.
- LambdaTest: Cloud-based, cross-browser testing platform with good reporting features, but can be expensive for larger projects.
- Cucumber: BDD (Behavior Driven Development) approach encourages collaboration with readable syntax, but may have dependencies and parallelization issues.
- Protractor: Integrates well with Angular and AngularJS applications, but not as widely used for other technologies.
- Cypress.io: Modern, JavaScript-based framework for end-to-end testing, requires high JS skills and has a limited free version.
- Apache JMeter: Performance testing tool for websites and applications, requires minimal coding knowledge.
- Appium: Open-source framework for mobile app automation, efficient for cross-platform testing but can have a steep learning curve.
- Ranorex: Codeless test creation and reusable scripts for beginners and experts, good object identification and video reporting.
- Eggplant: Suite of tools for various testing types, image-based approach and single script for multiple operating systems.
- Kobiton: Cloud-based platform for both manual and automated mobile and web testing, AI-driven scriptless approach and fast testing process.
2. Which is the most widely used automation testing tool?
Selenium is considered the most widely used automation testing tool due to its open-source nature, powerful features, and cross-browser compatibility.
3. Which platform is best for automation testing?
The best platform for automation testing depends on your specific needs. Cloud-based platforms like LambdaTest offer scalability and ease of use, while open-source tools like Selenium provide more flexibility and customization. Consider factors like budget, project size, and technical expertise when choosing a platform.
4. What are automated tools for software testing?
The article mentions several automated tools for software testing, including:
- Selenium
- LambdaTest
- Cucumber
- Protractor
- Cypress.io
- Apache JMeter
- Appium
- Ranorex
- Eggplant
- Kobiton
These tools can be used for various testing types, such as web application testing, mobile app testing, performance testing, and API testing.
5. Which automation tool is in demand 2023?
The article mentions Cypress.io as a modern and in-demand tool for its JavaScript-based approach and ease of use. However, other tools like Selenium and Appium remain popular choices for their established track records and wide range of features.
6. Are QA automation testers in demand?
Yes, QA automation testers are in high demand due to the increasing adoption of automation in software development. The article mentions that automation cannot replace manual testing entirely, but skilled testers who can combine both approaches are highly valued.
Remember, the best way to choose a QA automation tool is to carefully evaluate your specific needs and compare the features and benefits of different options.
