Automation testing tools are designed to test the functional and non-functional software requirements with automatic test scripts. These tools help in accelerating release velocity, build project quality, and improving project outcomes. Many software testing companies prefer to use automated testing tools for developing an error-free business app/software.
Automated testing tools help you to create, execute and maintain the automated test scripts; and support a streamlined view of analytics and test results. In this article, we will see some well-known automated testing tools. You can pick any of them depending on your team’s expertise, project requirements, and other software-related factors. Let’s begin then!
How to pick a suitable automated testing tool?
Selecting the best automation tool for testing can be tedious. You cannot pick any tool, instead, you have to keep various factors in mind. Make sure your team is clear about their specific requirements. Depending upon that you can filter out some tools.
Furthermore, you can see the scalability and features of the tools. For instance, if your testers are well experienced, you can pick Appium or Selenium for automation testing. However, if you have manual testers, you can pick a low-code solution. One can use the Katalon platform at that time.
Here’s the list of the best-automated testing tools that organizations use for performing automated testing:
Selenium
Selenium is one of the open-source web testing automation tools that is currently in demand. It is a widely used testing tool among the testers. It is the best QA Automation tool that automates the QA process across Operating systems like Mac, Windows, and also Linux, and search engines like Chrome, Firefox, etc.
Selenium Key Features:
- The test scripts of Selenium can be written in different programming languages like C#, Java, Ruby, PHP, Python, JS, and Perl.
- This tool offers playback features with the add-on Selenium IDE
- Selenium WebDriver is a powerful tool that assists you to develop more advanced and complex automation scripts.
- Free-to-use tool
Pros
- Strong testing capabilities
- It supports multiple programming languages
- Different customization options
Cons
- Testers are required to have programming knowledge
ACCELQ
This is an AI-powered test automation platform that is codeless and is cloud-based. It seamlessly automates API, Web UI, Desktop, and Mobile testing. ACCELQ has customers like Fortune 500 across the industry globally. This company adopted ACCELQ for accelerating its project automation objectives easily.
This platform is proven to increase automation development 3x faster and also minimize maintenance by almost 70%. This translates to over 50% cost savings and enables continuous delivery options.
ACCELQ Key Features:
- Automate business process that is easy to visualize and execute
- No vendor lock, codeless in-built framework
- Accepts any OS and browser, is cloud-based, and performs actionable reporting
- Comprehensive taxonomy, visual test, and requirement mapping
- Plug and Play, in-sprint automation, web-desktop-mobile API
- Free trial for first 14 days
- You can request a free quote if you want to use this platform.
Pros
- Codeless or No-code platform
- Easy learning curve
- Amazing customer support
Cons
- Costs can be higher sometimes
- Test cases fail sometimes!
Appium
Like the Selenium platform, Appium is also an open-source and free-to-use automation testing tool but it is for mobile apps only. With mobile JSON wire protocol, this tool allows you to develop automated UI tests for web-based, native, and hybrid apps of iOS and Android.
Appium Key Features:
- It supports programming languages like C#, Java, JS, Ruby, Python, Perl, PHP, etc.
- One can perform cross-platform testing with different reusable test scripts and the same APIs
- Executing tests across simulators, real devices, and also emulators
- This tool integrates well with different testing frameworks and also CI/CD tools
- Free-to-use tool
Pros
- It is a feature-rich and open-source platform
- Large user and support community
- Appium has detailed documentation
- Custom dashboard and quality report generation
Cons
- Initial usage can become difficult
- Rarely stability issues may occur
Katalon Studio
Katalon Studio is an automation testing tool that supports testing for mobile apps and web development environments. It works well with Appium and Selenium, testing and hence it simplifies API, mobile, and web automation tests. It integrates a variety of tools like JIRA, Kobiton, qTest, Slack, Git, etc.
Its robustness, stability, and popularity can be witnessed by the fact that this tool was recognized recently with Gartner Peer Insights Customer Choice recognition in the software test automation competition.
Katalon Key Features:
- It is a versatile tool that runs well on macOS, Linux, and Windows
- There are many in-built keywords in this tool that are used for developing test cases
- Also, you require minimum programming skills for using Katalon
- It is a free to use tool and the premium version has flexible payment plans.
Pros
- In-built installed templates available for easy and fast test creation
- Amazing and quick integration with CI and DevOps
- Intuitive dashboards and reporting
Cons
- Limited scripting language support
- Performance issues
TestComplete
TestComplete is a tool that helps with full features, and strong test automation and is cloud-based. It has intuitive functionalities and makes workflow easy for experienced people and assists them to run and create tests. This platform is versatile and creates test cases from simple tests to complex tests.
The TestComplete platform supports various programming languages like Python and JavaScript. It also develops enhanced end-to-end tests that have a variety of features like CI/CD solutions.
TestComplete Key Features:
- The testing team can make code or codeless test cases. With the use of playback and record, or script in modern languages like Python, VBScript, JS, etc.
- Object recognition feature using AI and ML
- It supports testing complex apps like Oracle EBS, SAP, and also SalesForce
- Runs UI tests (functional) simultaneously in the cloud or local machines for quick testing and delivery
- It integrates easily with various tools in the ecosystem like test management, CI/CD, version control, etc.
- 30 Day-free trial
Pros
- Easy Git integration
- Offers support for various scripting languages
- Multiple platforms support
Cons
- Hard to learn
Cypress
Cypress platform focuses especially on end-to-end testing and also on those projects which use modern JS frameworks. Cypress works particularly well with Vue, React, Angular, and other JS frameworks. Additionally, it can work like magic with apps that are server-rendered.
It is an open-source solution that is well-known for in-depth and detailed documentation and has included libraries and a large number of features like shadow DOM, DOM manipulation, etc. These features are used to develop strong end-to-end test scenarios with smooth test creation and implementation.
Other than executing parallel tests, Cypress allows interception of traffic in the network and also mocks app code. These features are not found easily in different test automation which specializes in end-to-end testing.
Cypress Key Features:
- Supports JavaScript programming languages
- It snapshots the test execution and also debuggability from well-known developer tools
- Control over server response, function behavior, network traffic, and timers
- Easy connection with Cypress Cloud for executing tests of performance and optimization
- Easy integration with good CI/CD tools
- Free and premium versions both are available
Pros
- Well-structured documentation
- Speedy test execution and creation
- Excellent JS tools support
Cons
- Support for iframes is lacking
- Steep learning curve
- Only for Chrome and Chrome-based web browsers
Over to you
Automated testing tools like Selenium, Cypress, etc. have become an essential part of software testing, and they help testers with various benefits too. They help to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of testing while minimizing the time and effort required for manual testing.
In this article, we discussed some of the top automated testing tools available in the market, which can help testing experts streamline their testing processes and deliver high-quality software. While each tool has its unique features and benefits, choosing the right tool for your project is based on various factors like project requirements, team skills, and budget.
Hence, it is crucial to know your project needs and deeply evaluate each tool’s strengths and weaknesses before making a final decision. With the right automated testing tool and QA service provider, testers can ensure that the software meets the highest standards of quality and performance.