Automation Testing Tools – How to Choose The Right One
Automation testing tools are applications that use automated test scripts to check function and/or non-function requirements.
As the Agile and DevOps manifesto has become the standard for software testing, it is important to set up a clear plan for evaluating automation testing tools. In the end, this plan will have to answer the following questions:
- What features are you looking for?
- Who’s going to use the tool for testing? Devs or QA teams?
- Can it be integrated with CI/CD pipelines or toolchains?
- Is it easy to maintain scripts and reuse test assets?
- What is your team’s budget?
- Where can you get support for technical issues?
Plus, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all automation tool. It boils down to your team’s specific needs.
Top 15 List of Automation Testing Tools (with Feature Highlights)
Katalon Studio
Katalon Studio is a low-code and scalable automation testing tool for web, API, desktop (Windows), and mobile applications. The Katalon community has surpassed 1 million users, and it is the trusted automation solution of over 100,000 businesses.
Users can now download the tool and focus solely on testing, as coding and building a test automation framework are no longer required. Furthermore, Studio provides frequent releases to ensure compatibility with the most recent platforms/browsers/OS.
Feature Highlights:
- Flexible methods for test design: Record & Playback, Manual and Scripting Mode
- Supported testing methodologies: BDD, DDT, Keyword-Driven Testing, Cross-Browser Testing (Headless, Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari), and Cross-Platform Mobile Testing (iOS, Android)
- Automatic Retry Failed Tests, Smart Wait, and Self-Healing mechanisms
- Reusable test objects, keywords, and test cases with Test Artifact Sharing and Page Object Model design
- Native integrations with popular CI/CD and ALMs tools (Jira, GitLab, Jenkins, BitBucket, Azure DevOps, etc.)
- Smart Debugging UI and test reporting to troubleshoot failures quickly
- Detailed tool documentation and video tutorials on Katalon Academy
Price: Free or $159/month
Selenium
Selenium, released in 2004, is one of the most popular open-source frameworks for web testing automation. Its software suite includes Selenium WebDriver, Selenium Grid, and Selenium IDE.
Feature Highlights:
- Supported programming languages: Java, C#, Python, JavaScript, Ruby, PHP, etc.
- Supported browsers: Chrome, Firefox, IE, Microsoft Edge, Opera, Safari, etc.
- Testing on local or on remote machines via the Selenium server
- Parallel and cross-browser executions to reduce execution time and increase test coverage
- Integrations with other testing frameworks (like TestNG for reporting) and CI/CD tools
Price: Free
Appium
Like Selenium, Appium is an open-source automation testing tool for mobile applications. Using mobile JSON wire protocol, Appium allows users to write automated UI tests for native, web-based, and hybrid mobile applications on Android and iOS.
Feature Highlights:
- Supported programming languages: Java, C#, Python, JavaScript, Ruby, PHP, Perl
- Cross-platform testing with reusable test scripts and the same APIs
- Execution across real devices, simulators, and emulators
- Integrations with other testing frameworks and CI/CD tools
Price: Free
TestComplete
TestComplete can automate functional UI testing for desktop, mobile, and web applications. TestComplete can handle and identify dynamic UI elements in most available technologies, thanks to built-in support for 500+ controls and third-party frameworks.
Feature Highlights:
- Supported programming languages: JavaScript, Python, VBScript, JScript, Delphi, C++, C#
- Flexible methods for test design: Record & Playback, manual and scripting modes with built-in keywords.
- Object identification with property-based and AI visual recognition
- Parallel, cross-browser and cross-device testing
- Integrations with other testing frameworks, CI/CD tools, and SmartBear ecosystem
Price: From $2,702/year
Cypress
Cypress is a developer-centric automation tool for end-to-end web testing that only supports JavaScript frameworks. Cypress, built on a new architecture, can operate directly within a browser in the same run-loop as your application, enabling native access to elements and faster executions.
Feature Highlights:
- Supported programming language: JavaScript
- Snapshots of test step execution and debuggability from familiar developer tools
- Control over function behavior, server response, timers, and network traffic
- Connection to Dashboard Service for test performance and optimization
- Integrations with popular CI/CD tools
Price: Free or from $75/month for Dashboard Service
Ranorex Studio
Ranorex Studio can automate GUI testing for web, mobile, and desktop applications. Ranorex’s framework, which includes low-code automation and a full IDE, is simple for beginners and productive for experienced testers.
Feature Highlights:
- Supported programming languages: VB .Net and C#
- Broad support for web, mobile, and desktop technologies
- Ranorex Spy tool and RanoreXPath for reliable recognition of GUI elements
- Flexible methods for test design: Record & Playback and scripting mode
- Distributed or parallel testing with Selenium Grid
- Integrations with other testing frameworks and CI/CD tools
Price: From €2,890/year
Perfecto
Perfecto is a cloud-based and automated testing platform for web and mobile applications. From automated cross-environment executions, custom capabilities, test analysis, and broad integrations, Perfecto makes continuous testing more achievable for DevOps teams.
Feature Highlights:
- Scriptless test creation for UI web applications
- Real-user stimulation for mobile testing: network visualization and other environmental conditions
- Parallel and cross-platform executions
- Advanced test analytics with centralized dashboard and AI noise filtering
- Integrations with other testing frameworks and CI/CD tools
Price: From $125/month
LambdaTest
LambdaTest provides automated testing on the cloud. Its cloud service allows teams to scale up their test coverage with speedy parallel, cross-browser, and cross-device testing.
Feature Highlights:
- Online Selenium Grid on the cloud of over 2000 devices, browsers, and OSs
- Support for Cypress test scripts parallel and cross-browser executions
- Geolocation web testing across over 27 countries
- Integrations with other testing frameworks and CI/CD tools
Price: From $99/month
Postman
Postman is one of the most widely-used automation testing tools for API. It allows users to write different tests, from functional integration to regression tests, and execute them automatically in CI/CD pipelines via the command line.
Feature Highlights:
- Friendly and easy-to-use interface equipped with code snippets
- Support for multiple HTML methods, Swagger, and RAML formats
- Broad support for API schemas to generate collections and API elements
- Test suite creation, executions with parameterization, and debugging
- Integrations with popular CI/CD tools
Price: Free or from $12/user/month
SoapUI
SoapUI is an open-source API testing tool for REST and SOAP Web Services. Some vital features include automated functional, performance, regression, and security testing. Users can also aim for the commercial version – ReadyAPI (formerly SoapUI Pro), for more advanced capabilities.
Feature Highlights:
- Drag and Drop to create tests, even with complex scenarios
- Service stimulation to reduce efforts of building production systems for testing
- Quick and easy test script reusability
- More protocol support, capabilities, and CI/CD integration with ReadyAPI
Price: Free or from $749/year for ReadyAPI
Eggplant Functional
Being a part of Eggplant’s ecosystem, Eggplant Functional is a GUI automation testing tool for mobile, desktop, and web applications. An image-based approach allows a single script to automate different combinations of platforms and technologies.
Feature Highlights:
- Flexible methods for test design: recording, manual mode, and assisted scripting
- Unique English-like scripting language – SenseTalk
- Connection to Eggplant ecosystem for more testing capabilities and monitoring
- Integrations with popular CI/CD tools
Price: Contact sales
Tricentis Tosca
Tricentis Tosca is a comprehensive web, API, mobile, and desktop testing automation tool. It employs a unique model-based testing approach that enables users to scan an application’s UI or APIs to generate a business-familiar model for test creation and maintenance.
Feature Highlights:
Codeless test creation and high reusability of test assets with the model-based approach
- Risk-based test optimization with smart test design and requirement prioritization
- Service virtualization to stimulate and build realistic testing environments
- API scanning with extensive support for API Technologies
- Parallel and cross-platform testing
- Integrations with other testing frameworks and CI/CD tools
Price: Contact sales
Apache JMeter
This open-source tool is designed for automated performance testing, primarily for web applications. It can stimulate many users to access web services and analyze the performance of the AUT. Jmeter can also be used for functional API testing.
Feature Highlights:
- Friendly and easy-to-use interface
- Test plan creation with recording feature
- Test execution in both GUI and CLI modes
- Support for many different servers, applications, and protocol types
- Integrations with popular CI/CD tools
Price: Free
Robot Framework
Robot Framework is a generic open-source framework for test automation, especially for acceptance testing and test-driven development. Built with a keyword-driven approach, it’s low-code to start and also extensible with a rich ecosystem of tools and libraries.
Feature Highlights:
- Test case creation with easy tabular syntax
- Keyword-driven and data-driven testing support
- Variables for testing in different environments
- Support for plenty of external libraries and integrations with other tools
Price: Free
Protractor
This open-source framework automates end-to-end testing primarily for Angular and AngularJS applications. It works as an integrator of Selenium, WebDriver, Jasmine, NodeJS, and other technologies. Protractor can also work well for regression testing with non-Angular apps.
Feature Highlights:
- Test execution in a real browser using native events
- Element identification in Angular applications with extended HTML attributes
- Support for behavior-driven development frameworks like Jasmine and Mocha
- Automatic waiting
- Parallel and cross-browser testing with Selenium Grid
Price: Free
Choose the Best Automation Testing Tool for You
It is unnecessary to emphasize the importance of automation testing tools. Don’t choose one based solely on the success of other teams. Instead, choose the best-fit option based on your team’s specific needs, human resources, and future scalability.
If your testing team consists of experienced developers, using Selenium or Appium as an automation framework can be advantageous because it allows you to build and scale from the ground up.
However, if your team consists primarily of manual testers and requires a low-code solution that can also scale with the team’s future scalability, ready-made frameworks such as Katalon Studio can be an excellent choice.
It is simple to create, run, and maintain tests, as well as obtain centralized analytics of test results.