10 Best Black Box Testing Tools Shortlist
Here's my pick of the 10 best software from the 13 tools reviewed.
With so many different black box testing tools available, figuring out which is right for you is tough. You know you want to test software from an end-user's perspective more efficiently, but need to figure out which tool is best. I've got you! In this post I'll help make your choice easy, sharing my personal experiences using dozens of different black box testing software with various teams and projects, with my picks of the best black box testing tools.
What Are Black Box Testing Tools?
Black box testing tools are software used to test the functionality of other software without any knowledge of the internal workings or code structure. These tools focus on examining the input and output of the software under test, assessing its behavior and functionality as experienced by the end user. They are used for various types of tests, including functional, system, and acceptance testing, without requiring access to the source code.
The benefits of black box testing tools lie in their ability to provide an objective assessment of a software's external functions. They help ensure that the software meets user requirements and behaves as expected in real-world scenarios. These tools are particularly useful for identifying discrepancies in software functionality and user interface, making them ideal for testers who may not have in-depth technical knowledge of the software's internal design. This approach helps in delivering a user-centric product, improving overall software quality and user satisfaction.
Overviews Of The 10 Best Black Box Testing Tools
Here’s a brief description of each tool to showcase each one’s best use case, some noteworthy features, and screenshots to give a snapshot of the user interface.
Mobot is an automated testing tool designed to streamline mobile and web testing by giving testing responsibilities to a mechanical robot. As a result, all tests are almost entirely manual, with the robot carrying out functions and comparing them to a baseline in order to produce a report.
Why I picked Mobot: Due to its manual testing environment, Mobot test plans do not need to include code or even writing. All you need to do is film the test you'd like to run and explain exactly how you want it to be done. The Mobot team can easily convert the video into a custom test plan. Once the plan is automated, the robots can carry out multiple tests at once and generate a report that you can use to identify and fix bugs.
Mobot Standout Features:
- All of Mobot's results are carefully verified by a customer success manager who will flag certain tests for discussion and point out failed tests to make reading reports that much easier.
- All reports include side-by-side testing results compare test screenshots to baseline screenshots.
- Robots perform tests on real devices to help identify device-specific issues, rather than relying on emulators and simulators.
- Robots can also test Bluetooth connections between the testing device and various third party devices, such as headphones.
Mobot Integrations: Mobot integrates with tools like Jira, Slack, and Github. It also supports both Android and iOS.
Price: Mobot pricing starts at $1,500/month/action. Further pricing information is available upon request. A 30-day free trial is available.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- No-code setup saves a lot of time
- Each client receives a Customer Success Manager (CSM) to assist throughout the process
- Condenses 5-days of human-powered testing into 1-day of automated testing
Cons:
- Limited software integrations
Selenium IDE is an open-source integrated development environment with automated testing capabilities. It is a turn-key, web-ready tool that provides easy debugging with its record and playback features.
Why I picked Selenium IDE: By recording your interaction with websites, the tool allows you to generate site automation tests seamlessly. The tool’s capabilities eliminate the need for developers to repeat these manual steps in the programming environment. In addition, it allows DevOps and testers to manage these actions by recording, editing, and debugging tests.
As an accessory to your test environment, the tool is lightweight, providing web browser extensions with minimal overhead and digital footprint.
Selenium IDE Standout Features
- Create, manage and organize test cases and test suites for easy deployment by test teams.
- Ability to execute cross-browser tests with the aid of Selenium WebDriver
- Execute resilient tests that can record and be run from multiple locators for each element
- Seamless recording and playback on popular browsers like Chrome and Firefox
- Saving scripts and loading them up for execution on demand
- Allows you to reuse one test case inside another and Speed control
Selenium IDE Integrations: Apart from its browser plugins, Selenium IDE integrates with Jenkins, Azure DevOps, and IntelliJ.
Pricing: Selenium IDE is open-source and free.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Easy to use
- It doesn’t require any programming language to use it
- Provides the flexibility to write advanced tests
Cons:
- It doesn’t support data-driven testing.
Gremlin
Best for black box testing microservices and container-based applications
Gremlin is an automation framework for systematic and resilience testing based on chaos testing, a subset of chaos engineering. It is geared toward the modern era of computing, as it is helpful for testing cloud apps, microservices, and container-based applications.
Why I picked Gremlin: the tool deliberately breaks things in the tested app and then learns how to make it resilient. It does this by executing tests that allow testers to manipulate inter-service messages at the network level.
The tool’s zero-regression approach helps to minimize service disruptions and code rollbacks that typically attend poorly resilient software products.
Gremlin Standout Features
- Testing failure handling capabilities in cloud infrastructure and applications such as containers and microservices.
- Gremlin’s test automation allows you to test each application layer of infrastructure rigorously, including safely halting and automatically rolling back.
- It comes with a well-documented API and CI/CD to prepare ship quality code fast by running tests that magnify system reliability.
- With Gremlin, you can use a set of 12 Chaos engineering experiments to test for weaknesses in an underlying system.
Gremlin Integrations: Gremlin integrates with LoadRunner Professional 2022.
Price: Gremlin’s pricing starts at $300 per month per service. A 30-day free trial is available.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Easy to learn and use
- Provides engineering teams with reliable, high-velocity testing
- Its testing helps improve outcomes across your technology stack
Cons:
- Gremlin only provides limited support for on-premise chaos injection
Silk Test is an automation testing tool from Micro Focus International. It is designed to perform regression and functionality testing effectively. Through its cross-platform and cross-browser testing, it aims to provide collaborative test design to promote a full range of test coverages.
Why I picked Silk Test: Along with its portability, the tool maintains rigorous quality standards with lower complexity. The tool’s collaborative testing also allows business and technical groups in an organization to work together more effectively.
User can leverage both manual and automated testing capabilities for web, mobile, and enterprise applications. The tool also permits testing desktop and mobile browsers using Selenium scripts to record steps.
Silk Test Standout Features
- Silk Test provides the ability to support your continuous integration (CI) and continuous-deployment (CD) pipelines. Containers can be scrutinized with parallel and dockerized testing.
- Using Skill Test’s Record Testcase command, testers can record actions and verification steps as they navigate the application being tested. Skill Test provides enhanced module reuse capabilities to facilitate manual testing with script files that can contain one or more related test cases.
- Instead of creating multiple test suites for different environments, Skill Test allows you to use a single test script to conduct both web, desktop, and browser tests.
- With Silk Test back-end visualization, testers can save time while producing realistic simulations of service behavior.
Silk Test Integrations: Test teams use Silk Test for mobile and desktop platforms such as Java, DOM, iOS, Android, and Firefox.
Price: Pricing is customized and available upon request. A free demo is available.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Speed and quality with continuous testing
- Easy and intuitive to use
- Supports cross-platform and browser testing
Cons:
- A complex setup that might confuse non-tech-savvy users
MbUnit is a generative and extensible unit testing framework for the C# release by the open Gallio Automation Platform. Previously known as GUnit, MbUnit is feature-rich and comes with a common object model that other test frameworks can capitalize on.
It is simple to use and follows the Simple Test Pattern design pattern to boost the testers’ output, using SetUp, Test, and TearDown actions. MbUnit also comes with XML and serialization assertions.
MbUnit Standout Features
- MbUnit provides a common object model, including a runtime service for the .NET framework. Other test frameworks can use this to extend their own capabilities.
- MbUint uses the Assert class, along with other variations of its unit testing event actions. This also includes support for unit testing your XML code.
- To get the most out of your core multi-core CPU, especially with execution-heavy test suites, MbUnit allows you to mark any test as parallelizable. This subsequently enables the marked test to run parallel with other parallelizable tests in the same fixture.
MbUnit Integrations: No clear-cut integrations are identified except for the implied assumption that it can be plugged in by apps and test suites that use the .NET framework.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- A fluent interface that’s easy and intuitive
- Offers testers a rich plug-in model that can be used in other frameworks
Cons:
- It suffers from a lack of adequate documentation
Best for creating black box test scripts with a test recorder
The IBM Rational Functional Tester is an automated testing framework from IBM for regression, functional, and GUI testing. It can be used for different programming languages and environments, such as Java, AJAX, Power Builder, SAP, .Net, Dojo Toolkit, and Siebel, while encompassing both web-based and terminal emulator-based applications.
Why I picked IBM RFT: the tool gives test engineers the ability to record, playback, and export test scripts with Robotic Response Time agents. In addition, it provides intelligent script maintenance capabilities and various customization options.
When manual testing is impossible to scale effectively, RFT is ideal for a broad range of scenarios. It benefits businesses and organizations of various types, from freelancers, and SMBs, to enterprises. The tool has reporting capabilities that support communication and collaboration in hybrid environments.
RFT Standout Features
- IBM Rational Functional Tester provides capabilities for the end-to-end testing of seemingly diverse systems, which yields a broad range of coverage for QA teams. It allows the flexibility to test legacy and modern applications in different business scenarios.
- RFT facilitates the acceleration of shorter test cycles because it enables test engineers to reuse the same tests with different data sets.
- RFT’s advanced test scripting features, like its Rational Performance Tester. It lets you view and analyze the response time, events, and other metrics during playback. With its ScriptAssure technology, you can handle frequent user interface changes remarkably without incurring much maintenance overhead.
RFT Standout Integrations: RFT provides integrations with other IBM products, such as IBM Jazz® integration, which supports collaborative application lifecycle management. It also integrates with non-native enterprise messaging solutions like JMS and TIBCO EMS.
Price: Pricing is only available upon request. RFT’s Starter Edition is free.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Provides reliable testing at scale
- The ability to easily switch between languages and platforms
- Works well with mainframes
Cons:
- It is difficult to get optimal results with complex Java apps.
Ranorex Studio is a full-featured test automation platform provided by Ranorex GmbH. it provides rapid delivery test automation for desktop, web, and mobile applications. In addition to functional UI tests, Ranorex provides various testing approaches, such as black box, data-driven, regression, key-word driven, and cross-browser testing.
Ranorex is flexible and provides codeless automation. This makes it ideal for both beginners and testing experts. It provides a user-friendly and intuitive interface that allows users to easily drag-and-drop UI elements and code modules.
Ranorex allows cross-functional teams to collaborate effectively by sharing test automation modules and other repositories and reusable objects.
Ranorex Standout Features
- You can use Ranorex to script with programming languages such as VB.NET and C#. it also supports many technologies such as .NET Core, Java, C++, Microsoft Access, Power Builder, and more.
- Ranorex allows you to generate powerful scenarios in your test environment and injects crucial variations.
- In addition to testing mobile and native iOs environments, Ranorex can run regression tests on both virtual and physical machines.
- Machine-trained object detection and intelligent code completion properties and reusable modules with coded automation.
- In addition to recording and replaying test actions, Ranorex has the ability to run parallel tests.
- You can generate test reports in HTML, JUnit-compatible reports, or PDF, including video reporting of test execution.
Ranorex Integrations: Ranorex comes with a built-in Selenium WebDriver which enables it to be versatile and distributed. Other integrations include Jenkins, Jira, TestRail, Azure DevOps, TestShell, Microsoft Studio, SQL, Git, and so on.
Price: Pricing is customized and available upon request. A 30-day free trial is available.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- UI object identification of elements during testing
- Provides a good API for integration
- Useful for both manual and automation testing.
Cons:
- Some users may fight the test setup complicated
QTP/UFT is designed to operate without the need for monitoring systems to intervene. It is designed by Micro Focus and focuses on functional, regression, and service testing.
QTP/UFT (Unified Functional Testing) serves both technical and non-technical users. This unified testing paradigm tests both the front-end and back-end components of a system, supporting both GUI and API testing using virtualized facilities.
QTP/UFT Standout Features
- QTP/UFT allows users to automate actions, then identify and test bugs in real time.
- Testing activities without monitoring the system in intervals while also applying uniformity of actions on different users, data sets, and various browsers on Windows operating systems.
- QTP/UFT provides all services under a common IDE, including GUI testing and non-GUI using API Service Test.
- QTP/UFT uses VB Script as a scripting language.
QTP/UFT Integrations: QTP/UFT uses ALM to integrate with other HP products. It also integrates with SAP and Oracle.
Price: QTP/UFT is provided upon request.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Requires no to minimal monitoring to function effectively
- Enables both API and GUI testing elements
Cons:
- Its execution time is relatively high compared to other testing tools
- Limited to desktop applications and Windows OS
Watir, which stands for “Web Testing Application in Ruby,” is an open-source, automated test tool for the Ruby programming language.
Why I picked Watir: One of the ideal things about this black box testing tool is that it enables the writing of tests in a human way by simulating how users interact with a browser.
It is testing based on automating your browser with Ruby libraries. The tool achieves this by leveraging the built-in OLE capabilities of Ruby to automate browsers.
Watir Standout Features
- Instead of creating a browser simulator like most web-based testing systems, Watir uses OLE protocol to enable a smoother inter-process communication between the browser and Ruby libraries.
- Watir supports the most common and relevant browsers, such as Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Safari.
- Watir boosts the efficiency and effectiveness of your tests and test suites by enabling you to run tests simultaneously.
- Watir facilitates command-line testing so you can execute UI tests without opening a browser, also known as headless testing.
- With page objects, Watir allows testers to reuse code as classes, minimizing code duplication. Meanwhile, it also allows you to measure page performance using its performance object and related properties.
Watir Integrations: Provides integration for cross-browser and automation testing tools such as Cucumber, BrowserStack, and SauceLabs. In addition to Ruby, it also integrates with Python, Rails, and Selenium.
Price: Watir is open-source and free.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- Free, open-source, and very easy to use.
- OLE-based testing with Ruby libraries eliminates the need for an external server.
- Using the Ruby language to write test scripts.
Cons:
- It is only supported by the Ruby framework, and so can’t be used by any other test framework.
Selendroid
Best automated black box testing framework for native, web, and hybrid Android apps
Selendroid is a test automation framework for native or hybrid Android web apps. It is an open-source project based on the Android instrumentation framework.
Why I picked Selendroid: Using emulators as well as hardware devices, Selendroid boosts test efficiency with its capability to interact with several devices simultaneously, making it a great choice for black box testing Android web apps. To write tests, you’ll need to use Selenium 2 client API, also known as Selenium web driver.
Selendroid Standout Features
- Automating user actions and interactions over a mobile application.
- Provides full compatibility with JSON Wire Protocol and Selenium 3 Ready.
- Selendroid provides the advantage of being able to use both
- Scalability and parallel testing are achieved through the ability to integrate emulators and real devices as a node into the Selenium grid.
- Flexibility to extend its runtime with user-generated extensions.
Selendroid Integrations: In addition to providing support for hot plugging of hardware devices, it supports full integration with Selenium frameworks.
Price: Selendroid is open-source and free.
Pros and cons
Pros:
- The ability to test various kinds of android devices.
- There is no duplication of effort as the same concept is used to automate native or hybrid apps.
- You don’t need to modify the app under test to automate it.
Cons:
- To successfully use Selendroid requires testers also to have knowledge of Selenium.
The Best Black Box Testing Tools Summary
| Tools | Price | |
|---|---|---|
| Mobot | $1,500/month/action (tap, swipe, click, etc.) | Website |
| Selenium IDE | Open source and free | Website |
| Gremlin | From $300/month/service | Website |
| SilkTest | Pricing upon request | Website |
| MbUnit | No price details | Website |
| IBM Rational Functional Tester (RFT) | Pricing upon request | Website |
| Ranorex | $3590/year | Website |
| QTP/UFT | Pricing upon request | Website |
| Watir | Free To Use | Website |
| Selendroid | Open source and free | Website |
Compare Software Specs Side by Side
Use our comparison chart to review and evaluate software specs side-by-side.
Compare SoftwareOther Black Box Testing Tool Options
Here are a few more options that didn’t make the top list:
- AutoHotkey
Best Windows macro-creation automation tool for keyboard and mouse functions
- Katalon
Best end-to-end test management platform
- Squish
Best for graphical user interface (GUI) black box testing
How I Selected the Best Black Box Testing Tools
To build this top 12 list, I first evaluated and compared a wide range of black box testing solutions with positive user ratings. After determining my list of top choices, I further honed my list by using the selection criteria below to see how each platform stacked up against the next. I also drew on my years of QA experience to pinpoint the features that add value to the software testing process.
The ability to allow users to define the scope of tests easily. The tools should enable users to specify the priorities for the test run. For instance, if some parts need to be manual or the level of expertise required.
Selection Criteria
Here are the selection and evaluation criteria I used to develop my list of the best tools for this article:
User Interface:
Because black box testing is opaque, its user interface should be complementary, operate with clarity, and have a user-friendly UI.
Usability:
I looked for the ability of the black box testing tool to empower testers with effective functional and regression features, along with the ability to apply these with little or no friction. They should also be useful for a range of black box testing techniques.
Software Integrations:
I favored software integrations that are broad-based, allowing black box testers to work across several domains, environments, and platforms.
Pricing:
Users want a black box testing tool that is a bargain—cost-effective enough that they can afford it without breaking the bank while providing more value for money.
People Also Ask
Here are a few common questions answered about black box testing.
What is Black Box Testing?
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What are the Key Features of Black Box Testing Tools?
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More Software Testing Tool Lists
The black box testing tools are important to include in your QA tech stack, no kit is complete without a full suite of testing software. Below are some other tool lists I've reviewed during my time as a software testing.
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