10 Best Web Application Testing Tools Shortlist
Web application testing is imperative for your application development lifecycle. I’m sure whenever you’ve used applications yourself, you will have found at some point that some functionality doesn’t work, which I know is incredibly frustrating. But it is also easily avoided. In this article, I aim to inform you of the best application testing tools, so you can ensure that your application is being tried and tested, thus avoiding any hiccups when it is live.
Here are the best app testing tools on the market, an overview of each, some use cases and examples, as well as pricing and free trial information.
What Are Web Application Testing Tools?
Web application testing tools are software tools or frameworks that help assess the functionality, performance, security, and quality of web applications. They’re used by software development teams to automate various manual testing tasks and streamline their testing processes. These tools support a range of testing types, such as functional testing, load testing, performance testing, security testing, and API testing. They help you ensure your web applications work as intended and are secure and reliable.
Overviews Of The 25 Best Application Testing Tools
Here’s a brief description of each application testing tool to showcase each one’s best use case, some noteworthy features, and screenshots to give a snapshot of the user interface.
BugHerd
Best for its robust dashboard features
BugHerd is a web-based bug-tracking tool that helps developers manage and track bugs found in web applications. It allows testers to log bugs directly on the website, providing users with all the necessary information to fix them. The software has an intuitive user interface that is easy to use, and its features are accessible from any device or browser. It operates using a feedback system that allows users to send bug reports to a designated dashboard. The dashboard is a central communication hub that enables team members to collaborate, prioritize bugs, and track progress. BugHerd creates an annotated screenshot that shows the bug’s details and records them in the user’s issue tracker.
The platform allows users to make annotations and highlight specific aspects of the web page to capture a precise portrayal of the bug. The software features a highly collaborative interface that enables developers and clients to work together seamlessly. Using the tool, developers can assign bugs to team members best suited to handle the problem. This helps prevent confusion and ensures that the team distributes the workload evenly. BugHerd supports the integration of third-party tools like Slack, GitHub, Asana, and JIRA, making it possible to keep the entire workflow within a single platform.
BugHerd offers a high degree of customization, enabling development teams to tailor workflows to suit the project's specific requirements. Users may even configure which overheads are added to the bug when assigned to a developer and decide which developers will receive notifications for any updates made to the bug. Users can report bugs instantaneously by highlighting them directly on a website's interface. Project managers can see the status of all tasks and updates on their task boards, making it easier to identify issues and monitor progress.
New Relic
Best for real-time performance insights for web application optimization
New Relic is a software analytics product that helps you monitor, troubleshoot, and tune your web applications. It covers everything from real user monitoring to server monitoring, mobile monitoring, and even synthetic monitoring.
The platform includes a feature called APM (Application Performance Monitoring) that lets you see how your app is performing in real-time. You can see things like response time, throughput, error rates, and Apdex score, all in one place. It's also has a feature called Distributed Tracing, which lets you see how requests move through your system.
Key features include backend monitoring, Kubernetes monitoring, mobile monitoring, model performance monitoring, infrastructure monitoring, log management, error tracking, network monitoring, vulnerability management, and browser monitoring.
Integrations include over 500 apps, like AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure; CI/CD tools like Jenkins, CircleCI, and Travis CI; communication tools like Slack and PagerDuty; and other monitoring and analytics tools like Grafana, Datadog, and Splunk. It also has an API you can use to build custom integrations.
New Relic costs from $49/user/month and offers a free plan for 1 user and 100 GB/month of data ingest.
Reflect
Best for easy to use AI-assisted regression testing
Reflect is an AI-powered automated regression testing platform that boosts test coverage without impeding development. Effortlessly create comprehensive end-to-end tests with Reflect, all without the requirement of writing any code.
With Reflect, the testing process becomes intuitive and time-efficient, as it utilizes your web browser as the interface. By merely entering a URL and interacting with your web app normally, Reflect automatically records your actions, transforming them into repeatable tests. This user-friendly approach enables you to run tests as frequently as needed, without the need for any installations. Effortlessly schedule and execute tests with Reflect's built-in scheduler, while seamlessly integrating with your existing CI/CD solution. Reflect offers a perfect solution by integrating with any on-prem or cloud-hosted CI/CD platform, such as Jenkins and CircleCI, enabling you to automate end-to-end tests effortlessly with every deployment or Pull Request.
Discover hidden bugs that are often overlooked with Reflect's advanced visual testing capabilities. Unlike standard website automation software that operates below the user interaction level, Reflect offers first-class visual testing support. Detect and resolve visual regressions, including UI bugs that may not affect site functionality, before they become visible to your users, ensuring a seamless and error-free user experience.
BugBug
Best for automating end-to-end test of web apps
BugBug is a low-code web application testing tool that provides automated checks for regression tests, allowing you to catch all performance issues early. It can detect bugs in any web application written in JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.
The tool offers unlimited collaboration, making it easier for teams to work on projects efficiently and effectively. With its integrated chat feature, team members can easily communicate while working on a project and share progress updates automatically via email notifications. Furthermore, BugBug has an AI-powered smart scan feature that identifies potential points of failure in a codebase quickly and accurately.
BugBug supports multiple types of tests, including unit, integration, end-to-end, and performance tests. Users can also generate API tests using pre-defined scenarios and assertions, which can be executed directly from within the tool or exported as code for further customization if needed. They can simulate real-world traffic scenarios and analyze results in real-time to quickly identify and address any potential bottlenecks or performance issues before going live.
The platform also allows users to create custom test scenarios for specific needs and environments, making it easy to tailor tests according to specific requirements.
BugBug offers a freemium plan with unlimited local test runs and unlimited users. A Pro Plan costs $59/month and offers unlimited cloud tests, test schedules, and CI/CD integrations.
Katalon Studio
Best for end-to-end automated testing
Katalon Studio is an all-in-one application testing platform for simplified web, mobile, API and desktop (Windows, Linux and Mac OS) test automation, and is the alternative to building traditional frameworks with open-source libraries. Katalon Studio offers built-in features such as Object Spy, Debugging UI, Test Artifact Sharing, Retry Failed Tests, Smart Wait, Self-Healing and analytics for test reporting, which provides you complete test coverage from within the toolkit alone.
Katalon Studio provides you with all critical capabilities and stability for functional and end-to-end automated testing, providing your team with a robust testing grid for your application lifecycle. The tool allows you to cycle through every step in weeks instead of months by applying low-code methods for test creation, execution, maintenance, and reporting.
Katalon offers integration with CI/CD tools such as Jenkins, BitBucket, Azure DevOps, VCS platforms such as Git, Github, Azure DevOps Repos, and DevOps tools such as Docker.
The cost of Katalon Studio starts from $69 per user per month. The tool also offers a free version, as well as a 30-day trial to test out all premium features for first-time users.
Mabl
Low-code testing platform with full AI automation
Mabl is a low-code test automation platform that allows you to create and execute test scripts from one platform. The tool doesn’t require the user to know any code, and so allows you to complete software testing using scriptless code by fetching data based on the user’s actions performed.
Mabl provides the possibility of full AI automation testing by testing the end-to-end workflow by using integrated API and UI tests through a single platform. The tool allows you to execute automated API testing using validation of status code responses, headers and body values without interacting with the UI.
Mabl offers customized pricing on request. The tool also offers a free trial.
testRigor
Best for converting existing manual test cases into automated tests
testRigor is an application testing tool that stands out when it comes to the new era of AI-based automation tools. The tool allows you to create tests in plain English, with elements being referenced from a human perspective. testRigor analyzes all possible parameters behind the scenes to use the most useful ones, which results in ultra-reliable tests.
testRigor allows you to dramatically decrease your test maintenance, by allowing you and your team to spend 95% less time on it on average. Instead, the tool allows you to seamlessly build new tests and increase test coverage. testRigor makes the process of converting existing manual test cases into automated tests very straightforward, and users can also define and customize their own wording if they desire.
The cost of testRigor starts at $300 per month and can be tailored to your specific needs. There is a free 14-day trial with no credit card information required upfront.
Rainforest QA
Unified no-code QA platform with 5 hours of free testing per month
Rainforest QA is a no-code regression testing solution that provides a building block approach for creating tests and processes. The tool allows you to easily shift between parallel and sequential testing so you are able to keep pace with the development environment, and reduce time between sprints.
Rainforest QA’s intuitive and simple user interface enables you to better organize your test cases by allowing you and your team to tag cases so you can group them, as well as assign and monitor said test cases which are all managed from a single dashboard. Finally, Rainforest QA also has the results arriving as tests within a suite are still being executed.
Rainforest QA is free to use for the Professional tier, and offers customized pricing for their Enterprise tier. The tool also offers a 14-day free trial.
Selenium
Best for using multiple programming languages
Selenium is an application test automation framework that encapsulates an array of tools and libraries that enable web browser automation. The tool offers you easy interaction and manipulation of HTML elements, allowing you to tweak and customize your tests the way you want to write them. Selenium also provides ease of infrastructure management by providing the test environment to your team.
Selenium interacts with your applications via desktop and mobile browsers, allowing you to execute Javascript code, making it easier to test the dynamic components of your DOM. In addition to Javascript, you can use multiple programming languages such as C#, Python, Ruby and Java with Selenium. This allows for easier implementation within development teams as any developer with expertise in any coding language can use the tool.
Selenium offers a variety of products you can tinker with, including Selenium IDE (development tool typically used for functional and regression tests, as well as for exploratory testing), Selenium Webdriver (open-source software used for automating web applications and testing), and Selenium Grid (powerful tool for scaling automated tests for web applications across various environments).
Selenium is fully open source and free to use.
Appium
Best for mobile application testing
Appium is an application testing tool geared specifically to mobile applications. The tool allows for automation of both iOS and Android platforms, and is easy to set up using Java and Javascript. Appium also allows you to write automation tests at low costs, which is ideal for smaller start ups and projects.
Appium provides the ability to test across multiple platforms, and allows you to automate not just mobile apps, but native and hybrid apps also. The tool allows you to reuse code between platform test suites, helping you to reduce the time spent rewriting tests. Appium also allows you to identify mobile objects easily, as well as define your desired capabilities within your application.
Appium is fully open source and free to use.
The Best Application Testing Tools Summary
Tool | Trial Info | Price | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | BugHerd Best for its robust dashboard features | 14-day free trial | From $39/month | Website |
2 | New Relic Best for real-time performance insights for web application optimization | Free version available | From $49/user/month | Website |
3 | Reflect Best for easy to use AI-assisted regression testing | 14-day free trial + 30 mins free tests | From $200/month | Website |
4 | BugBug Best for automating end-to-end test of web apps | 14-day free trial + free plan available | From $59/month | Website |
5 | Katalon Studio Best for end-to-end automated testing | Freemium plan | From $25/month | Website |
6 | Mabl Low-code testing platform with full AI automation | 14-day free trial | Pricing upon request | Website |
7 | testRigor Best for converting existing manual test cases into automated tests | 14-day free trial + free plan available | From $900/Month | Website |
8 | Rainforest QA Unified no-code QA platform with 5 hours of free testing per month | 14-day free trial | Pricing available upon request | Website |
9 | Selenium Best for using multiple programming languages | Not available | Free To Use | Website |
10 | Appium Best for mobile application testing | Not available | Free to use | Website |
Other Options
- Testpad
Provides a feature for guest testers, which is beneficial to smaller businesses
- Xamarin.UITest
Strong cross-platform capabilities
- Tricentis
Provides both UI and API automation
- Tricentis Testim
AI-based locators to identify and lock-in elements
- TestRail
Best comprehensive solution for Agile teams
- Zephyr Scale
Automates integration to help teams increase their scale
- TestProject
Cloud-based automation test platform that helps software teams build and execute automated tests
- QF-Test
Java, Web and Android test automation tool with automated GUI testing
- Qsome
Software testing platform for digital, ERP and mobile applications
- Cerberus Testing
Open source test automation platform with scalable parallel test execution
- SmartBear TestComplete
Automated testing tool used to create, maintain and execute automated tests for a range of technologies such as .NET, Java, HTML5, Android and iOS
- UFT One
Comprehensive solution with easy-to-use interface, making it suitable for even novice testers
- EggPlant Functional
Test automation solution with image capture and scripting
- TAST
Integration testing system for ChromeOS, and free to use
- Tricentis NeoLoad
automated testing tool geared towards performance testing
- esChecker
Mobile application security testing tool for Android and iOS platforms updated to reflect hacking techniques
- Applitools
AI-powered testing and integrations with modern frameworks such as Selenium
- SoapUI
Application testing platform with the ability to manage endpoints of URL requests
- Tricentis qTest
Scalable test management and analytics solution designed to centralize testing efforts
- Leapwork
No-code testing with the ability to build processes visually
Feel free to check out the 10 best penetration testing tools should you wish to explore options for security testing.
Selection Criteria for the Best Web Application Testing Tools
If you're wondering how I selected the best web application testing tools, here's where I'll break it all down for you. First of all, I started with tools that have high user review and satisfaction ratings. Then, using my experience in QA, I discerned what key criteria were most important for application testing tools and compared how each of them stacked up against the rest.
After careful consideration, I've determined that these are the most important criteria when selecting the best web application testing tools. Here's a brief list outlining the whats and whys of my selection.
Key Features
Here are some of the main features and functionalities I looked for in the web app testing tools I evaluated:
- Cross-platform Capabilities: The ability to test against multiple platforms such as iOS, Android, Windows and Linux is important for full test coverage in all areas the application is compatible with.
- Customizable Test Cases: The user can add and take away fields and categories in their test frameworks. You can set your own parameters for how to run tests.
- Cross-Browser Testing: Testing can be done in parallel across multiple web browsers such as Chrome, Safari and Firefox.
- Programming Language Compatibility: You should be able to test your app whether it’s written in JavaScript, Java, Python, HTML, Ruby, or another scripting language.
Usability
I look for software testing tools with the best user experience for testing web applications. It should be easy to source testers, design tests, review results, and organize data. I also keep an eye out for a user interface (UI) that’s functional and friendly. There are two user interfaces I’m concerned about:
- The testing process should be easy to navigate and well-designed for your testers.
- The web testing tool should be easy to navigate for you, the developer.
Test results should be easy to find and interpret, different operating systems should have UI that suites them best, and it should be easy to simple to find and tweak software configurations.
Integrations
Compatibility with other software development tools is ideal. I look for test management tools that offer plugins for additional functionality, third-party integrations with other cloud-based platforms, and open API for additional connectivity options. Many platforms integrate with tools like GitHub, Jira, Slack, and other popular SaaS solutions.
Pricing
I look for the most comprehensive options, or robust features, for a fair price. Free web application testing tools are great but may not have all the functionality you need. The tools on this list range from $25 per month up to over $900 per month, so there’s quite a range.
People Also Ask
Here are answers to some common questions about web app testing.
What is Web Application Testing?
What are some common types of web application testing?
What's the difference between web and mobile app testing?
Other Testing Tool Reviews
Here are some additional testing tool reviews you might want to check out:
What Do You Think About This List?
Application testing, be it automated or manual, ensures that your application has been fully vetted for bugs before delivery to its end user(s). Choosing the right testing platform for your application development can make all the difference to your team, and I hope you have found the one here for you.
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