10 Best Web Automation Tools For QA Shortlist
- 6. IBM Rational Functional Tester (RFT) — Automates functional, regression, and GUI testing for simpler test management
- 10. Micro Focus Unified Functional Testing (UFT) — Web automation with cross-browser coverage and cloud-based deployment
Web automation tools allow QA teams to adopt low-code or scriptless test automation, which eliminates the need to rely on traditional tools heavily dependent on written code. Automation also helps facilitate continuous testing throughout the development lifecycle, resulting in faster and leaner product releases.
I’ve gathered 10 of the best web automation tools for QA that offer a range of features and integrations to expand your testing capabilities.
Comparison Criteria
Here’s what I look for when evaluating the most effective web automation tools:
- User Interface (UI): A highly responsive, easy-to-navigate UI makes test automation easy to manage for your entire development team.
- Usability: Good software usability ensures QAs and non-technical users can quickly learn new web automation tools and easily retain knowledge of the system.
- Integrations: Effective web automation software supports the tools your team already uses to power product delivery.
- Value for $: A valuable web automation tool enhances product quality, helping you secure returns above the price tag.
Web Automation Systems: Key Features
The quality of your QA process is dependent on the capabilities of your web automation software. Look for these essential features when identifying an optimal solution for your business.
- Cross-platform support: Running tests on multiple browsers, operating systems, and devices allow QAs to verify an app is delivering a consistent user experience.
- Real device testing: Performing real device testing is often faster than using an emulator or simulator. Developers can also observe the exact app behavior end-users will experience.
- Reusable test steps: Test scenarios often use the same steps. QAs can save time by writing tests with an automation tool that allows you to store common actions and insert them into any test flow.
- Dynamic element locators: As software code changes, your automation tool needs to be able to find alternative element locators. Dynamic locators create stable scripts, reducing the effort required for test maintenance.
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Overviews Of The 10 Best Web Automation Tools and Software for QA
Below, you’ll find a brief description of each web automation tool to showcase their best use cases, some noteworthy features, and screenshots of the user interface.
BugBug
Intuitive and reliable web app testing, no coding required
BugBug is an intuitive web automation tool that is designed to be easy to figure out without any preexisting programming knowledge. This test automation solution is used by companies like Brand24, Sellizer, Holiday Park & Resort, questpass, and Innential.
BugBug bills themselves as 'for startups' and their generous freemium plan indeed makes them an appropriate low-cost option for small teams. They also have a scalable subscription model with custom enterprise pricing for larger companies.
Key features include the ability to create tests right within your browser without any coding; running tests either in your web browser or the cloud; the option to fix tests without re-recording; scheduling daily automated tests; and integration with your CI/CD pipelines.
BugBug integrates with GitHub, Jenkins, Travis CI, GitLab, BitBucket, and hundreds of more options using Zapier (paid plan may be required).
BugBug is free to use with a maximum of 7 days of test history and some feature limitations. Paid plans start at $49/month billed annually.
Testim
Perform automated UI testing faster with AI
Testim is an end-to-end automation tool for web application testing. Designed for agile teams, Testim enables QAs to scale automation projects and write stable tests faster with the help of AI and machine learning.
Users can author tests in minutes with the help of Testim’s AI-based Smart Locators. These dynamic locators allow QAs to use multiple attributes to identify page elements, reducing the likelihood of a test breaking if an attribute changes.
Testim is fully customizable, making it easy for development teams to connect to CI tools like Jenkins and CircleCi. Tests can also run on any Selenium compatible grid.
Users have access to a free Community plan and Essential and Professional subscriptions. Custom pricing is available upon request.
BrowserStack
Integrates automated visual testing into your development workflow
BrowserStack’s cloud platform allows QA teams to conduct comprehensive web and mobile testing. QAs can also verify the cross-browser compatibility of applications to deliver a unified end-user experience. With tests for functionality, performance, and visual appeal, BrowserStack helps developers send bug-free products to market faster.
Percy is BrowserStack’s automated visual testing product that development teams can integrate into their existing CI/CD pipeline. Visual testing allows QAs to catch visual regressions before they reach end-users. Percy makes this process easier with its ability to capture screenshots, make pixel-by-pixel comparisons to your UI’s baseline, and notify you of defects.
BrowserStack supports integrations with automation frameworks like Appium and Espresso. Software teams can also connect to popular CI/CD tools like Jenkins and Bamboo.
BrowserStack offers a variety of products with different pricing structures. New users can also sign up for a free trial.
Katalon Studio
Test automation solution with specialized IDE interface
Katalon Studio is a test automation tool for web interfaces, APIs, mobile platforms, and Windows desktop applications. It primarily functions as a tool for QAs to create and reuse automated tests of UI elements, like pop-ups and iFrames, without coding. The software is quick to set up and has several templates for test cases, objects, and reports.
No matter your level of programming skill, Katalon is accessible to all users with its dual editor interface. Non-technical users can access a more straightforward UI that doesn’t require coding. More advanced programmers can write test scripts with syntax highlighting, code suggestions, and debugging.
QAs can deploy Katalon Studio on Windows, macOS, and Linux. The system enables continuous testing with Jenkins, Git, Jira, and Docker integrations.
Katalon Studio offers a free subscription for individual users and an enterprise-level plan starting at $170/license/month.
testRigor
Write stable automated test cases in plain English
testRigor is a functional UI regression and exploratory testing solution. The system was designed to provide low-maintenance testing and uses AI to autonomously generate tests that reflect the behavior of end-users. QAs can also write tests in plain English, allowing anyone on your team to quickly build and understand test cases.
Tests can be recorded right from your browser with testRigor’s Chrome extension. You can quickly generate a test just by recording yourself using an application. No coding is required, and tests aren’t reliant on XPath, making them stable and easy to maintain.
testRigor offers integrations with TestRail, Git, Azure DevOps, CircleCI, and Jenkins.
Businesses can opt for a free open-source plan or private subscriptions starting at $900/month.
IBM Rational Functional Tester (RFT)
Automates functional, regression, and GUI testing for simpler test management
IBM Rational Functional Tester is a web automation tool that is written in pure Java and provides an array of features. The tool is beneficial to teams who use .Net, Java and C# in their development lifecycle. IBM Rational Functional Tester allows you to create and prepare test data for manual testers as well as write and run test cases for automated testing. The tool simplifies test visualization and editing using rendered screenshots. IBM Rational Functional Tester also provides intelligent script maintaining capabilities, allowing you to successfully automate functional and regression testing.IBM Rational Functional Tester integrates with platforms such as Jenkins, Apache Maven and QuickTest. IBM Rational Functional Tester offers customized pricing upon request.
Cucumber
Best web testing tool for technical and business user collaboration
Cucumber offers software testing tools for web applications that support behavior-driven development (BDD). BDD encourages collaboration between technical and business stakeholders throughout the software development lifecycle. Developers can write test cases that anyone can understand, making setup quick and easy.
Gherkin, Cucumber’s ordinary language parser, allows QAs to write expected software behaviors in a natural style. By using Given-When-Then statements, as shown in the screenshot above, your entire team can read and refine test specifications without the need for technical tools or coding knowledge.
Cucumber integrates with Jira and GitHub, allowing QAs to link issues to feature files and export them to a Git repository.
Cucumber offers a free, open-source plan and CucumberStudio, which starts at $28/month/user. Businesses can also get started with a free 14-day trial.
Parasoft SOAtest
Automates API security testing with built-in web app scanner
Parasoft SOAtest automates complex functional, load, and security testing for APIs. Built-in change impact analysis continuously monitors APIs so QAs can keep track of changes and their corresponding test cases. To prevent API security vulnerabilities and performance outages, you can also transform functional testing artifacts into security and load equivalents.
SOAtest offers dynamic application security testing (DAST), enabling QAs to perform API penetration testing with the help of OWASP ZAP, a popular web app scanner. This built-in DAST feature allows QAs to automatically create security penetration tests from existing functional tests. By leveraging existing tests, software teams can uncover and fix security issues early in development.
SOAtest integrates with many test frameworks, CI/CD tools, and software containers, including Appium, Cucumber, GitLab, and Docker. The system also supports various scripting languages, including Groovy, Java, Oracle Nashorn, and Javascript.
Pricing is available upon request.
Appium
Open-source test automation framework for mobile apps
Appium is a free, open-source testing framework for native, hybrid, and mobile web applications. QAs have full access to back-end APIs and databases, allowing you to automate iOS and Android apps from your chosen test framework. Appium also supports test scripts written in any Webdriver-compatible programming language, including Java, Ruby, and Python.
Appium’s cross-platform flexibility enables QAs to conduct parallel testing, which ensures the quality of an app’s interface, usability, and performance across multiple platforms. If an issue occurs, Appium is capable of processing small changes to code without QAs needing to reinstall an app after each test.
Appium supports various development and testing software integrations, including Perfecto, Bamboo, and Jenkins.
Micro Focus Unified Functional Testing (UFT)
Web automation with cross-browser coverage and cloud-based deployment
Micro Focus Unified Functional Testing is an intelligent testing tool that offers test automation within AI-based capabilities, allowing you to to accelerate your testing across desktop, mainframe, and mobile. The tool offers cross-browser coverage and cloud-based deployment, and provides reporting dashboards.Micro Focus Unified Functional Testing automates your Windows applications in particular and uses VB scripting, which allows members of your team who have less development experience to work with the tool. The tool also provides a robust support system ranging from a developers’ forum to a dedicated customer support team. This allows you to ensure your team has everything they need to complete their testing within your application’s development lifecycle.Micro Focus Unified Functional Testing integrates with platforms such as Jenkins, QC, and Postman. Micro Focus Unified Functional Testing offers customized pricing on request.
10 Best Web Automation Tools For QA Summary
Tool | Free Option | Price | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | BugBug Intuitive and reliable web app testing, no coding required | 14-day free trail | From $59/month | Visit Website |
2 | Testim Perform automated UI testing faster with AI | Free plan available | From $450/month | Visit Website |
3 | BrowserStack Integrates automated visual testing into your development workflow | Not available | Starts at $29/month | Visit Website |
4 | Katalon Studio Test automation solution with specialized IDE interface | Freemium plan | From $25/month | Visit Website |
5 | testRigor Write stable automated test cases in plain English | 14-day free trial and free plan available | From $900/Month | Visit Website |
6 | IBM Rational Functional Tester (RFT) Automates functional, regression, and GUI testing for simpler test management | Not available | Pricing upon request | Visit Website |
7 | Cucumber Best web testing tool for technical and business user collaboration | Not available | Pricing upon request | Visit Website |
8 | Parasoft SOAtest Automates API security testing with built-in web app scanner | Not available | Visit Website | |
9 | Appium Open-source test automation framework for mobile apps | Not available | Free To Use | Visit Website |
10 | Micro Focus Unified Functional Testing (UFT) Web automation with cross-browser coverage and cloud-based deployment | Not available | Customized pricing upon request | Visit Website |
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Other Web Automation Tools For QA
Here are a few more test automation tools that didn’t make the top list.
- IBM Rational Functional Tester (RFT) - Automates functional, regression, and GUI testing for simpler test management.
- HP Unified Functional Testing (UFT) - Provides integration and training on HP Unified Functional Testing.
- Crosscheck Networks SOAPSonar - API testing and diagnostics software for SOAP, XML, and REST-based web services.
- IBM Rational Test Workbench - Offers story-board testing to simplify functional and regression test creation.
- CA Technologies Application Test - Automated testing solution with comprehensive protocol support and codeless testing framework.
- Tricentis Tosca Testsuite - Test automation tool for DevOps, cloud, and enterprise software.
- Ranorex - Supports a broad selection of technologies from legacy applications to modern web and mobile software.
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