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With so many different free test management tools available, figuring out which is right for you is tough. You know you want to affordably manage your software testing process 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 free test management software with various projects, with my picks of the best free test management tools.

What Are Free Test Management Tools?

Free test management tools are software that offer functionalities for organizing, executing, and tracking software testing processes without any cost. They provide a structured environment for managing test cases, defects, and reporting, catering to the needs of software development and quality assurance teams.

The benefits and uses of free test management tools include cost-effectiveness, making them accessible to small teams, startups, or individual developers with limited budgets. They improve the organization and efficiency of the testing process, facilitate better collaboration within teams, and provide basic reporting capabilities. These tools are valuable for maintaining a systematic approach to software testing, ensuring thorough coverage and tracking of test cases and defects, even for projects with limited resources.

Overviews Of The 10 Best Free Test Management Tools

Here’s a brief description of each of the 10 best free test management tools on my list, showing what the specific tool does best, plus screenshots to showcase some of the features.

Best for performance and load testing

  • The free basic plan only allows for 15 tests, while the first paid plan allows for 250 tests.
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Rating: 4.3/5

For teams involved in performance and load testing, Loadium comes with some of the most valuable features an open-source tool can have. For instance, users can use automated test scripts developed using Selenium when testing for performance. The software provides reporting features with graphic or tabular data.

The Loadium free trial lasts an entire month with all the features. After the free trial, you can decide between one of the paid plans or the free Basic plan. The free basic plan only allows for 15 tests, while the first paid plan allows for 250 tests.

Best free defect & test case management

  • Free plan available
  • From $20/month

Qase is a TestOps system that allows you to manage every aspect of QA in a single collaborative workspace, arming you with tools for test management, test execution and results reporting, extensive analytical capabilities, requirement and defect management, and integrations with 3rd party project management tools as well as automated testing frameworks.

Qase boasts a clean, modern UI which makes it easy to understand and to start working in. It also comes with a read-only type of license available for invitees: these are free of charge and unlimited in number, allowing you to collaborate not only with the QA department peers, but to involve the wider organization into the quality assurance process. The quality of your end product benefits from the collaboration, but the subscription cost is based on the power-users only.

Qase provides native integrations with the most popular automated testing frameworks and tools, so that you can finally have a single source of truth about all testing efforts, no more fragmentation of results between manual and automated runs. And with all the data points you have at your disposal, you can utilize Qase’s Dashboards and Query Language to extract the necessary insights and understand the trends in your testing to follow up with informed actions.

There are plenty of integrations with 3rd party software available (Jira, Github, Slack) with more coming soon. And there are endless possibilities opening for custom integrations as Qase provides their API even for the free plan users.

Qase has a free plan available which provides basic functionality for small teams.

Best for categorizing issues based on seriousness

  • 14 Days Free Trial

One great feature of Obkio is the tool’s ability to speed things up for development and QA teams. For instance, the copy and paste command or typing the hardware’s serial number in the app can get you started with your test management task. The ability to detect a failure within 5 seconds and the deployment of automatic updates are other features you can expect from this tool.

The Obkio free trial lasts 14 days and gives users access to all the tool’s premium features. However, you can register for the free plan that comes with limited features. The free plan only includes one customer device, standard device polling of 5 minutes, two agents maximum, seven days history, and one monitoring session.

Best for integrating with existing bug tracking tools

  • $18 per mont

QADeputy is a testing management tool that can easily integrate with most existing tools. The software facilitates efficient communication between stakeholders while also allowing teams to customize the tool based on their unique needs.

QADeputy’s free trial allows for one user and one test suite. It also comes with 100 test cases. Free plan users can also run unlimited tests, customize the platform, and use integrations.

Best for source code repository hosting

Perforce Helix TeamHub provides development and QA teams with a solution for storing their source code. Users can also add multiple repositories in a single project and create a distinct repository for every project they are running.

A free Perforce Helix TeamHub account accommodates up to five users and 1 GB of data. It also allows for integration with common tools like Jira, Slack, and Jenkins.

Best for teams managing apps with many users

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Rating: 4.4/5

Loadster provides QA teams and developers with the ability to record load test scripts on their browsers using the free Loadster Recorder extension. Also, the tool is designed to make it easy to capture and validate users’ responses so that you can use them in the script later.

The Loadster free account comes with all the vital features, including fast recording of scripts, editing on the browser, and automatic test reports. The free trial allows for 50 hours of testing.

Best for cross-platform mobile testing

  • Free to use

The developers of Appium describe it as “an open-source test automation framework for use with native, hybrid and mobile web apps,” which “drives iOS, Android, and Windows apps using the WebDriver protocol.” The tool is designed based on the idea that testing native apps should not involve an SDK or recompiling your app.

To use Appium for free, there is no need to download or install anything on your device. Also, you can use any testing framework with the tool.

Best for executing and managing load testing

RedLine13’s is great for teams that are scaling. The tool makes it possible to customize tests that can be reused several times, saving time in the process. It also allows users to create their own open-source load testing plugins or use ready-made ones.

RedLine13’s free plan lasts for one day and includes all the features that are part of the paid version. This makes the tool more suitable for teams that want to quickly determine if this is the tool they want to use.

The Best Free Test Management Tools Summary

Tools Price
Loadium No price details
Swing2App No price details
Qase From $20/month
Obkio No price details
QADeputy $18 per mont
Perforce Helix TeamHub No price details
Loadster No price details
Appium Free to use
qaManager No price details
RedLine13 No price details
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Other Free Test Management Tools Options

Here are a few more test management tools that didn’t make the top list.

  1. New Relic

    Best for simulating user journeys

  2. Testiny

    Best for creating customizable templates

  3. BugBug

    Best for recording sessions in a browser

  4. Kiwi TCMS

    Best for open-source test management

How I Selected The Best Free Test Management Tools

Perhaps you're wondering how I choose the best free test management tools for this list? Here I'll share my process.

I started out by creating a long list of the most popular free test management tools on the market based on user rankings. I dove into each software vendor’s website in fine detail to make sure their software covered all the basic features that QA engineers would need to manage their processes from end-to-end.

Next, using the selection criteria below, I made my final decisions. With these criteria as a framework, I compared each free test management tool to see how it stacked up to the rest of the tools, and finalized the shortlist you see here. 

Selection Criteria

What do I look for when I select the best test management tools? Here’s a summary of my evaluation criteria:

  1. User Interface (UI): Is it clean and attractive? Just because the tool is free or has a free version should not mean that it has to be unattractive.
  2. Usability: Is it easy to learn and master? Is it user-friendly? Does the company offer good tech support, user support, tutorials, and training? Even though free tools are likely to offer limited support, you want to select the one that makes life as easy as possible. Open-source tools may offer communities where you can ask for help.
  3. Integrations: Apart from providing functionalities like regression analysis or the ability to do manual testing, how well does the free software integrate with other tools you already use for your testing activities?

People Also Ask

What Are The Key Features To Look For In Free Test Management Software?

Free software should provide your team members with a certain level of freedom whether they’re doing a manual test or an automated test. Luckily, QA teams can expect the software to have many useful features, such as test automation tools.

Here are some features to look at when choosing between different kinds of free test management tools:

  1. Seamless workflow: Does the free test management solution manage the whole test lifecycle in one place? If you are already using another tool like Testlink or TestRail, how well will the issue management tool you select work with them?
  2. The right metrics: Determine the metrics you want to track and decide if the tool will deliver the right reports based on those metrics.
  3. Test automation: The reason you are not using Excel is that you want a test management methodology that is more sophisticated and can automate your agile projects to save you time.
  4. Collaboration: A good test management tool should allow your team to share ideas and ensure that everyone is on the same page.
  5. Test case generation: Ensure that you do not spend a lot of time generating test cases manually with test case reuse, automated test case generation, and other features.

Why Do Software Makers Provide Free Test Management Software?

Most businesses commit some of their resources to community development and ensuring that people that don’t have the means can also access services.

For instance, students studying quality assurance may need tools to develop test plans, test cases, or gain other test management and execution skills. Companies that offer such tools may be paying it forward because students may end up working for them.

A developer of a test management tool may also offer the software for free as a test drive. Using a free version can help a user try some functionalities and get a practical example of the tool’s features such as traceability, provision of real-time reports, or requirements management. The hope is that the user will be so pleased as to decide to pay to use the software after the free trial.

Free test management tools can provide software as a service (SaaS) companies with a great marketing opportunity.

What is Exploratory Testing?

Exploratory testing looks at a product from a user perspective, and is most valuable as an early iteration in test cycles. In this type of testing, there’s not as much structure as with other types of automated testing. Thus, it’s great at uncovering edge cases, identifying potential for new features, and overall improving the software application.

What are Open Source Test Management Tools?

Open source test management tools provide QA teams with full visibility of the code base, improved security, and much more flexibility. You can plan, build, and execute tests in accordance with your needs, and with fewer restrictions than other tools.

Why Is Free Test Management Software Useful For QA Teams?

Quality assurance and project management teams can take advantage of a free test management solution to determine whether a particular software type is suitable for their long-term needs.

QA teams in smaller companies with tight budgets could also use free test management software for different testing processes, to run tests, and to manage testers.  Free tools allow such teams to try the functionalities of tools without the need to commit scarce resources.

Other Relevant Software

What Do You Think About These Free Test Management Tools?

What do you think about the free test management tools I have listed here? Have you used any, or any other test management tools? If so, tell us about your experience in the comments section.

If you have used the free versions of other tools we haven't listed here, we would like to hear your evaluation of the tools as well. And if you're looking for tools to use specifically with Jira, here's our list of the Best Test Management Tools For Jira.

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By Jason Boog

Over his 15-year career, Jason Boog has worked as a QA tester, QA analyst, and Senior QA Analyst on video games, commercial sites, and interactive web applications. He spent more than a decade building out the QA team and process as Director of Quality & Client Support at a full-service digital agency.