My Greeting to Testers and Automation people! My name is Piyush Srivastava, and I’m working as Tester in functional & Automation for around 6 years on various projects as a Senior Consultant and SME. Now I’m working in *Luxoft * where I got great chance to upskill myself in better way. I wanted to share some API_ testing capabilities for the testers.
With the help of this article, I wanted to encourage you to start using this in your daily work or at least give it a try it will increase your performance knowledge for sure.
Although manual testing is still a powerful tool in software quality assurance, and automated testing tools are the key component of a well-designed testing process.
Types of automated testing tools
Knowing the different types and characteristics of test automation tools helps us to save time on finding the ideal solution, since we will quickly know where to look. There are several approaches to categorizing all the tools for automation available today. The two most common ones are by purpose and by availability.
By purpose
Most automation tools are created to serve a specific purpose, such as supporting a particular type of testing. These are the most popular tools for automating different types of software testing.
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UI testing tools**
Since most software products are intended to be used by consumers, ensuring a great user experience is vital for an emerging solution. Automating UI testing with the help of the right tools helps the stakeholders gain confidence in the appealing user experience and future success of the product.
Load and performance testing tools
Users have come to expect spotless performance at all times, and Load and performance testing are the go-to way to test these aspects of the solution. Load and performance automated testing tools allow testing software with a large number of scenarios in a limited time and provide outcome metrics and reports that help analyze the results.
Functional testing tools
Similarly to UI test automation tools, functional testing tools help the team make sure that the application is working exactly as it’s intended. However, functional testing tools go deeper to verify the correct operation of a software product and doesn’t just focus on the user interface part of the application.
Regression testing tools
Automating regression testing is one of the most common reasons for organizations to adopt automation in the first place. There is simply no reason to have multiple manual QA engineers working on the same chunk of regression testing when one or two AQAs with the right tools can automate this process and achieve more consistent results.
Mobile testing tools
There are some testing tools, such as Ranorex Studio and Appium, that support both web and mobile solutions. However, if you are primarily working in the mobile segment of software, it makes sense to choose an automation tool designed specifically for the mobile environment. That way, you can expect the most reliable results.
By availability
The availability of an automation testing tool is an important factor to take into consideration when choosing among several options. These are the types of automation tools based on their availability and distribution principles.
Commercial
Commercial test automation solutions are developed by software companies for profit, which is why they are typically only available on a paid basis. As a customer, you can sometimes take advantage of a free trial version that is only available for a limited period of time or comes with limited functionality. To use the solution in full, you will need to purchase a license. It can be a lifetime license or a monthly/quarterly/yearly subscription.
Open-source
Open-source automation testing tools are developed by the community and for the community, which is why they are distributed for free and without any conditions. Open-source automation software is a popular choice for organizations that don’t have a large budget to spend on setting up the automation process but have the resources to learn and integrate the tool into CI/CD to make it fully match the needs of the project.
Custom tool
For some projects, the readily available tools may never be able to do the trick. This typically happens when the automation process, environment, or scope of testing are too different from most standard procedures in the industry. The sensible solution in these situations is to develop custom automation tools based on the project requirements. Needless to say, this solution requires an expert-level understanding of coding in addition to the already high automation skills of the team.
Top 15 automation testing tools to choose
Before we move on to the actual list of the most popular and versatile tools for testing automation, i would like to note that it’s downright impossible to pick an automation tool based on popularity or advice alone. If a person involved in the decision making process when it comes to automation testing tools, it’s essential to pick the right tool for the project instead of going for the “best” or most popular one.
It’s always a good idea to have someone on your team with both hands-on experience with automation tools and the skills and knowledge needed to identify the most suitable toolset. You can expect an even more consistent outcome after evaluating the tools in a real-life environment with the help of real-life test cases. Still, knowing where the market currently stands often helps you choose the right direction for the project. These are the fifteen most popular and handy test automation tools, frameworks, and libraries for 2023.
Appium
Appium is one of the leading market solutions for automating mobile application testing. It’s an open-source tool that can be used to automate the testing of mobile web applications, hybrid apps, and native applications for the iOS, Android, and Windows operating systems. Appium supports an endless range of programming languages and technologies and can be easily integrated into even the most complex AQA systems.
Selenium WebDriver
Selenium WebDriver is an open-source tool for automating browser operations. This tool can be indispensable for testing websites and web applications across different browsers, environments, and programming language requirements. Selenium WebDriver allows teams to create versatile and scalable test scripts for the comprehensive testing of web products.
Playwright
Playwright is one of the leading end-to-end testing tools used for QA automation. It is developed and maintained by Microsoft and supports testing web applications in multiple cross-browser, cross-platform, and cross-language environments. Playwright is an open source tool that allows for an easy learning curve thanks to a robust knowledge base and community.
Cypress
Cypress is a JavaScript-based tool for testing web applications. It can be easily integrated with any continuous integration development model and makes it easier for an Automation QA to get started by putting emphasis on the visual aspects of testing. Cypress is available on a subscription basis with a free version that supports up to 3 users.
Ranorex Studio
Ranorex Studio is a popular tool for automating GUI and functional testing. It supports desktop, web, and mobile applications and includes other handy features, such as test design. Another important advantage of Ranorex Studio is its wide integration capabilities, allowing teams to build comprehensive test suites. It’s available on a perpetual license basis with a free trial option.
Katalon
Katalon is a comprehensive quality management platform that can be used for a variety of automation testing-related purposes. Katalon heavily relies on AI technology to streamline the process of testing and achieve maximum efficiency. It’s a low-code tool with versatile integration and setup capabilities that is available on a monthly subscription basis with an option of a free trial.
TestComplete
Developed and supported by SmartBear, TestComplete is the go-to automation testing tool for those who mainly deal with UI testing. TestComplete allows teams to easily set up and manage script or scriptless testing projects. It comes with an AI-powered object recognition feature and can successfully test web, desktop, and mobile solutions. There is a free trial version available, while paid versions are available in various bundles.
LambdaTest
LambdaTest is a cloud-based solution both for automated and exploratory testing. With the help of the cloud infrastructure, LambdaTest makes it possible to test a software solution across 3,000+ combinations of operating systems, browsers, and device configurations. This tool is available as a limited free version or a full version with a monthly subscription.
Cucumber/Specflow
Cucumber\Specflow are primarily a Behavior Driven Development tools that is also widely used for testing automation. It supports nearly every modern development stack and is developed and distributed by SmartBear. Cucumber is available both as an open-source solution and as an advanced tool called Cucumber Pro with a monthly subscription option.
ReadyAPI
ReadyAPI is one of the most popular solutions for the automated testing of APIs. This is an open-source tool that supports REST, SOAP, and GraphQL API technologies. It’s developed and maintained by SmartBear, and there is an advanced version of the tool called ReadyAPI (formerly known as SoapUI Pro) that is available on a yearly subscription basis.
Puppeteer
Puppeteer is a Node.js-based library created for making the most of Chromium with the help of API technology. Automating testing is only one of the purposes of this versatile tool that supports JavaScript among other technologies. Puppeteer is a tool developed and maintained by Chrome DevTools but also heavily relies on community support to grow and constantly improve.
HP UFT
HP Unified Functional Testing is helpful cross-platform automation testing tool. Using just one solution, teams can automate web, mobile, and desktop applications created with the help of Delphi, .NET, ActiveX, Java, Oracle, PeopleSoft, PowerBuilder, Stingray, and Visual Basic, among other technologies. HP UFT is available on a subscription basis.
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IBM Rational Functional Tester**
Rational Functional Tester is an automation testing tool developed and maintained by IBM. This is a commercial tool that supports a wide range of development environments, including Siebel, .NET, SAP, Java, PowerBuilder, Flex, and Dojo among others. Rational Functional Tester is available on a paid basis with an option for a free trial.
Telerik Test Studio
Test Studio is one of the latest automation tools developed by Telerik. This solution supports automating applications built with the use of HTML5, Angular, AJAX, JavaScript, Silverlight, WPF, MVC, Ruby, and PHP, available, among other things, iOS, Android. Telerik provides cross-browser support and is a record and playback tool. You’ll need to buy a perpetual license to use this tool.
Tricentis Tosca
Tricentis Tosca is a comprehensive automation tool for web, API, mobile, and desktop testing. It has a unique model-based testing approach, allowing users to scan an application’s UI or APIs to create a business-familiar model for test creation and maintenance. Tricentis Tosca is available on a perpetual license basis.
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