In the software development process, testing holds an important part. Software Testing helps to ensure the quality and functionality of the code. Testing can be done manually or can be automated.
Selenium Automation Testing is an automated testing framework considered accurate and less time-consuming. Selenium is an open-source tool used for the automated testing of codes. It mainly conducts regression, functional, and load testing on web-based applications across different platforms and browsers. Selenium Automation Testing tool is regarded as one of the finest yet accurate tools for software testing.
However, in this dynamic software industry, several other automation tools are available to check the quality and accuracy of the software. Each of the tools offers unique features. Thus, understanding the features of each tool is important for software developers to select the right tool for their codes.
In this blog post, “Selenium Automation Testing vs Other Automation Tools: 2023 Comparison”, we will compare Selenium Automation testing with other available automated testing tools to understand the advantages and disadvantages of the Selenium testing tool over others. Each of the testing tools will be discussed separately so that one can get a clear understanding of the unique features of each tool.
So let’s begin.
Selenium Automation Testing
Selenium automation testing is used for web applications. It is an open-source automation testing tool for testing web applications across different browsers.
Advantages of Selenium Automation Testing
Selenium is a popular open-source software testing framework used for web application testing. It automates browser actions, such as clicking buttons, filling out forms, and navigating through pages, to verify that the application is working as expected. Here are some of its advantages in the software testing process:
- It is an open-source automation and offers flexible processes.
- It supports several programming languages like JavaScript, Java, C#, Ruby, Python, etc., thus, enabling the developers and programmers to generate codes in their preferred programming language.
- It is compatible with several OS like Windows, Mac, Unix, Linux, etc. Alternatively, it can be said that a lot of OS can be used to process test cases.
- It has well-established community support from users across the world due to its massive user base.
- It provides a coincident APIS and offers a concise toolset for test automation from advanced user input imitation to distribution of work.
- It can be installed in third-party platforms and tools to increase automation functionality.
- It can be integrated with Jenkins, Docker, and Maven to attain the process of continuous testing.
- Selenium Automation Testing can be integrated with TestNG and JUnit for the process of generation of reports.
Disadvantages of Selenium Automation Testing
Selenium automation testing also includes some drawbacks that should be ignored while performing the test. Considering those will help you to optimize the software testing process. Some of those disadvantages are as follows:
- It can only test web applications; thus, Selenium cannot test desktop and other mobile-based applications.
- Selenium Automation Testing cannot access web elements outside the web applications that are present under the test.
- There are guaranteed user supports available for Selenium. One has to depend on customer communities.
- Selenium independently does not support the process of image testing. It needs to be integrated with Sikuli for the purpose of image testing.
- Remote “browser” cannot be instructed or modulated by Selenium Automation Testing.
- Nevertheless, Selenium helps in the automation of web browsers. It helps in rapid and repeatable web testing, enabling the developers to ship fresh releases quickly and confidently.
You should note that Selenium is an open-source testing framework that enables web application testing automation. However, to fully utilize Selenium’s capabilities, it is necessary to use a cloud-based Selenium Grid.
A Selenium Grid allows you to execute your automation scripts on a scalable cloud infrastructure, enabling you to run tests in parallel on multiple browsers and operating systems. This can significantly reduce the time required for your testing cycle and streamline your testing process.
LambdaTest offers a secure, scalable, and reliable online Selenium Grid that allows you to run tests in parallel across 3,000+ online browsers and platform configurations. This eliminates the need for local instances of Selenium and simplifies running tests across multiple browsers and operating systems.
With LambdaTest, you can easily switch between multiple browsers by instantiating the remote Selenium WebDriver with just one line of code instead of using the local version. Additionally, there’s no need to install or configure the Selenium Grid software with LambdaTest – making it more convenient for testers.
Using a cloud-based Selenium Grid like LambdaTest can help you unleash the full potential of Selenium while improving your testing process’s efficiency and accuracy.
Other Automated Testing Tools include
Appium
Like the Selenium Automation Testing tool, Appium is also an open-source automation testing tool. It is designed to promote UI automation of several app platforms and this, including a mobile (android, iOS, Tizen), browser (Safari, Chrome, Firefox), desktop (macOS, windows), TV (TV Samsung, tvOS, Android TV), and more.
Some of the advantages of Appium Automated Testing Tool include the following:
- It helps to facilitate UI automation. UI automation, in contrast to other software testing tools, enables the tester to write the code that walks by the user scenarios in the original UI of an application, mimicking the possible outcomes that might happen under the real-time settings while enabling several different benefits of automation including scale, speed, and consistency.
- It provides tools that support automation in standard ways across different platforms. The majority of the platforms come with several tools that enable the automation of UI at a certain level. Still, these are mainly platform-specific and demand specialized knowledge and experience in specific programming language experience and other toolchains.
- Appium, as an automation tool, attempts to unite all automation technology under a single interface accessible through the majority of the programming language.
Comparative analysis
| Selenium | Appium |
| It helps in the testing of the web-based application and does not support the system and the mobile-based applications | Used for the automated testing application over mobile phones, and this includes mobile phone applications, mobile browsers applications, and other hybrid application |
Katalon Studio
Katalon is a modern yet comprehensive quality management platform. It is an AI-augmented platform. This Automation testing tool is built over open-source automation frameworks like Selenium Automation Testing and Appium testing tools.
Some of the advantages of the Katalon Studio include the following:
- It helps balance low-code easily and provides full-code flexibility, thereby making fast adoption.
- It creates tests for the codes within 1 minute. Thus, helping to balance low-code with ease and testing full-code with flexibility thus, helping in faster adoption.
- It helps to create a quality command center that organizes artifacts and maps the existing manual tests with automated tests in one click.
- TestCould of Katalon makes test runs easier across all the parallel browsers.
- Runtime Engine of Katalon streamlines the execution of your self-environment with the help of smart wait, scheduling, seal-healing, and parallel execution, thus providing a comprehensive testing service.
- It offers real-time visibility in the form of real-time notifications and visibility of 360-degree in the TestOps. Thus, enabling faster and clearer, and more confident decision-making.
Comparative analysis
| Selenium | Katalon |
| It is helpful for advanced users to conduct distributed testing, debugging capabilities, and integrated reporting. | It is a straightforward automation tool and makes use of multiple integrations. |
Cucumber
Cucumber is an open-source BDD (Behaviour Driven Development) testing tool. It merges specification and other test documentation into one cohesive whole, thereby helping to streamline the process of automated code testing. It can be easily used by the business and IT teams because it uses the BDD.
Cucumber’s automated testing tool for the testing of codes is continuously updated with the help of large community support, thus helping to stay updated with the latest trends in technological advancements. It acts as the bridge between the software engineer and business analyst, manual tester and automation testers’ manual tester and developers. For the integration of Cucumber with Selenium, Selenium jar files, and Selenium server standalone.
Some of the advantages of the Cucumber include the following:
- A comprehensive framework to support BDD.
- It is an intuitive way to express the desired requirement, and that too in human-readable form.
- Make use of the Gherkin to test the interaction of the business features.
- Gherkin is flexible with the code syntax and manages it automatically.
- Gherkin makes use of the plain language English test and has easy keywords.
- Helps to translate the required business requirements into testable scenarios.
- It helps to provide multi-language support, including Java, Ruby, Perl, JavaScript, Scala etc
- The Agile team can use Cucumber for testing their application.
- It helps in the reusability of the codes with the help of the Given-When-Then Scenario.
- It has an easy-to-use interface.
Comparative Analysis
| Selenium | Cucumber |
| It is a tool used for automatic functional testing.It is written in the programming language. | Cucumber is a Behavioural Testing ToolIt is written both in programming language and in plain test by using Gherkin. |
Conclusion
Thus, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that Selenium Automation Testing has several pros and cons. Some pros include supporting simultaneous testing under multiple environments. However, the program is being executed under a local machine, and the remote device can only receive the commands of the browsers. It helps in testing web-based applications only and not mobile-based applications.
To combat the drawbacks of Selenium, there are several other automated testing tools like Cucumber, Katalon Studio, and Appium. The proper combination of all these Automation Testings help in the generation of error-free codes. While writing the codes for different algorithms, the software developers and the testing team must consider the required testing features to select the right tool and generate error-free code to run the algorithm smoothly.
