The proliferation of mobile apps year after year makes the mobile app market fiercely competitive. Maintaining a quality app is the key to getting and keeping mobile app users interested in your app with so many available options. For this reason, testing your app before sending it to production is crucial.
Manually testing your app alone isn't ideal for the quality assurance (QA) process because it's inefficient and difficult to scale. Automated testing eliminates this delay and cuts down on human errors that may arise from manual testing. However, there are a plethora of automation testing tools out there, and choosing the right one for your team can be challenging.
If you're looking for a new automation testing tool or just getting started with test automation for your mobile app, we've compiled 10 of the most popular tools based on their unique features, usage in the community, and notable reviews from users on G2. We'll also explain what these tools are, their price, benefits, and limitations. All of these will guide you in making the right decision about the mobile automation testing tool you should pick.
1. Perfecto
Perfecto is one of the most popular testing platforms for web and mobile apps. They provide a quality-first approach to creating web and native apps, using a cloud-based test environment called the Continuous Quality Lab™.
Perfecto also makes continuous testing possible with features like Behaviour-Driven Development (BDD), codeless automation, and parallel test executions. Developers can integrate Perfecto with leading DevOps tools like Bitrise and run their Espresso, XCUItest, Selenium, and Appium tests on Perfecto devices.
Perfecto Upload (Bitrise Verified Step)Â
Price: Automate package starts at $125/month billed annually
Benefits:
- Test developers can easily install third-party applications or APK files on remote devices using their install widget
- Works on both iOS and Android devices
- Simple and intuitive user interface
- Ability to export and import test scripts from any account
- Offers script scheduling
- Responsive support
- Execution reports can be downloaded in PDF format
Limitations:
- Sometimes there are false positives on devices in the cloud
- The response time of running scripts is slow
"It's a brilliant tool to automate seamless mobile applications and manual tests on various devices and save a maximum amount of time. Test reports are perfectly generated which gives a clarity of test cases passed / failed. No issues observed while testing it over a slow network. Real time devices are present on the cloud which gives one opportunity to test on real devices rather than on simulators." —Pulikesh S, Technical Lead QA.
2. Sauce Labs
Sauce Labs is a popular cloud-based platform for testing mobile and web applications, with support for over 900 browser versions. SauceLabs has a reliable infrastructure that works well with testing frameworks like Appium, Selenium, Espresso, XCUITest and more.
With Sauce Labs, developers can monitor how a customer interacts with an application and monitor tests daily to ensure that every application functions correctly.
Price: Prices start at $39/mo./yr.
Benefits:
- Supports both manual and automated tests
- Offers cross-browsing functionality
- Easy to configure and get started with
- Supports a stable parallel test execution
Limitations:
- Some of the documentation is outdated
- In some cases, real devices are not available for use
"The service is outstanding. They provide me with combinations of browsers/platforms that make it easy for me to do my job. And I don't have to spend any of my time maintaining a lab!..." —Alan A., Sr. Software Development Engineer in Test.
3. Kobiton
Kobiton is a cloud-based mobile testing platform that facilitates the execution of both manual and automated mobile and web testing. Using Kobiton, you can run automated tests using Selenium WebDriver (for web applications) and Appium (for native and mobile web applications).
Kobiton also offers impressive features such as real device testing (on 350 real devices) in addition to using your private cloud or local lab. Not only that, with Kobiton, you don't need to install testing SDK, and you'll get real-time analytics on detailed logs such as videos, screenshots, and memory performance.‍
Price: Offers a free trial. Paid prices start at $50/mo. and $500/yr.
Benefits:
- There are many real devices to choose from for testing
- Allows testers to carry out parallel testing
- Allows users to record videos and capture screenshots for tests
- Enables integration with CI/CD tools like Jenkins, Circle CI, and more
Limitations:
- In some cases, the devices are laggy
"I like that it’s very user friendly and that I get a lot of devices I can choose from and do my testing with." —Shane I., Sr. Quality Assurance Engineer.
4. Sofy
Sofy is a no-code testing platform designed for Engineers to test mobile apps and websites. Sofy uses machine learning to enable engineering teams to carry out manual, no-code automation, and robotic exploratory testing on real devices. By doing this, Sofy takes away testing complexities so testers can focus on testing without worrying about frameworks, tools, and scripts.
As a test engineer, you can integrate Sofy seamlessly with your CI/CD. Bitrise gives you this feature with its newly released verified Step. This way, your test environment, reporting, and more are handled effortlessly. With Sofy, you can feel confident about your team's results — and ultimately release great products.
Price: Offers a 14-day free trial with prices starting at $35/mo.
Benefits:
- Provides real devices for testing
- Easy to set up
- Supports no-code automation and robotic testing
- Allows manual and automated tests
Limitations:
- There are occasional slowdowns when recording test cases, especially in some devices
"Sofy is a company that went above and beyond to ensure adoption. With Sofy, automation has an almost non-existent ramp-up time for the majority of features. One can easily automate most functionality without any complicated ramp-up or need for handholding." —Administrator in Hospital & Health Care.
5. Repeato
Repeato is a UI test automation tool for mobile apps that lets you create tests without scripting. With Repeato, mobile teams can do more testing while reducing the workload from developers and QAs significantly. Read about the Repeato step here.
Price: Basic package starts at $70/month and per user
Benefits:
- Quick and robust tests: With computer vision and machine learning, tests are more robust and can be created in seconds via a test recorder
- Compatibility: Repeato supports all kinds of frameworks such as Flutter, React-native, Xamarin, Ionic or Unreal Engine, and works with Android and iOS on simulators or physical devices
- Easy collaboration and organization: Create a test library and organize your tests in folders, batches and workspaces
- Reporting: Create HTML and PDF reports and easily export them to Jira
- Test exception handling: Defining exceptions makes it possible to run tests successfully even if extraordinary actions take place
- JavaScript API: Write powerful custom steps to automate pretty much any edge case
- Continuous Integration Support: Repeato is available for the desktop, or for your server via a headless Node.js test runner application
Limitations:
- No device farm support (coming 2023)
- iOS testing is only supported on MacOS
“I could reduce the testing time from 30 minutes to 5 minutes per app" —Wolfrath S., Tester
6. Waldo
Waldo is a no-code testing platform designed to help mobile teams create reliable, automated mobile tests without the hassle of scripting. The platform runs in the background while developers test their apps to make sure they always produce bug-free apps. It’s a browser-based platform that records every screen and logic, enabling users to learn the structure of their app.
With Waldo, users can quickly launch error-free updates of their existing apps by automatically replaying those tests against the newer versions. The Waldo Verified Step from Bitrise lets teams automate testing and ship apps to the users faster.
Price: They offer a free trial, but you'll need to contact them for pricing
Benefits:
- No coding is required to write automation tests
- Can run tests on multiple languages
- Integrates well with CI/CD
- Supports both iOS and Android operating systems
Limitations:
- There's currently no way to export the test results to a test case management tool
- Cannot run different test suites on other branches such as alpha, dev, and more
"Our team at Elevate Labs has been using Waldo for a few years and it's helped us catch numerous bugs quickly and effectively. The no-code automation platform allows us to set up tests that we need to run on a continuous basis without having to perform the same manual tests on every nightly build. Waldo also provides a good way to visualize better testing strategies...I highly recommend Waldo." —Darren M., QA Lead.
7. BrowserStack
BrowserStack is a leading cloud-based testing platform that equips developers with the ability to test their websites and mobile applications across various browsers, operating systems, and real mobile devices. They currently have five main products: Live, Automate, Percy, App Live, and App Automate, with the latter two precisely for testing mobile apps.
On BrowserStack, there are over 2,000+ real mobile devices and browsers in a single cloud platform. With this, developers can test websites and mobile applications hosted on internal dev and staging environments. They can also speed up test execution time by running multiple tests simultaneously, easily debug using video recordings, access automated screenshots of errors, text logs, console logs, and more.
Price: $199/mo./yr. for mobile and website automated tests
Benefits:
- Saves costs by eliminating the need to invest in multiple computers and mobile devices for testing
- Allows test automation across multiple devices, OS, and browser combinations
- BrowserStack is SOC2 certified, helping companies to comply with security policies
- Runs hundreds of tests concurrently to speed up the execution time of a test suite
Limitations:
- Not all mobile devices are real physical devices. With emulators, there’s no guarantee it will 100% match real device results
- Sometimes, connecting to a device is slow, and even after waiting, it doesn't still connect to that device
"For testers having knowledge of just selenium, BrowserStack helps a great deal in automating the mobile flow...The whole test is documented properly, which saves a lot of time in debugging the breaking point in the application, I was awestruck by this feature when I used it for the first time." —Summit K, QA Engineer.
8. Genymotion
Genymotion is an emulator designed to test Android applications on multiple devices. It’s a full-fledged Android platform that works both on your desktop and in the cloud. It allows QA engineers and developers to monitor how applications perform across various devices. This way, they can set up virtual Android device configurations based on versions, hardware capacities, and more.
Genymotion also provides additional features like continuous integration and performance testing. Genymotion Cloud SaaS comes available on Bitrise to help QA engineers quickly get started with the Genymotion Cloud SaaS Android virtual devices and run their tests on any testing framework.
Price: Free trial. Paid prices start at $0.05 per minute per Virtual Device or $49.99 per month. Discounts or unlimited plan also available.
Benefits:
- Easy to configure and get started with
- Ability to emulate several mobile devices from different manufacturers
- Allows testers to set dummy device locations while testing location-aware mobile applications
Limitations:
- Available for only Android devices
"Genymotion is one of the best emulators available for Android...The most intuitive thing is that it gives more control over how and what you want in your emulator..." —Maulik H., Software Engineer.
9. TestComplete
TestComplete is an automation UI testing tool developed by SmartBear. It supports many popular programming languages like Python, VBScript, JScript, C#, C++, and JavaScript. With TestComplete, testers can build robust UI tests for native and hybrid Android devices, iOS devices, and web platforms.
Price: They offer Node-Locked and Float packages
Benefits:
- Works for both iOS and Android apps
- Suitable for advanced testing requirements
- Saves time by creating tests that accurately identify dynamic UI elements using AI-powered visual recognition
- Supports keyword-driven test scripts that can be recorded on a single device and then executed across multiple devices
Limitations:
- Price makes it nearly impossible for startups and small teams to use
"Best platform for creating the automated UI tests." — AbdulRazzak A, Senior Software Engineer.
10. WebLOAD
WebLOAD is a fast and reliable performance and load testing tool for both web and mobile apps. It features a comprehensive IDE, load generation console, and an analytical dashboard that lets you realistically evaluate your app under different load conditions. With WebLOAD, you can simulate real-world conditions for specific mobile devices and measure the response time.
Price: Offers a 30-day free trial for up to 50 users and quote-based plans
Benefits:
- Supports native JavaScript scripting language for more complex testing scenarios
- Can easily be incorporated into continuous delivery processes
- Creates powerful testing analysis tools and customizable reports
Limitations:
- Generating and analyzing reports is complex
Notable review: "A truly automatic load testing solution for DevOps." —Oren G., Co-founder, Information Technology and Services.
Choose the right tool for mobile automated testing
No two testing tools are precisely the same, and each comes with advantages and drawbacks. Before deciding which testing tool to use for your project, follow these steps:
- Identify the types of tests you want to perform
- Research the available tools for that test using the list above
- Evaluate the pros and cons
- Have a POC project to try out these tools
- Based on your requirements, decide on the one that best suits your automation tests
- Check the ability to integrate it with your CI/CD pipeline to be able to run it on every PR or as nightly builds before release
Bitrise offers a seamless CI/CD pipeline that easily integrates with a wide range of mobile testing tools. Get started today for free.
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