Web testing is a crucial part of any web development project. Considering the wide range of activities going into this process, it is a great investment to find a good website testing tool to assist you.
How does a tool help? Instead of manually interacting with the site to uncover bugs, testers can automate everything with a good tool without writing much code. Some all-in-one tools, also called quality management platforms, can go beyond writing tests and help you manage, maintain, execute, and analyze tests at the same time.
The benefit is undeniably huge once you successfully adopt them. In this article, we list down the top 10 website testing tools that your QA team can leverage to really transform your testing activities. Selecting a good tool is usually a wise investment, with ROI increasingly getting higher as test automation maturity of the organization increases.
Read on if you want to choose the best tool for your team. We compare all of the technical details, strong features, pricing, and even ratings on popular software review sites. Here is the list we'll cover:
These are some of the top questions you should consider when choosing a web testing tool for your team:
With all of that in mind, here are the top 10 best web testing tools for your QA team:
When it comes to web testing, and any type of testing, Katalon Platform is the go-to choice for your team. As a comprehensive testing platform, you can do everything within one single workplace of Katalon, including:
1. Craft a test case for your web application with hundreds of pre-built keywords. They are simply code snippets at the core, so you don’t even need to know how to code to start testing.
2. You also get access to the Record-and-Playback feature. Start recording, and execute the test steps manually. Katalon records your sequence of actions and turn them into a script that you can later edit using the Scripting mode if you want some customization
3. Not just that, you can also group your test cases into test suites and collections for a hierarchical view. Test objects and artifacts are managed in an Object Repository, and the great thing is that you can reuse those test artifacts across test environments. Talking about improved productivity!
4. For test execution, Katalon allows you to execute locally, through the CLI, remotely, or on-cloud, with a rich array of browser - device - OS combinations to choose from. You don’t really have to worry about infrastructure maintenance for cross-browser testing activities, as Katalon takes care of that for you. See how Katalon TestCloud does that.
Here's a webinar to help you see how Katalon works in practice along with some practical use cases and tips from experienced users of Katalon:
5. After test runs, Katalon generates detailed reports with relevant metrics for you to monitor your efficiency and make data-driven decisions.
6. Finally, you can’t miss the planning phase. Aside from CI/CD integrations, Katalon also integrates with Slack, Microsoft Teams, JIRA, and many collaboration platforms for enhanced communication and visibility across teams.
Katalon is also a pioneer in the AI testing space. Imagine having an AI agent that can autonomously analyze the user behavior on your website and make tailored recommendations for what and where to test. That is what Katalon TrueTest™
is doing! You don’t have to explore your website to find areas to test; you get an AI to do that for you, and it only gets better and better once it understands the patterns of your site traffic. You can see the diagram below to see how TrueTest works.
Not just that, you also get StudioAssist - a feature within Katalon Studio - which can generate and explain tests for you. Beside that, there is a wide host of AI-powered features that can change the way you think and do web testing.
Website: Katalon
Documentation: Katalon Docs
Pricing: Katalon offers a Free version to get you started immediately with codeless API, web, mobile app, desktop app test creation and cross-browser test execution. There is also a 30-day free trial for you to experience the full capabilities of Katalon.
Download Katalon and Witness its Power in Action
Selenium is an open-source automation testing library used to automate web applications. It is important to emphasize this, as using an automation testing tool is an entirely different world compared to using an automation testing library. However, we include Selenium in this web testing tool list because Selenium is undoubtedly the most popular web testing framework out there.
Selenium is highly versatile, supporting multiple programming languages, including Java, Python, C#, Ruby, and JavaScript. Testing teams can choose a programming language that best aligns with their skills.
Selenium also supports a range of operating systems, making it adaptable to different environments. Whether a team is working on Windows, macOS, or Linux, Selenium can be utilized across diverse platforms, providing consistency and efficiency in the testing process.
Read More: Top 8 Cross-browser Testing Tools For Your QA Team
Most importantly, Selenium is open-source, so it is continuously updated and improved by a global community of developers. This fosters innovation, ensures compatibility with the latest web technologies, and provides a wealth of resources and documentation for users.
Here’s an example of a test script written in Java using Selenium and Apache POI to test the login feature. Let’s assume that you have a ‘username’ and ‘password’ field in your XLSX file called “data.xlsx”, and the site you want to test the login feature is called “https://testwebsite.com”:
import org.openqa.selenium.By;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebElement;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import org.apache.poi.ss.usermodel.*;
import org.apache.poi.xssf.usermodel.XSSFWorkbook;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
public class DataDrivenTest {
public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
// Initialize WebDriver
System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver", "path/to/chromedriver");
WebDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();
// Initialize Excel file
FileInputStream file = new FileInputStream(new File("path/to/your/excel/data.xlsx"));
Workbook workbook = new XSSFWorkbook(file);
Sheet sheet = workbook.getSheet("Sheet1");
// Iterate through the rows and columns to read the data
for (int rowNum = 1; rowNum <= sheet.getLastRowNum(); rowNum++) {
Row row = sheet.getRow(rowNum);
String username = row.getCell(0).getStringCellValue();
String password = row.getCell(1).getStringCellValue();
// Execute the test with the current set of data
driver.get("https://testwebsite.com");
WebElement usernameField = driver.findElement(By.id("username"));
WebElement passwordField = driver.findElement(By.id("password"));
WebElement loginButton = driver.findElement(By.id("login-button"));
usernameField.sendKeys(username);
passwordField.sendKeys(password);
loginButton.click();
// Add verification/assertion steps here
// Close the browser or perform any necessary cleanup
}
file.close();
driver.quit();
}
}
However, at the end of the day, the power of Selenium is proportional to the team’s coding expertise. The better they can code, the more benefits they can “squeeze” out of this framework.
The maintenance of Selenium scripts is also a major pain that deters testers from choosing Selenium as a framework and instead go for tools that offer an automatic maintenance feature (i.e. Self-healing broken test scripts) to scale testing activities without having to continuously update test scripts when new features are rolled out.
Cypress serves as a JavaScript end-to-end testing framework designed for web applications, effectively addressing challenges encountered by QAs and developers during website testing. Its user-friendly syntax and core features simplify the setup, writing, running, and debugging of web tests, making the testing process almost as straightforward as composing instructions in human-readable language.
Cypress is fundamentally different Selenium in its underlying mechanism, which also happens to be its strong point:
Aspect | Selenium | Cypress |
Architecture | Follows a traditional client-server model.
The client side is the test script, and the server side is the web browser being tested. | Eliminate the need for an external driver. Executes the test script directly within the browser environment. |
Communication | Relies on a browser-specific "driver" as an intermediary for communication.
The driver interprets commands from the test script and translates them into actions executed by the browser. | Does not rely on a separate driver.
The Cypress script communicates directly with the browser, streamlining communication and eliminating the need for an intermediary layer. |
Execution | Test scripts send commands to the browser through the driver.
The test script and browser operate independently, communicating through the intermediary layer. | Scripts are executed directly within the browser environment.
Cypress loads the web application on the browser and injects code directly, providing native access to every object within the application. |
Why is it a strong point of Cypress? Cypress is well-liked for end-to-end testing and component testing (also known as unit testing). Developers can quickly integrate Cypress into their development environment, enabling them to start writing and executing tests without significant overhead. This simplicity aligns well with the iterative nature of TDD.
The direct interaction allows developers to observe and debug the application in real-time during the test execution, enhancing visibility into how the application responds to changes.
Here are some other interesting features of Cypress:
Read More: Katalon vs Cypress: A Detailed Comparison
Website: Cypress
Pricing: Open-source
Playwright is another open-source automation framework for web browsers, developed by Microsoft. It allows developers and testers to automate the interaction of web browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, and Safari, providing a versatile toolset for browser automation, testing, and browser orchestration.
Key Features:
Website: Playwright
Pricing: Open-source
WebLOAD, crafted by RadView Software, stands out as a performance testing solution engineered to evaluate the performance, stress resistance, and scalability of both web and mobile applications. Its unique amalgamation of performance, scalability, and integrity processes makes it a potent tool for validating the dependability of web and mobile apps.
Key Features:
Website: Radview (WebLOAD)
Pricing: For pricing details, please get in touch with the sales team.
Mabl is an advanced automated testing solution designed to enhance the quality and efficiency of software testing processes. It is particularly focused on delivering reliable and scalable testing for web applications, ensuring a seamless user experience. Mabl also shines as one of the first AI testing tools on the current market.
Key Features:
Website: Mabl
Pricing: For detailed pricing information, kindly reach out to the Mabl sales team. They can provide specific details based on your testing needs and requirements.
Although not really a web testing tool, TestRail can still assist QA teams tremendously in their testing process. It is a web-based test management tool to help testers organize, manage, and track their software testing efforts. It provides a centralized platform for test case management, test execution, and reporting, facilitating efficient collaboration and communication within the testing process.
TestRail offers a range of features to support the testing lifecycle, including
TestRail streamlines test management processes, making it easier for teams to maintain control over testing activities and ensure the delivery of high-quality software.
Key Features:
Website: TestRail
Pricing: TestRail offers 2 tiers: Professional Cloud and Enterprise Cloud with custom pricing that fits your organization's specific needs.
Applitools is a leading visual testing tool designed to revolutionize web and mobile application testing. It is critical to also include visual testing to check if there are any bugs on the UI of your web page, and Applitools can help.
Key Features:
Website: Applitools
Pricing: Applitools offers 3 tier: Starter - Eye - Ultrafast Test Cloud to choose from
LoadNinja stands out as a cloud-based tool specifically crafted for load testing and performance testing of web applications and websites. Renowned for its approachable and scriptless interface, LoadNinja caters to a diverse user base, including developers, QA engineers, and performance testers.
Highlight Features:
Website: LoadNinja
Pricing: Contact Sales
TestCafe is a web testing framework designed for automating end-to-end testing of web applications. It allows users to write tests in JavaScript or TypeScript and runs tests on multiple browsers without requiring browser plugins.
TestCafe automates the testing process by providing a platform for creating and running tests, ensuring web applications function correctly across different browsers.
Key Features:
Website: TestCafe
Documentation: TestCafe Guide
Pricing: Open-source