Software testing helps testing teams ensure that products are in the best shape before releasing them to the public. There are two ways of conduct: automation testing and manual testing. Testers use both methods to execute test cases and compare the obtained with expected outcomes.
Automation testing is the practice of using an automation tool or other software to run tests, manage test data, and use the results to improve software efficiency. On the other hand, manual testing is a testing technique that requires human presence for the software codes to function.
Automation testing has been proven to be more beneficial than manual testing, in terms of wider test coverage and handling repetitive tests with ease and quickly. It also tends to be more accurate in eliminating human errors/intervention and improving testing ROI.
Why Automation Testing?
To help you determine if test automation being the right choice, below are main reasons to consider:
Saving time and money
Carrying out your test manually can be time-consuming as testers perform the test without using automated scripts. For example, running a regression test manually needs repetitive execution to ensure quality output. With automation testing, teams can speed up and supervise hourly tests without additional cost.
Minimizing human intervention
.. Writing and reusing test suites manually is a rigorous and exhaustive task. Alternatively, automation testing is well-suited to handle physical tasks, allowing the testing team to avoid endless data entries, as well as reducing the risk of mistakes and failures when using manual testing.
More test coverage and higher maintenance
Automation testing enables you to run tests across different platforms (hardware/software) simultaneously over a short period. In essence, automation testing increases the overall performance of tests, thus provides a broader test coverage.
This means the process of implementing an automation test. Situations, where automation testing should apply, are:
Cases
Before you conduct an Automation Testing, it is necessary for you to know your purpose for wanting to perform the test and what you aim to achieve. A test should match up with specific criteria for it to be successful. Here are some factors to consider before applying automation testing.
High Stakes Cases Requiring Consistency and Precision
Some cases are highly associated with severe risks and can influence the business negatively. These effects may include customer dissatisfaction and a bad user experience. When this type of risk-prone test is run through manual testing, the result is often disastrous as the software codes are usually filled with many errors. For cases like this, the most effective method that should be adopted is automation testing. An automation tool would prevent errors by finding and fixing bugs automatically during the process.
High Repetition Cases
Test cases are often run as many times as possible. For such cases, adopting an automation testing tool relieves testers of the stress. Repeatable tests can run as many times as possible, without extra cost, and it also saves time.
Steps
To run a successful automation testing, here are the steps that should be followed:
Define the scope of automation
The scope of automation is simply to cover all aspects you want to automate in your application. To define your automation scope, you must consider your team's expertise, the amount of test data, and the environment for execution. This can also be determined by:
The technical feasibility
The extent to which the same test cases can be used across different devices and platforms
How complicated the test cases are
Essential features in the test cases being executed
Select a test tool
When choosing a test tool, you need to pick the right one l that goes well with technologies by which the application under test is built. Importantly, ensure you have a thorough understanding of several tool types and the purposes they serve. Also, consider your budget, the team's expertise, and ROI.
Plan and Build
After selecting the right testing tool, it’s time to create an automation strategy. The plan, in particular, should include the selected testing tool, designed framework and its features, as well as timeline for test scripting and executing. This plan should also contain the in-scope, out-of-scope items of automation and other deliverables of automation.
Execute and Monitor
After going through the steps mentioned above, the next thing to do is execute the test cases developed. In this phase, test execution is carried out with the input data's help, either directly, or by calling an application API, or through the user interface. Once executed, a detailed report comprising the summary of the steps taken in the automation process is made out of the result.
Maintenance
This involves expanding your collection of test reusability. Maintenance of the previous test cases would keep your test updated even if the application changes in the long run.
Conclusion
Automation testing is essential to achieve the best results when running tests for software applications. Specifically, it improves the overall efficiency of test scripts and ensures error-free results. If you want to make an effective comparison between the actual product and the expected outcome of a software application, automation testing is one of the first options to consider. However, failure to adopt proper tools and procedures would lead to cost and error increases in the automation testing process.
Top 15 Mobile Testing Tools for 2021 (Latest Update)
Best Mobile Testing Tools for 2021
With approximately 3.8 billion smartphone users and 1.35 billion tablet users, it’s no surprise that the mobile application industry is thriving with 244.2 billion apps downloaded in 2020, and predicted to reach 258 billion app downloads globally in 2022.
Such volumes of demands, in addition to the constant influx of software sophistication and operating systems, give way for automated mobile testing to prosper in popularity. Automated mobile testing tools offers a win-win solution for all parties involved:
For developers, it allows the reproduction of potential issues on various devices and OS in real-time, then viewing logs, data, recording for immediate bugging and adjustment, thus improving test cases and efficiency.
For businesses, mobile app testing tools reduce costs and time-to-market, increasing profit and competitive edges.
For users, it increases quality, thus ensuring a smooth experience.
From there, we can see the importance of choosing the right automated mobile app testing tools for developers and companies. Amid such a rising appeal for automation, there are hundreds of mobile testing tools for teams to choose from since technology companies are vying for market shares.
However, such availability of mobile testing tools can confuse organizations when looking for the best fit for their mobile apps. To give testing teams some clarity, I’m using my humble personal experiences in software testing to create this list of 15 best automated mobile testing tools in the industry. Teams can use this list to get some good understanding of all the available software, and compare each software’s distinct features; therefore, determine which tool best caters to their apps.
Top 5 Mobile Testing Tools for 2021
1. Appium
This is a no-brainer when it comes to choosing a testing tool for mobile application projects. As one of the most-searched mobile app testing tools, Appium has long been the leading software in the mobile testing industry.
Highlighted features:
Appium is a free, open-source mobile testing tool that supports a wide range of languages, test frameworks, and OS.
It offers various integrations with third-party tools, enabling cross-platform testing using the same API, and tests reusability between iOS, Android, and Windows.
Support all kinds of apps, making it among the most robust and flexible mobile testing tools.
In conjunction with its advanced features, Appium requires extensive coding experience to create tests, which can be problematic when users require training before use. There’s no official support but rather a community of users sharing information. Also, users can contribute by making changes on code/ docs, becoming an Appium Triager, or submitting bug reports and feature requests.
There’s a reason why over 100,000 companies worldwide adopted Katalon Studio as their testing solution. Utilizing the robust Appium and Selenium frameworks as its foundation, Katalon Studio is an all-in-one testing solution for companies and teams at any scale. It offers codeless testing for all testing needs (Mobile testing, Web testing,Desktop application testing, API testing) without the steep learning curves of Appium and Selenium. For mobile testing specifically, Katalon supports iOS and Android testing platforms and extends other OSs like macOS, Windows, and Linux.
Highlighted features:
Supports most testing capabilities offered by Appium, but easier: simple setup; effortless test script creation using keywords, images, objects; test execution locally and remotely on real devices, simulators, or custom cloud-based devices, and flexible test reusability across mobile platforms, API, and Web.
Offers powerful utilities to accelerate the automation process: Mobile Object Spy to quickly populate the project’s object repository and Mobile Recorder to generate automation scripts from recorded actions with built-in modifications and actions when recording tests.
Integration with all the commonly used third-party tools (Jira, Git, Jenkins, etc.) and mobile platforms (Sauces Lab, Lambda Test, etc. )
In-depth reports with AI-based analysis on Katalon TestOps — a QA orchestration platform.
Comprehensive documents, tutorials, and official support from both the Katalon teams, community, and Katalon Academy.
Formally TestPlant, Eggplant is an AI-powered software test automation for desktop, web, and mobile apps. For mobile testing projects, Eggplant supports all standard platforms: Android, iOS, BlackBerry, Windows Phone, and Symbian. Although the community for Eggplant isn’t as prominent as other mobile testing tools, its recent merge with Keysight Technology hints a promising expansion may be on the horizon for Eggplant. Also, user can find their own training officially at Eggplant Training and Certification.
Highlighted features:
Test cases can run from the command line without supervision.
AI-powered tools to ensure the continuity of tests while you’re doing remoted works on Cloud.
Provides various modes of script creation workflows via SenseTalk.
Eggplant’s Digital Automation Intelligence platform can test any technology on any device, operating system, or browser at any layer, from the user interface (UI) to application programming interfaces (APIs) to the database.
TestComplete is an AI-integrated automated testing tool for UI tests in web, desktop, and mobile applications. Aside from some difficulties in updating test cases, this tool is flexible and easy-to-use with the options of both script and scriptless test generation.
Highlighted features:
Supports multiple programming languages (Python, JScript, VBScript, or JavaScript), multiple mobile platforms (iOS, Android), and third-party tools (Jenkins, GIT, etc. ).
For mobile app testing, TestComplete allows testing on both native and hybrid mobile apps on emulators, real devices, or virtual machines.
User-friendly UI with supportive documents and customer services.
Use artificial intelligence to run the object recognition engine to speed up the creating and maintaining process.
Striving to be an all-in-one testing solution, Ranorex promises to deliver high-quality desktop, mobile, and web applications testing. It’s a natural choice for beginners with a codeless click-and-go interface, helpful wizards, and powerful automation experts with a full IDE.
Highlighted features:
Support iOS and Android testing, including native mobile apps and mobile web apps with detailed summary reports.
Run cross-device tests in parallel or use Appium WebDriver for mobile web tests.
Support limited languages but does offer powerful integration.
Another new player in the field, Kobiton markets itself as a mobile experience platform. From building device labs, instant health-check to run manual and automated tests on native, web and hybrid Android/iOS apps with real devices, Kobiton strives to deliver seamless access to testing regardless of testers’ needs.
Highlighted features:
Built on top of the Appium open-source framework, Kobiton opens for integration with all frameworks (Appium, XCUI, Espresso, etc.)
Pioneering Intelligent Test Automation and Appium Anywhere technology allows for a codeless mobile testing experience based on one manual test script and a seamless text script adaptation across devices.
Providing the latest real, cloud-based devices, centralized testing history and data logs to support extensive collaboration between teams.
Monkey Talk, another open-source mobile testing tool, is a user-friendly tool that doesn’t require jailbreaking. It automates functional, real interactive tests for both Android and iOS — catering from basic smoke tests to data-driven test suites.
Highlighted features:
Testers can generate XML and HTML reports with this mobile testing tool.
Automatically take screenshots when error or failure happens.
For continuous integration needs, Monkey Talk also has inbuilt support for Jenkins and Hudson.
Created as an extension of the Android framework, Robotium is an open-source Android-only mobile testing tool that supplies robust automatic black-box test cases for Android applications.
Highlighted features:
Unlike many other Android testing tools, Robotium also allows the automation of multiple Android activities and creates solid test cases in minimal time.
Another prominent open-source tool on this list, iOS Driver, is a Selenium-integrated mobile testing tool for iOS native, hybrid and mobile applications using Selenium/WebDriver API. This tool runs efficiently on an emulator rather than devices, some of its recent versions run on devices but are comparatively slower than on the emulator. As it’s built upon two different frameworks from Apple, testers should check the system requirements for compatibility.
Highlighted features:
Once compatible, testers can utilize some features of the Apple-developed X-code.
iOS Driver makes it easy for testers as they don’t need to jailbreak, change any app code or load any additional app for testing the app on devices.
iOS Driver can be used as a Selenium Grid Node; thus tests can be run parallel on the same architecture as the web, decreasing the feedback time for GUI test.
Test IO is a leading SaaS platform for software crowd testing: the continuous testing of web and mobile applications by skilled human testers using real devices. To test your software, you need to upload your mobile app or share the website URL with test IO, then the team at test IO will securely distribute across the interested testers all over the globe. You will get the initial test results within one hour after starting the test run.
Highlighted Features:
From waterfall to continuous delivery, test IO tests when you need to: from prototype to UAT, regression, and even production.
Integration with Jira, Github, Asana, etc.
Remove QA bottleneck with on-demand, flexible testing that scales up to your needs.
Allow viewing detailed bug reports with screenshots and videos
Supports real mobile devices, browser, OS version, IoT and wearable devices (Smartwatch, phablet, set-top box, or a smart TV)
Selendroid is among the leading testing tools for Android-based hybrid and native mobile apps. It addresses most setbacks presented by other Android mobile testing apps with its powerful integration of WebDriver API and Selenium System.
Highlighted features:
An open-source framework for Android that can simultaneously interact with multiple devices, emulators, and simulators.
Powerful recording features, UI testing, and flexibility with hardware devices.
Testers are not required to alter their AUT for automation.
Can be used on emulators and real devices or integrated as a node into Selenium Grid
Recognized by Forrester Wave as a 2020 strong performer, Perfecto is a cloud-based testing software that supports mobile and web testing. It delivers a hassle-free testing experience, made possible by the very extensive platforms and testing devices through which teams can perform tests on. Although the speed on mobile testing is reported to be relatively slower than web, it boosts a reputation for its collaborative capabilities with screen-sharing options for teams while testing.
Highlighted features:
Support real user simulators and large-scale remote testing.
Extensive test failure analysis with dashboard and detailed artifacts (images, videos, crash logs, vitals, etc).
Wide availability of framework and testing platforms integrations.
Testdroid is a cloud-based software for mobile app testing that helps developers save development costs, eliminate the unpredictable operational cost, and improve time-to-market. Now Testdroid is under development at SmartBear, a leading provider of automation solutions.
Highlighted features:
One of the best platforms to test your iOS and Android devices with different screen resolutions, OS versions, and HW platforms.
Limit the risks of testing with real devices and agile practice.
Allows remote access to more than 300 genuine gadgets running in Android.
Developed by Xamarin, Calabash is an open-sourced mobile app testing tool for iOS and Android. Although it lacks a recording function, it makes up for being one of the few mobile testing tools that support Cucumber, the foundation that enables writing codes in English.
Highlighted features:
Using Xamarin Test Cloud, testers can run test cases on more than 1000 devices with real-time feedback and validation across many different form factors, OS versions, OEM customizations, and hardware specs.
Aside from essential integration with CI/CD tool integrations, Calabash also has separate libraries for iOS and Android that allows testers to interact with native and hybrid apps programmatically.
Supports Ruby, Java, and C# as programming languages.
21 is a self-learning test building and analytics platform for iOS and Android apps. Incorporating major tech innovations like AI, 21 promises an almost full implementation of automation into your testing plan.
Highlighted features:
Fast and intelligent authoring for users to create automated functional and UI tests in minutes.
Automating test maintenance to ensure test reliability across all testing platforms, reduce flaky tests.
Fully SaaS, requires no installation or devices to create or execute tests.
Price: Free demo, contact Sales for more information.
By combining the two booming industries of mobile apps and automation testing, there is no doubt that the automated mobile testing industry has a bright future ahead. These 15 tools represent the most innovative, the most flexible products in the industry. With such collections of powerful distinctions and features, it’s no doubt that a few of these apps would be great candidates for your projects and companies.
With that being said, the definition of the best mobile testing tool depends on your product and team. Your testing tool choice should be a software that fits into your team, not software for your team to fit in. Remember to consider your budget, expertise, and needs, then combine with the potential development trends of your app and the mobile application industry to optimize long-term financial gain from the chosen mobile testing tool.
