What are the 5 Best Automation Tools for QA today in 2024
The pandemic has proven one thing, it’s accelerated digital transformation by 5 years and with it the need to embrace the best automation tools more than ever. According to global consulting firm, McKinsey.
The share of digital or digitally enabled products in company portfolios has accelerated by a shocking seven years. –McKinsey & Company
This has software development and software testing teams hurrying to get product out the door faster than ever. What best automation tools are teams using these days to help keep the pace in demand? Should you make the jump, or is there a better way to leverage what you already have created?
- Selenium
- Cypress
- Appium
- Cucumber
- Robot Framework
1. Selenium: Best Automation Tool
Selenium, best for web apps.
Selenium is the market leader in providing a suite of open source software testing automation tools for the quality assurance world. Selenium is free to use and competes on the scale of that of paid tools. Fits perfectly behind the main principles of Agile, DevOps, or Continuous Delivery.
Pros:
- Free.
- Wide range of supported languages, platforms, and browsers.
- Library of extensions and plugins.
- Supports Mobile Testing.
Cons:
- No tech support.
- No reporting capabilities.
- Steep learning curve.
- Best only used for web-based apps.
2. Cypress
Complete end-to-end testing
Cypress is a JavaScript-based end-to-end testing framework. Fast, easy, and reliable testing for anything that runs in a browser. Cypress helps front end developers and QA create unit, integration, and end-to-end tests.
Pros:
- Easy setup and installation.
- Easy debugging.
- Large choice of plugins available.
Cons:
- Doesn’t support other browsers, such as IE and Safari.
- Can’t test across domains.
- Doesn’t support native mobile actions.
3. Appium
Best for mobile applications
Appium is a open source test automation framework for use with native, hybrid and mobile web apps. It’s one of the few tools that makes mobile testing truly convenient.
Pros:
- Open-source tool.
- Supports multiple mobile platforms.
- Supports most of the scripting languages, such as Java, Ruby, JavaScript, etc.
- Easily integrated with CI tools.
Cons:
- Configuration is a bit complex, difficult for beginners.
- Documentation can be confusing.
- Some backward compatibility issues.
4. Cucumber
Best for BDD
Cucumber is a cross-platform behavior-driven development (BDD) tool that writes acceptance tests for web applications. Developers describe Cucumber as “simple, human collaboration.”
Pros:
- Readability promotes teamwork.
- Communication between Testers and Analysts.
- Reusability decreases steps.
Cons:
- If either user or the developer is absent in communication, the strength of BDD becomes it’s biggest weakness.
- Difficult to maintain health of test frameworks as application changes.
- High level of maintenance .
5. Robot Framework
Best Acceptance-Driven Test
Robot Framework is the best choice if you want to use a python test automation framework for automation efforts. RF uses a keyword-driven approach to make tests easy to create.
Pros:
- Open Source.
- Very easy to install and easy to use.
- Compatible with different operating systems and external libraries, such as Selenium Library.
- Can be used by non-technical skills.
Cons:
- Difficult to maintain.
- Lack of parallel test execution.
- Not easy to customize html reports.
Given the rapid increase in demand from developers and testers, any one or combination of these test frameworks can help automation testing practices.
Appsurify TestBrain – Best Risk-Based Automation Test Tool
Best for Risk-Based Testing
Appsurify TestBrain is the best choice if you are looking to get shift your automation testing to the left and get developers test results earlier in the process. Risk based testing tool that plugs into existing test practices to accelerate test results by 10x, quarantine flaky failures, and optimize CI/CD pipelines so builds pass on time and with confidence.
Pros:
- Only run the tests that have been impacted by recent changes through Risk Based Testing
- Auto-mapping of test-scripts to functional areas of application
- Plugs into existing test practices.
- Accelerates and stabilizes active CI/CD Pipelines.
Cons
- Needs existing test practice to be in place.
- Model takes 2-3 days to build.
Conclusion of Best Automation Tools
Apart from the above-mentioned tools, there are a plethora of other automation testing tools in the market to help with their company’s digital transformation. The automation testing tools list mentioned here are some of the popular QA automation tools. Each and every tool has its unique features to address the challenges of software automation. Depending on what your team is looking to accomplish will help guide which test framework is best suited for your needs.