QA Testing Tools 2022: What is the Right Choice for You?



QA tools can include everything, from workflow management tools to performance testing tools. It can be confusing to identify the right tools for software quality assurance if you are just starting out.

Functional testing is an essential part of software quality assurance efforts. We believe that the best automated functional testing tool should be a key part of your QA toolbox. You can use the right automated functional test tool to help you:

  • Make sure that the application's critical user paths work correctly and are clearly visible to the user.
  • You can do more testing in a shorter time.
  • You can manage more test cases with a reduced headcount.

QA is an automated, no-code testing platform that allows software teams to quickly release quality code. You can skip this section and we'll dive into our product more later.

After you have a solid Functional Testing program, you will likely want to expand your QA testing capabilities to include security testing and performance testing. This is where other tools can be helpful.

This post will discuss the factors you should consider when selecting a functional test tool. It also covers 7 of the most popular functional testing tools. We will also discuss other types of QA tools and provide a list of options for each type.

How to Select an Automated Functional Test Tool

When choosing a functional software test tool, there are three things to consider:

  1. What skills do you need to create and maintain test results?
  2. What reliability are the tests?
  3. What is the cost of the tool?

This section will explain why these considerations matter and how to get the answers.

How easy it is to create and maintain tests

Software testing tools often require programming skills in order to create, run and debug tests. This means that only software engineers will be able handle testing. Many developers are frustrated by the steep learning curve required to understand most software testing solutions. It can take a lot of time to create tests for new features or triage test results. This can often lead to a bottleneck in the release process. You'll need to choose between delaying a release and releasing untested products.

It can be time-consuming to create new tests. However, it can be difficult to update existing test quickly enough to keep up to date with product updates. Developers who fail to maintain test automation maintenance will experience more false failures. This is when the test fails due to a problem in the application, and not the test itself. They may lose faith in the test and stop running them or ignore failed tests.

Non-developers can help with testing. This makes it easier to meet deadlines and conduct more testing. Developers are also free to focus on other tasks, such as the development of new products or features.

Low-code solutions such as record-and playback tools make it easy to create test scripts. They generate the code automatically for you. These tools are limited in the types of test scripts that you can create. Most teams still rely on developers for the majority of their test scripts to be written/updated and to determine why they failed.

QA, an alternative tool that doesn't require any code, is a tool that allows anyone to write/edit tests or triage test results. QA makes writing any test easy, so you can keep up to date with your release schedule.

How reliable are the tests?

Most QA tools look for element locators within the underlying code of an app to locate elements and interact with them. The test will succeed if the element locator matches the description in the test. The test will fail if any one of the characters in the underlying code is different from what's in the test.

There are other situations where the element locator works correctly, resulting in a successful test run. However, there a bug on the UI that a user could quickly notice. The locator might be present, but a popup modal could cover the element.

You can add plugins to your existing tools to test the UI. They can be sensitive to small visual changes on the screen, so you will need to manually add code to each step to test the UI.

QA is a tool that automatically tests your application's UI and functionality with each test step.

What the tool costs to use

When choosing a functional test tool, the last thing you should consider is how much it will cost for your tests to be run over the long-term. This can be compared to the monthly cost of the tool, which can range from zero for an open-source tool with minimal features to four-figure monthly costs. You also have to consider hidden costs that are associated with functional testing tools.

  1. The salaries of those who write, run, or manage the tests.
  2. The total cost of all tools.

You'll need to hire more people to oversee QA testing as your software develops. You will need additional programming skills if the tool you use requires it. Software testing platforms can be used by anyone. This will give you more freedom in choosing the right person for the job and budget.

You can find many options for free automation tools that are open-source, or at least offer a free tier. Most of these tools only allow you to run and write tests locally. Additional tools, such as a testing grid, are required if you need to run multiple tests on the cloud simultaneously or to analyze test results. Most teams eventually end up paying for and managing multiple tools.

QA is an all-in one tool that offers 5 hours of testing per month for free. It also includes all the tools needed to write, run, and manage a complete suite of functional tests.

7 Automated Functional Test Tools

The following list includes 7 popular test automation tools. It will be discussed how easy it is for you to create/maintain them, how reliable they are, and how expensive it is to use them.

1. QA: No-code UI Testing

QA is truly the only no-code solution in this list. tests do not interact with the underlying software of an application (a.k.a. the DOM), but instead use pixel-matching and interact with the visual layer -- just as a real user would.

Here's how it works.

Everyone Can Write and Maintain Tests Quickly and Easily

You scroll through a drop down list to select a preset action like 'click' or 'fill'. Next, take a quick screenshot of the area you wish to apply the action.

You can create a more complicated test step by:

  • Allow for additional wait times, rather than relying only on pre-set wait times
  • Enter specific text or choose to use random names, emails, and so on. You can also choose from our data library.
  • Scroll down until you see something, rather than scrolling a fixed length down the page.
  • There are many other options.

This allows anyone to create test case beyond what record-and-playback tools allow you to create -- without having to be a programmer.

A common sequence of actions can be saved to be used in future tests. This is useful for login sequences that are frequently used, as you only need to write the steps one time. With just a few clicks, you can then embed the entire sequence in any other test.

You can either preview each step as you go or the entire test at once.

You can launch a test from once you are ready to go. Or, you can have your software development team start a set from within your CI/CD pipeline with our CircleCI Orb or GitHub Action.

You can test everything visible on the screen

Many teams are faced with critical testing cases that require interaction with browser settings, multiple tabs, and the desktop. You might download and install a browser extension, or desktop app to understand how a web site will perform under different browser settings (e.g. With ad blocking enabled, and many other examples.

However, most tools can only automate one browser tab. This means that all of the above test cases would have to be manually tested or left untested.

QA automates operating systems using virtual machines and not just one browser tab. You can now create test cases for any item on the screen.

This video walks you through creating a test to save a file from one location to your desktop and then upload it to Google Drive.

To quickly understand every test failure, use video replays

Selenium, an open-source tool, won't help you understand test failures. Although there are some ways to view the DOM at break point, these require you to add additional lines of code manually.

Many no-code tools have some built-in feature to record test runs. There is a limit on the number of recordings that you can save. You can also add a plugin to take a screenshot or a snapshot of your HTML DOM at the time of failure. The bug is often found in the steps that lead to failure. These screenshots and snapshots may not show the bug.

QA records a video from every test run, regardless of whether it passes or fails. All videos are stored indefinitely. In one dashboard, you'll find all the details about how the failure was determined, HTTP logs and browser logs.

You can view the test steps that led up to failure, and compare a successful to failed test run. This is often the key to understanding the reason why a test failed.

Get 5 hours of free testing every month, then only pay for what you use

QA offers a Free-forever Professional Plan which makes software testing available to everyone.

The Professional plan includes 5 hours free testing each month -- and only $5/hr thereafter. We offer usage-based pricing. This means that you are only charged for the actual time spent running tests. You don't pay for time spent reviewing, writing, editing or managing your test suite.

The Professional plan gives you access to all the tools you need to conduct functional testing, including:

  • Access to multiple operating systems, including Windows and macOS, and browsers, including current and older versions Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Internet Explorer. ).
  • Built-in test data like randomized email addresses, credit card numbers, names, etc.
  • Jira integration allows you to send bugs to the development team. You will receive a ticket with steps from the failed test and a screenshot of the failed step. A link to the video replay is also included.
  • Integrations with Slack and Microsoft Teams and email so that your team receives real-time notifications about test failures or other updates.

This allows you to easily scale up or down your testing at a moment’s notice without having to pay for extra and without having to manage tons of tools.

Start free of charge

2. Selenium

Selenium is an open source coding framework. Selenium allows you to write tests and create browsers that run them. Selenium IDE also has a record-and-playback tool that can be used to generate test scripts.

Additional tools are required to manage multiple test cases, run multiple tests simultaneously, and debug. Selenium is the most popular tool for automating tests. Many tools that are built on Selenium make it easier to write and run Selenium-based tests.

These articles will provide more information about Selenium.

  • Selenium Advantages: Why QA teams are going codeless
  • 7 tools for Selenium Alternatives for Faster and More Reliable Testing

3. Cypress

Cypress is a framework that allows you to write JavaScript tests. Cypress is designed for JavaScript developers with experience. Anyone who has never used JavaScript before will find it difficult to learn. Cypress is popular because you can do both unit and integration testing with the same tool.

Cypress provides an open-source version for their software. Most teams realize that they need to upgrade to paid versions quickly to keep up with the software's growth.

This article will provide more information about Cypress and Cypress alternatives.

4. Katalon Studio

Katalon Studio, an all-in one record-and playback tool, is built on the Selenium WebDriver. This connects the platform with foreign programming language libraries like Ruby, Java and Python.

Katalon, like most record-and-playback software tools, claims that Katalon makes test automation easy for non-technical testers. You'll eventually need to hire a software engineer because record-and-playback tools have limitations.

Katalon's functional testing features without code are not extensive, but it is widely recognized as one the best API testing tools available.

A more in-depth comparison of Cypress vs. Selenium vs. vs. QA can be found here.

5. Testim.io

Testim.io offers all-in-one recording and playback testing. A developer is needed to insert JavaScript code into complex test steps. You can integrate them with TestRail and Jenkins, Applitools (BrowserStack), Sauce Labs, and GitHub.

Testim.io offers a free tier to their web application testing platform. It allows you to run 1,000 serial tests per month, and one account per company. Although you can run concurrent tests with their paid plans, there is a limit on the number of concurrent tests that you can run per month.

This article will provide more information about Testim's capabilities as well as Testim's alternatives.

6. Appium

Appium is a mobile application automation framework that uses Selenium to perform Selenium tests on Android and iOS devices. Appium allows you to test native, hybrid, and web mobile apps.

It's an open-source, programming-based testing framework similar to Selenium. Appium can be configured by a developer to capture the underlying code at the break point to identify why the test failed. However, there are no other tracking tools or features to assist with maintenance and debugging. It's easy to integrate into any software development tool and is customizable.

7. Mabl

Mabl is an agile record-and-playback tool. You can use it to record test scripts using a Chrome extension. It also allows you to run cross-browser tests on Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer.

You can use "reusable flows" to speed up the creation of tests. These can then be used in other tests.

It includes information about passed and failed tests as well as JavaScript errors and broken links.

Are you ready to start automating functional testing? QA offers free monthly testing when you sign up.

20+ Additional QA Testing Tools By Category

Exploratory Testing Instruments

Exploratory testing is unscripted manual testing that aims to uncover bugs that are not found in routine functional testing. QA provides an exploratory testing service to Enterprise clients. Other tools you should consider are:

  • Bug magnet
  • Azure Test Plans
  • Chrome Extension for Exploratory Testing

Test Management Tools

The test management tools are used to plan, track, and report on all aspects of the testing process, including version control, metrics and reporting, requirements management and project management. QA has robust testing management features to meet the needs of most teams. There are many options to consider:

  • Azure DevOps
  • Kualitee
  • aqua ALM
  • TestRail
  • Testpad

Performance Tools

Performance testing tools can be any tool that applies a specific workload (e.g., to test the software's response) to determine its limits. on-premise load testing). There are many options to choose from:

  • JMeter
  • WAPT
  • MicroFocus
  • WebLOAD
  • LoadRunner

Security Testing Tools

Security testing tools can be used to detect vulnerabilities and protect private data from hackers. There are many options to choose from:

  • Zed Attack Proxy, ZAD
  • Wfuzz
  • Wapiti
  • SQLMap

Visual Regression Testing Tools

Visual regression tools can be used as add-ons to functional testing tools to allow you test the visual layer of an application directly on your UI. QA provides complete end-to–end testing by simultaneously testing the functionality as well as the visual layer. Visual validations are done automatically by QA. You can also consider the following options:

  • Kobiton
  • Percy
  • PhantomCSS
  • Applitools

Cross-platform testing

Cross-platform testing is a way to test compatibility between your software and different operating systems, real devices, and browsers. There are many options to consider:

  • LamdaTest
  • BrowserStack
  • Sauce Labs

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