Best Software Testing Tools Matchup: Fan Favorites & Emerging Tools

With so much emerging tech, we’ve compiled a list of the nine best software testing tools with the pros and cons for each.

• December 20, 2022

Key Takeaways

With so much emerging tech, we’ve compiled our nine best software testing tools list.
Each software testing tool comes with pros and cons, all of which we’ve outlined for easy assessment.

With so much emerging tech coming out of 2022, we’ve decided to bring you our list of the best software testing tools. A top list full of bangers from front to back, each one a hero in their own right. But before we get into the list, what makes them the best? Is it cool names, a lot of features, or maybe just because we have a soft spot for them?

For this particular list, we took a few things into account. Namely, we looked at how long these products have been on the market, their overall adoption rate, and user feedback from popular review sites. That way, we can see how widely used they are and how real QA teams feel about them.

We’ve got a killer list for you, broken down into two distinct categories: all-time fan favorites and brand-new up-and-comers to the scene.

Best fan-favorite software testing tools

We love the classics; who doesn’t? These tools are all deeply ingrained in the testing world, essentially household names for those in the know.

The All-Time Favorite for Writing Browser Tests: Selenium

Selenium WebDriver has been and continues to be one of the most popular testing frameworks, almost to the point of being a household name. On the surface, Selenium is a way to automate web browsers. But it’s a profoundly intricate test solution that can cover all major OS’ and browsers. Plus, it’s entirely open-source and free to use by anyone.

Why people love it	The Caveats
It’s the de-facto standard for webpage testing.	Selenium is relatively complex for newcomers.
It covers all major browsers and OS’.	It doesn’t help your teams shift left, as it requires your testing team to write new tests constantly.
It boasts a massive community with tons of support and resources.	It doesn’t offer any reporting.

The All-Rounder: Unified Functional Test (UFT)

Unified Functional Test (UFT), previously known as Quick Test Professional (QTP), offers both regression and functional testing for nearly any platform, device, or application. UFT has a few offerings focused on testing: UFT Developer is a flexible shift-left testing, function testing and test automation tool. Alongside UFT Developer is UFT One which automates functional testing from UI to API. It’s an AI-driven testing tool that can reduce the time spent writing and running tests and boost your overall testing coverage.

Why people love it	The Caveats
UFT is built to integrate with tons of third-party tools.	Some users report performance issues, ranging from inconsistent results to full-on crashing with some integrations.
It offers robust reporting dashboards so that you can make data-driven decisions.	It has a steep cost for a license, with no public price available. Some reports show the price upwards of $4,500/yr per license.
Nearly all device types and operating systems are supported so that you can test virtually anything.

The Powerhouse: Appium

Starting off as a tool for testing iOS applications, Appium has evolved into an open-source tool for automating native, mobile web, and hybrid apps across multiple operating systems. And because it’s fully cross-platform, the tests you write can work against multiple platforms with the same API.

Why people love it	The Caveats
It’s cross-platform, allowing you to test across iOS, Android, and Windows.	Appium can be challenging to configure and support all mobile OS versions.
Appium supports automation for native, mobile web, and hybrid applications.	Your tests will be slow to run compared to other tools, especially for iOS.
It supports multiple scripting languages.	While it’s based on Selenium, it does not have all the same features you’d expect.

The Heavy Lifter: Tricentis Tosca

Tricentis Tosca might be a mouthful of a name, but they back it up with a smorgasbord of features. From leveraging AI to create tests, no-code tests with model-based automation, API scanning, and more. They also cover mobile apps across all platforms.

Why people love it	The Caveats
It’s an entirely codeless solution, making it easily accessible.	Their built-in reporting solution isn’t detailed.
It supports over 160 technologies to integrate with.	It can be a pricy solution for smaller engineering orgs.
It covers native apps, mobile apps, and web apps.

Best emerging software testing tools

These tools are “new” to the software testing world, and likely considered more up-and-coming technologies and ideas that are taking the testing world by storm. These are the tools we all should be keeping our eyes on in the years ahead as they continue to carve out their place in software testing tech.

The Rising Star: Katalon

One of the more popular tools to hit the market, Katalon, was built atop Selenium and Appium to make a comprehensive testing solution. It leverages AI and simple no-code solutions to make it easy to integrate into your existing structure while still supporting low and full-code testing. Their most significant focus is on using their AI-powered platform to help teams plan and write tests through automation.

Why people love it	The Caveats
It’s super accessible, giving teams the flexibility of low-code, no-code, or entirely handwritten tests.	There are some performance issues with Katalon, resulting in hang-ups and freezing.
They offer their own IDE for writing and running tests across multiple devices.	Katalon only supports Groovy, a Java-based scripting language.
Their AI implementation works to schedule tests, perform self-healing, and more!

Low-Code Hero: Mabl

Mabl is one of the newcomers on the scene, riding the wave alongside other popular low/no-code solutions. It allows teams to add automated end-to-end tests into their software development lifecycle easily and simplifies the testing process with low-code solutions and automation. Plus, it integrates with all of your existing tools.

Why people love it	The Caveats
Since it’s a low-code solution, getting Mabl up and running is incredibly easy.	Performance can be iffy, with some users reporting testing taking longer than expected or issues with the UI.
Mabl’s tests offer self-healing functionality to help adjust and fix your tests, preventing blockage.	Highly technical teams may not be happy with Mabl, as no-code tests don’t always cover what you need them to.
They also offer detailed reporting for test results and analysis, allowing you to stay up-to-date with your progress.

Featherweight Champ: Testsigma

Testsigma has exploded onto the scene in the last couple of years, offering a robust test automation platform designed for speed and coverage. Their end-to-end test automation platform works across the web, mobile apps, and APIs powered by plain English for scripting. Their tests also can self-heal or capture your dev’s testing process with their auto-capture feature.

Why people love it	The Caveats
Tests are easy to write, thanks to their auto-record feature or scripting in plain English.	Reporting isn’t very robust, so you’ll need to create your own dashboards.
You can manage your installation on the cloud or on-premises.	Test suites can’t be linked together without self-made workarounds.
It covers just about any platform and OS.	Test results can be inconsistent based on complex or unoptimized apps.

Refreshing Rookie: Cucumber

You might have heard of Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) before. Essentially, it’s an Agile development process that focuses on collaborating between developers, QA, and customer reps. Cucumber is a testing tool that not only embraces BDD but can help teams transition to a BDD mindset, starting with testing.

Why people love it	The Caveats
They use Gherkin, their custom English-based language, to define tests and outcomes.	Gherkin isn’t for everyone, as it can get complex for new users jumping into an existing suite.
Cucumber supports various languages, with new ones added all the time.	Not all teams use BDD or want to switch to BDD.
It integrates with Selenium, your API, or other functions for automation.

Fearless Leader: Launchable

Focused on helping teams launch fearlessly, Launchable is giving development teams the data-driven pipelines they deserve and taking the labor out of test selection with machine learning. Launchable’s Predictive Test Selection helps development and QA teams reduce infrastructure costs and speed up the testing cycle. It uses machine learning to pick and run high-value tests that help teams ship 5X faster.

Why people love it	The Caveats
Launchable speeds up the testing feedback loop using machine learning to identify and run tests with the highest probability of failing based on code and test metadata.	Predictive Test Selection relies on machine learning to adapt to your codebase, so it will take a few weeks before it reaches optimal performance.
Launchable provides the ability to create a subset based on the changes present in the build every time you run tests. Because the subset adapts to your changes in real-time, we can this a dynamic subset.	We recommend running full test suites somewhat frequently for coverage and to train the model.
With Predictive Test Selection, teams can cut down their testing by 80%.
Launchable also helps track the health of your team’s bottlenecks beyond the standard outputs and let’s developers setup Personalized Test Notification via Slack.