15 Best QA Automation Tools For Software Testing

 While working on QA automation we often reach for the tools which can help us to optimize software testing and therefore make our lives easier! Choosing the right one might be a clue to success since test automation can depend greatly on it. Also, it is important to match the right tool to the right project. With a wide range of commercial tools currently available on the market the choice might not be as easy as it seems. That’s why we decided to take some of this work off your shoulders and prepared this list for you. Check it out and compare the variety of some of the most popular tools. We hope you will find it useful and will help you with your quality assurance testing!

1)   TESTRIGOR

Many people would agree that testRigor is one of the best automation tools for manual QA testing as well as minimal test maintenance.

While thinking of testRigor you should imagine a complete end-to-end testing tool, able to solve all of the most popular issues concerning test automation. It’s a no-code platform, which means that no programming skills or previous knowledge are actually required. This leaves priority to the QA in all test automation processes.

Another plus is its language. All tests are written in what is called “plain English”, which means they are very easy to understand for every user, no matter their language skills. testRigor uses its own AI engine to assure that all tests are extremely stable, with test maintenance consuming absolutely no time. This allows for a really effortless CI/CD (continuous integration/continuous delivery) with any chosen provider. Additionally, it also works well, integrating with such other tools as Jira, TestRail, or AppliTools.

Using the testRigor you can conduct your testing for many types of applications: web, mobile, native, and hybrid mobile apps, as well as APIs. Additionally, testRigor supports other kinds of tests, such as SMS, calls, and e-mail. And the great part is that you can really work end-to-end with it, including both cross-browser and cross-platform capabilities.

testRigor is a cloud-based solution, which offers very customizable plans. There is also a free open-source community, with plenty of users to talk to. You can also find an unlimited number of tests available per test suite.

Cost: from 300 $ per month

2)   TESTIM

Many perceive Testim as the best option for automated testing among the tools with artificial intelligence (AI).

Testim allows its users to create and conduct very stable customized tests. It considers both: codeless and coded tests. The use of artificial intelligence helps to make your tests stable and resilient. You can also run a few parallel tests at the same time, even across browser types. And you can do it all on Testim’s test cloud. Afterward, the tool also provides you with the possibility to create and publish a proper bug report from your test.

Testim is a great choice for both: beginners as well as advanced users. Even your non-technical team members can use it to create codeless tests, while advanced users can write their code for other testing. Testim also has outstanding customer support, which will help you to appreciate the tool to the fullest!

If we were to name some disadvantages it would be that image verification (pixel level validation) is unfortunately not a local feature, therefore you will have to use some kind of a 3rd party solution to make this function work. Still, it is not that hard after all.

Cost: free for up to 1000 tests per month. Higher-level plans are available upon request.

3)   KOBITON

One of the best platforms for mobile application testing with QA automation. 

Kobiton offers a holistic platform for mobile application testing. Users can use this framework to create, build and conduct many different tests as well as deploy and release many sorts of mobile and web applications. Kobiton provides testing for IoT devices, other (non-IoT) devices, on-premises, and even the cloud.

YourQA testers can perform many types of different tests, such as functional, performance, and visual including automation functionalities provided by Kobiton AI (both: scriptless solutions and AI-generated scripts). You can create your automated test scripts directly from Kobiton’s manual and then execute them on a wide variety of devices at the same time.

An additional benefit is that Kobiton will perfectly support different test automation frameworks for example Appium, Espresso, and also XCTest. Some other less popular frameworks might require some custom integrations, but it shouldn’t be too much of a hassle. What is more Kobiton’s platform allows the integration into all major CI/CD platforms. It also provides an automatic ticket creation in JIRA, including detailed reports (even video ones) with failures description on specific devices.

Cost:from $50 to $1400 per month for unlimited users.

4)   AUTIFY

Many describe it as the best AI-powered testing automation tool.

While building Autify its creator actually thought of it as a tool built with the aim of eliminating the test phase. How come? Well, it is simple! Autify uses its AIto create, manage, execute and report self-healing scenarios, which optimizes the release cycles and increases QA productivity.

The great advantage of Autify is its great-looking and intuitive UI (user interface). Thanks to its simplicity you have to do no more than interact with your browser. This provides that testing becomes an effortless no-code option.Even though you can still customize your tests the way you want them, if necessary.

With Autify you can test web, mobile and native applications, including cross-browser and e-mail testing. It also allows parallel execution, step groups, local replays, visual regression, API steps, terminal operation, cross-device testing, location, and even more options.

You can easily integrate Autify with plenty of the services your QA team is already using, like CircleCI, CI/CD tools, Jenkins, or Slack - to name a few.

Cost:You can adjust it depending on your needs. There is also a 14-day free trial, and a $300 per month no-contract starting option.

5)   AVO ASSURE

Seemingly one of the best tools for no-code testing.

The next tool we will present to you is Avo Assure. This tool is a no-code test automation platform, offering end-to-end test automation. Avo Assure allows your team to perform their test on multiple platforms. This includes web, mobile, desktop, and mainframes, but also ERP applications. The great benefit of Avo Assure is the fact that it offers its own keyword library, with over 1500 keywords prepared for building your test scenarios. Its other great functionalities are smart scheduling, reporting, and also accessibility testing.

Avo Assure allows you to work with various tools, integrating with CI/CD and SDLC platforms, such as Selenium, Jira, Atlassian Bamboo, Sauce Labs, Mobile farm,TFS, Amazon, Q-test, and more.

Cost: Avo Assure offers custom pricing details upon request. This tool also comes with a 14-day free trial.

6)   APPSURIFY TESTBRAIN

Some say it's the best QA risk-based testing tool.

Appsurify TestBrain will help the feedback exchange between your QA teams and developers.This is thanks to the AI-performed automatic risk-based testing the tool provides. TestBrain seriously helps with many of the automation testing’s major problems, such as slow test execution time, test failures, and long CI pipelines.

TestBrain will be a perfect choice if you need to execute some lengthy tests.Additionally, Appsurify TestBrain can integrate with almost any test platform or framework.

This tool also makes smart use of machine learning to determine the application changes and automatically selects and retests just the test areas where some changes were made. What you will also appreciate is the fact that the TestBrain automatically chooses to execute the right tests from your test suite. Therefore, you waste no time and money running tests that you are absolutely positive would pass.

On the other hand, talking about the disadvantages - you have to write all your tests. TestBrain is not a test tool per se, it is instead a (great) tool to execute your existing tests and to make them run faster and more efficiently.

Cost: from $29 per seat per month. Also, a 60-day free trial is available. You can also use their plan, whereTestBrain is installed as a Saas for an on-premise solution.

7)   MOBOT

What’s great about Mobot it’s that its robots automate mobile application tests, even those impossible for other emulators, virtual devices, and other frameworks.

Definitely a great choice for businesses developing native mobile applications. Mobot provides mechanical test robots to automate mobile application tests. It helps to eliminate any error-prone manual testing, at the same time ensuring high quality and free from bugs in application releases.

Mobot uses a 4th test driver technology. It is currently being run on more than 200mobile devices. On Mobot’s website, you can even see their mechanical robots live in action! Obviously, the whole process is being supervised by humans, but still, those little smart robots are apt to automate even elaborate test scenarios, providing results, and implementing them into the release process.

Being a Mobot customer you are assigned to the Customer Success Manager, a person who supervises and verifies all the robot test results. So this is pretty much a win-win situation. You get to obtain the speed and efficiency of the automation process but at the same time the revision and secure verification that usually only manual testing can provide.

Cost: $1,500 per month. A 30-day free trial version is also available.

8)   QA WOLF

Highly appreciated for being easy to use and for its fast test creation.

QA Wolf is a great choice for teams with different skill levels. It is a perfect fit for beginner testers, non-technical staff members, and even senior developers. QA Wolf is simple, intuitive, and very easy to learn. It facilitates teamwork upon the workload and even provides the test creation capability. QA Wolf’s UI is top notch and its code-generating abilities - very accurate. With QA Wolf even the non-technical team members can build tests quickly and efficiently. Also, an auto-generated code you can obtain directly from the QA Wolf is fully editable Javascript, which is very handy. In case of complex tests, requiring some troubleshooting, developers are able to easily step in and write or fix the code if necessary.

In the case of this tool, you can count on full hosting, which means that your teams can collaborate comfortably on the platform. They can use a single company dashboard to get access to each other’s tests, but also share direct links, or even work to create different tests together.

QA Wolf also provides an option for video logs of test failures. This is very helpful in understanding what errors were committed and where is space to improve. QA Wolf also enables integration with other frameworks, such as Netlify or Vercel. For test alerts and notifications, you can also connect it withe-mail or Slack.

Cost: from $40 per month. There is also a freemium version available (up to 100 test runs per month).

9)   TELERIK TEST STUDIO

Provides great visual end-to-end testing as well as the record/playback option.

Telerik Test Studio is a great choice if you are looking for a test automation tool. It provides support for both: web and desktop application testing.

What you will surely enjoy is its functional UI - nice and intuitive. Telerik additionally provides API testing.

Telerik Test Studio is a tool, which belongs to the free proprietary Telerik Testing Framework. As a user, you get access to a web dashboard, where you can find all of the test results and reports as well as the test remote schedules.

Test Studio can locate test elements based on the Document Object Model scheme. This alone is not much different from what other tools offer. But in the case ofTest Studio, it takes it way further. The tool additionally adds a hybridElement Detection System and Optical Character Recognition. Combining these two automation techniques helps greatly users to avoid possible mistakes and reduce the efforts put into test maintenance.

Another thing that might be useful is the fact that Test Studio has been developed to satisfy both: developers and non-developers. Therefore the tool permits them to collaborate on the projects.

Another benefit is the fact that Test Studio easily integrates with many popular CI/CD tools, such as DevOps, Bamboo, Azure, Jenkins, Jira, TeamCity, CircleCI, and more.

Cost: from $2499 for both web and desktop. There is also .NET based testing framework available for free, as well as a free trial product demo.

10) BUGBUG

Great tool for easy and non-expensive QA automation for web apps.

What is different about BugBug is the fact that it allows you to start automating tests faster. Also, it will help you to do so at a lower cost. That’s why this is such a great choice for startups. The big pro of the BugBug is its simplicity, which makes it easy to learn and easy to use on an everyday basis.Also, it features an entire end-to-end testing workflow, which can make your testing easier. BugBug is very user-friendly. You can tell, by simply looking at its UI. The interface in fact is very intuitive and easy to navigate. Also, its test editing provides a “recording” function, based on a Chrome extension.There is no need for additional configuration or anything like that. Even cloud monitoring can be set with simply one click. Therefore you don’t have to be an engineer or require any special knowledge to start using the tool.

BugBug is designed particularly for web app testing, therefore it provides faster runs than other cross-platform solutions.

Also,BugBug creators thought of a new super-efficient way of conducting tests in theChrome browser. They simply have included some extra functions to make test maintenance easier, such as automatic scroll, waiting for conditions, or sharable components. BugBug records and playback the test using the Chrome extension.It also simulates the real human mouse clicks and typing.

Cost: free (unless you use the cloud features). An unlimited number of tests are available to run in your own browser. Schedule monitoring and CI/CD integration are rare extra paid though, with a price of $49 per month.

11) SELENIUM

One of the most popular frameworks for automated testing worldwide.

Selenium was firstly released in 2004, and since then has become one of the most popular open-source frameworks for web testing automation. Maybe even the most popular one! The tool offers Selenium WebDriver, Selenium Grid, and Selenium IDE. It supports a variety of programming languages, such as Java, C#, Python, JavaScript, Ruby, PHP, and more.

Selenium is also very flexible about the browsers you use and test on. It supports many different browsers, such as Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Opera, Safari, and others.

This tool provides also testing on local or on remote machines. To do so, you simply have to use the Selenium server. Selenium permits parallel and cross-browser testing, allowing you to run more tests in less time. Another benefit is the fact that it easily integrates with other testing frameworks, such as TestNG for reporting and different CI/CD tools.

Cost: free.

12)  APPIUM

Great open-source automation testing tool for mobile apps.

LikeSelenium, Appium is also an open-source automation testing tool, but for mobile applications.

This tool uses the mobile JSON wire protocol. To add up, Appium allows you to write automated tests for native, web-based, and hybrid mobile applications. Even tests based on UI. Additionally, it covers the most popular operating systems for mobile: Android and iOS.

Appium supports a variety of different programming languages: Python, JavaScript, Java,C#, Ruby, PHP, Perl, and others. It also allows cross-platform testing with reusable test scripts and APIs.

Another benefit is the fact that it permits testing on real devices, simulators, and even emulators. Furthermore, it easily integrates with many other testing tools and CI/CD tools. 

Cost: free. 

13)  CYPRESS.JS

More developer-centric automation tool for complete end-to-end web testing.

We have covered Cypress.js in a separate blog post - The Introduction to Cypress. Essentially, Cypress.js is a great testing tool if you are a developer. Not so great if you belong to anon-developer part of the team. This tool supports only JavaScript frameworks.

It was designed upon a new architecture. Therefore, Cypress.js allows you to operate directly within a browser. Exactly in the same environment and run-loop, as your application. This is quite neat since it enables the native elements to run faster. What is more, Cypress.js provides screens or rather snapshots of each step of the test execution.

Also, it controls the function behavior, server response, alarms, and even network traffic. With Cypress.js you can have the connection to the Dashboard Service due to the better test performance and optimization. Cypress.js easily integrates with many popular CI/CD tools.

Cost: basic version is free, the version including the Dashboard Service costs $75 per month.

14) RANOREX STUDIO

Great automation testing tool to start with!

Ranorex Studio is a tool that allows you to conduct automated GUI testing for all -web, mobile, and desktop applications. Ranorex’s framework is a great tool for beginners. It is easy to start working with, even if you don’t have much experience in testing. It provides an intuitive UI and is easy to use. Thanks to that Ranorex can get you to run your test efficiently. But it doesn't change the fact that it can also be easily used by more experienced testers/QA engineers. It proves itself, even if you are a seasoned one.

It is equipped with low-code automation as well as a fully integrated development environment. It supports many programming languages, such as VB, .Net, and C#.Also, it provides support for web, mobile, and desktop technologies.

Ranorex offers its users flexible options for test design - Record and Playback as well as regular scripting mode. It integrates smoothly with many other testing frameworks and CI/CD tools.

Cost: from $2,900 per year.

15)  PERFECTO

The perfect way to make continuous testing more achievable for DevOps teams.

Our last (but not least) recommendation will be Perfecto. This tool is a cloud-based automated testing platform. Available for both web and mobile applications.

Perfecto provides you with many options, from automated cross-environment executions, through custom capabilities, and test analysis to perfectly broad integrations.Perfecto allows you to prepare a scriptless test for UI web applications.

Also, the real-user stimulation for mobile testing is accessible. Other options are network visualization and adjusting the environmental conditions. WithPerfecto, there is no hassle with parallel and cross-platform executions. It permits advanced test analytics due to the centralized dashboard and AI functionalities. It integrates perfectly well with other testing frameworks andCI/CD tools.

Cost: from $125 per month.

We hope that this portion of knowledge at least has sharpened your appetite for more. If you want to learn more about QA automation test tools, or you just have some questions that need answering - please do not hesitate to contact us, by clicking the link below. Do you have other tools you’d like to add to the list? Send your picks to us, all in all, sharing is caring!

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