To ensure continuous quality throughout the developmental cycle, many software developers are now practicing continuous testing. But if you have recently just arrived at the software testing landscape, the practice may be hard to fully grasp at first. Therefore, employing the proper continuous testing too can make a huge difference in your software testing and delivery success.
Ranked in no particular order, below is a complete list of the 10 most popular continuous testing tools available for you. We evaluated the benefits and potential downsides of each tool based on several factors: supported test types and programming language, accessibility, continuous testing support, CI/CD ecosystem support, key features, e.t.c.
Katalon Studio
Katalon Studio is a robust continuous testing solution built on top of Selenium and Appium that tackles the rising need for test automation in CI/CD and DevOps.
Katalon Studio enables testing API, mobile, and desktop apps for Windows, macOS, and Linux. It is a cohesive collection of functions that range from recording test steps to supporting infrastructure, analytics reports, and CI/CD integration
Katalon Studio and continuous testing
Katalon Studio provides continuous testing with native CI/CD integration with the most common CI systems (e.g. Jenkins, Bamboo, Azure, and CircleCI), as well as seamless Jira Agile integration.
Katalon Studio is known for its ease of usage and extensiveness, providing codeless test development for beginners and complex extensions for professionals. By offering a comprehensive set of insightful reports, real-time monitoring, and instant feedback mechanism, Katalon will instantly spot any new defects. Additionally, the Katalon Store plugins can help you increase automation capabilities and interface with other CI/CD applications effortlessly. Team performance and complete control of your product quality have never been easier with Katalon Studio.
With full infrastructure support, Katalon Studio also lets users execute tests on various OSs, browsers, devices, cloud services, hybrid environments, and more.
Website: https://katalon.com/
License: Free & Commercial
Selenium
Perhaps the most notable choice when it comes to automated web testing, Selenium is an open-source framework that should be on the radar for continuous testing adoption.
Selenium and continuous testing
Selenium is the tool of choice for Quality Assurance (QA) engineers with extensive programming abilities.
In addition to technical skills, integrating CI/CD tools with Selenium requires a thorough understanding of how the framework itsekf functions. Selenium also forces users to develop scripts and configure everything from scratch. Thus, those that find this steep learning curve difficult to scale should consider solutions based on Selenium (e.g. Katalon Studio).
Selenium supports a broad range of common operating systems (Windows, macOS, Linux) and browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari).
Website: http://www.seleniumhq.org/
License: Open-source
Appium
Imagine Selenium but built for mobile testing, you’d get Appium. A popular mobile testing framework, Appium can be leveraged and used for continuous testing.
Appium and continuous testing
Available on both iOS and Android smartphones, the program allows mobile cross-platform testing. Furthermore, a huge number of cloud device providers have made Appium testing on their infrastructure possible. You can create, upload, execute, and examine test results directly in the cloud using Appium.
One challenge of Appium is that it requires sophisticated testing framework expertise as well as the industry’s CI technologies to set up and implement. Much like Selenium, this challenge drives many potential users away from integrating CI/CD on the platform
There are several commercial and free testing tools such as Katalon that can address this problem. Katalon comes with a built-in Appium framework so that you would not have to go through the hassle of setup and configuration.
Website: http://appium.io/
License: Open-source
Eggplant
Previously known as Testplant, Eggplant is a versatile tool. The framework is useful for a variety of automation technologies and platforms such as online, mobile, and Point of Sales (POS) systems.
Eggplant and continuous testing
Eggplant is the favorite continuous testing solution among manual testers for its minimal learning curve. The program provides an image-based solution —a one-of-a-kind approach to test automation. Instead of showing raw test scripts, Eggplant interacts with Applications Under Test (AUTs) by simulating the users’ points of view using pictures and graphics.
But that’s not all, you may also use Eggplant in conjunction with Undo (a recording and replay tool) to help engineers notice and respond to problems faster. Moreover, Eggplant also integrates with other CI/CD tools like Jenkins, Bamboo, CA Agile Requirements Designers, and more.
Website: https://eggplant.io/
License: Commercial
Watir
Watir is an outstanding open-source automated and continuous testing solution based on Ruby language that focuses on web application testing.
Watir and continuous testing
Watir offers data-driven testing and headless browser testing, both of which are required for CI/CD pipeline testing. Moreover, Watir can be used with Behavioral Driven Development (BDD) frameworks and tools like Cucumber, RSpect, and Test/Unit. Allowing your team to accomplish effective continuous testing across the development lifecycle by combining Watir with BDD frameworks and connecting with CI technologies (such as Jenkins).
The platform supports cross-browser testing with Chrome, Firefox, and Opera, among other major browsers.
Website: http://watir.com/
License: Open-source
Tosca
Developed by Tricentis, Tosca is a model-based continuous testing tool that scans and loads the AUT straight into the program with very few manual processes.
Tosca and continuous testing
Tosca makes it easier for business stakeholders to participate directly in the testing process by simplifying the technical architect of the application. Additionally, the solution also provides important test cases that the team can use to rapidly identify and focus down the application’s most problematic regions.
In terms of support for continuous and DevOps testing, Tosca provides a platform that connects with DevOps and Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) systems.
Tosca offers virtual services to enable customers to replicate test environments similar to those seen in production, allowing the team to enhance test coverage and assure product quality.
Tosca provides testing solutions for enterprise applications, web, mobile, APIs, and business intelligence.
Website: https://www.tricentis.com/
License: Commercial
Testsigma
A newcomer to the field of test automation, Testsigma is a cloud-based program that supports web, mobile, and API test automation. It composes tests in normal English, drastically reducing the learning curve for manual testers while allowing them to quickly learn automation.
Testsigma and continuous testing
Testsigma also offers continuous testing infrastructure, including devices, operating systems, and browsers that are best suited for organizations with low resources or complicated testing requirements. As the testing world shifts to the left, Testsigma uses artificial intelligence to aid this process. The technology uses artificial intelligence to identify possible dangers and difficulties arising from continual changes and adjustments to take immediate action. To enhance Testsigma’s capabilities, you may use the custom function to integrate Selenium or Java.
Popular CI/CD technologies such as Jira and Slack, to mention a few, are supported and integrated with Testsigma.
Website: https://testsigma.com/
License: Commercial
Rational Functional Tester
A well-known test automation tool produced by IBM, Rational Functional Tester is a forerunner in the field of test automation. Functional, data-driven, API, performance, and regression testing are all supported by the tool. The scripting languages used by RFT are .Net and Java.
RFT and continuous testing
RFT produces regression tests based on the tests that have already been run, allowing testers to keep track of the test quality and react quickly to any changes. RFT boasts a variety of modes for easy team collaboration, including storyboard testing for visualizing testing processes and scripting for more sophisticated tasks. RFT is also compatible with IBM Quality Manager, a test management solution that keeps the development team informed about the quality of the AUT.
Continuous testing and executing tests in the CI/CD pipeline are also supported by the tool. Nonetheless, because the tool was released so long ago, it comes with outdated technology. As a result, the setup procedure can be challenging, especially for new users, as the product demands extensive DevOps technical expertise.
However, once the CI/CD pipeline has been integrated, the rest of the operation may be rapidly completed.
Website: https://www.ibm.com/marketplace/rational-functional-tester
License: Commercial
Unified Functional Tester
Micro Focus Unified Functional Tester (UFT) is another pioneer that appeared during the peak of test automation trends.
UFT and continuous testing
For online, mobile, API, hybrid, Robotics Process Automation (RPA), and corporate applications, UFT offers automated and continuous testing. Image-based identification driven by inbuilt OCR (ABBYY, Google Tesseract) is a unique feature that mimics how people recognize items.
You may accomplish continuous testing by integrating the UFT ecosystem such as source control systems (Git, SVN) and CI/CD technologies (e.g. Jenkins, Bamboo, Microsoft TFS).
UFT’s programming language is VBScript, which may provide difficulty for manual testers. Before deciding on a tool, the team should consider this issue and assess its existing scripting abilities.
Website: https://software.microfocus.com/software/uft
License: Commercial
TestComplete
SmartBear’s TestComplete is a test automation solution for desktop, online, and mobile apps. The program supports Python, Javascript, and VBScript as scripting languages.
TestComplete and continuous testing
TestComplete can be used to conduct keyword and data-driven testing. The authors of TestComplete have now released AI capabilities for dynamic test item detection and management. If the AUT’s user interface changes, TestComplete can automatically identify and update the tests.
Furthermore, the program supports interaction with third-party unit test frameworks such as TestNG, Selenium Webdriver, and SOAP UI for API testing. All of which will help you increase your test coverage.
TestComplete allows for open integration with the CI/CD ecosystem via plugins that interact with popular CI/CD systems like Jenkins, GIT, and Zephyr (a Smartbear test management tool). Alternatively, you may create new plugins to work with the existing system.
Website: https://smartbear.com/product/testcomplete/overview/
License: Commercial
Conclusion
While it is indeed integral to select continuous testing tools based on your needs, keep in mind that a great tool should also focus on several other factors. Particularly, these factors range from potential trends, improvements and support basic optimization, smooth learning curve, an array of programming languages, continuous testing features, technical compatibility, integration with other CI software, to integration with your organization’s entire CI/CD ecosystem.
This list offers the finest tools for the above requirements. But it does not mean the user should take this list as exhaustive. Thus, users should always keep an eye out for how present and forthcoming solutions will solve the impending software delivery problems.