5 Best Automated UI Testing Tools In 2023 | Latest Picks

Automated UI Testing

Whether you are using an app for any important work or as an entertainment platform, or even just for fun, its user interface is the first thing you interact with and it creates the first impression of the product. You normally expect the UI to look beautiful & gentle to the eyes, and the components to perform smoothly and to efficiently fulfill your requirements. As the number of users and their demands are exponentially increasing, the apps and their features are also becoming more in number and their codes are getting more complex. Such a huge number of high-performing components make the UI more prone to break down or have more errors. As a result of such errors, the user experience of your app will become pathetic and you will keep losing more users.

That’s where user interface testing (UI testing) comes into play. This type of test consists of varieties of important tests such as regression tests, functional tests, exploratory tests, GUI testing, API testing, performance testing, etc. to test different aspects of every component present and visible in the UI. The term “visibility” is so important in UI testing because the primary factor of the user interface is the cumulative presence of the visible components and the functionalities that you can see working. The logic and programs working behind the scenes (known as the backend parts) do not come under the scope of UI tests.

What Is UI Testing?

UI testing is the technical process of testing every visible component that the end users interact with. These tests ensure that the components are looking as they are designed and performing as they are planned. UI testing carries the responsibility to confirm that the overall user interface is looking and working as expected.

However, there is more to know about this highly important form of test and for that, you must check out the article “What Is UI Testing?” You can get to know about every definitional part of it there and about every operational part in the ultimate guide on how to proceed with UI testing, one of the most important forms of software testing.

This article is all about making you aware of the 5 most useful, effective, and popular automated UI testing tools out there. So, keep your mind alert to feed it with in-depth information about the marvelous tools.

Top 5 Automated UI Testing Tools

As we promised in our article on the ultimate guide on how to proceed with UI testing, we have researched about the same and jotted down the most useful & effective automated UI testing tools along with the benefits of using them.

1. Preflight

This is not only the simplest & most effective UI test automation tool but, it is by far the most useful truly codeless testing tool in the market. It is a simple browser extension that overtakes all popular testing frameworks by allowing you to test all your web applications, mobile applications, and desktop applications without getting your hands on even a little bit of coding. For its absolute excellence in the field of testing, it is treated as the best alternative to Selenium, the widely used testing framework. You can know everything about the amazing benefits of using this tool from the article “10 Amazing Software Testing Benefits From Preflight In 2022”. However, we are mentioning the key benefits of using this awesome tool below.

  • It is a truly codeless tool so you are not bound to depend on technical testers only. Everyone in your team can create and run test cases regardless of knowing how to code.
  • Being codeless, this tool also exempts you from the high costs and hassle of maintaining test scripts.
  • The amazing cross-browser testing compatibility of this tool allows you to test your application on every popular browser such as Google Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, etc. along with cross-platform compatibility with different operating systems like Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, etc.
  • No matter what programming language (e.g. Java, Python, Ruby, PHP, etc.) you use on whatever IDE, Preflight is capable of creating and running test cases within seconds.
  • Being a browser-based tool, it exempts you from the hassle of installing external parameters like plugins, additional software, etc.
  • Its real-time record and playback feature allows you to keep track of all your test cases & test results, and to analyze or re-run them whenever you need to.
  • It autosaves screenshots of crucial moments in the entire testing process helping you put more focus on those points.
  • This amazing test automation solution lets you have easy integration with Jira, Jenkins, Slack, and many other tools that are widely used in the agile software development lifecycle.
  • You can cherish the awesome parallel testing feature that leads you to faster defect detection as well as faster debugging, which results in greater test coverage and a stable continuous integration & continuous delivery pipeline.
  • It also provides you with informative tutorials and resources to know more about the configurations of the tool, the best way to test creation, test execution, and test management.

These points clearly tell you why Preflight should become your one-stop solution for codeless test automation regardless of the test type (e.g. UI testing, regression testing, load testing, end-to-end testing, unit testing, etc.). To get a hands-on experience and be amazed by it, you just need to book a free demo.

2. Katalon Studio

When the discussion is about the best automation testing tools, the name Katalon Studio is one of the most likely to be among the top ones. This popular testing tool has been serving its users in various forms of tests such as web app testing, API testing, UI testing, etc. for years now and is presently the favorite tool of numerous teams & businesses. The achievement of being a 2020 Gartner Peer Insights Customers’ Choice for Software Test Automation stands by the fact that this tool holds a huge satisfied user base. Recently, this awesome tool has released its new upgraded version ‘Katalon Studio 7.3’ with important improvements that are capable of solving the awaiting issue in Selenium, supporting scalable projects, and so on. Now, let’s take a look at its super cool features.

  • Katalon’s engine is based on the open-source tool, Selenium. So, as a result, you may experience some of the maintenance and reliability issues that come with Selenium but its popularity & active support system helps you get rid of the issues easily.
  • You can easily deploy the tool.
  • It provides amazing features like fast debugging, syntax highlighting, code suggestions, and a dual-editor interface (Java and Groovy) to demolish the barrier of coding knowledge.
  • You get numerous pre-installed templates with the tool for faster and easier test creation.
  • This tool is compatible with multiple platforms like Windows, Linux, and macOS along with effective browser execution support for Chrome and Firefox.
  • It uses multiple locator strategies to easily adapt to UI changes.
  • It works with self-healing mechanisms & data-driven testing approaches that help in handling object locators' flakiness and reduces maintenance time.
  • It provides easy integration with CI/CD tools like TeamCity, Jenkins, Slack, Git, Microsoft teams, and other DevOps & CI workflows.
  • The tool effectively helps you by providing efficient reports and access to amazing dashboards.

3. TestComplete

TestComplete is a cloud-based powerful GUI test automation tool developed by SmartBear. Due to its versatility and useful workflow, it can easily integrate with the SDLC ecosystem enabling everyone to create and run tests regardless of their coding knowledge. It is a highly preferred tool for testing web-based apps, desktop applications, mobile apps, and so on. Let’s check out its features for a better understanding.

  • No matter whether you are creating coded tests or codeless ones, it provides you with record and playback features in your preferred scripting language (e.g. JavaScript, Python, VBScript, etc.).
  • Coding knowledge is not a barrier to using this tool. It allows you to make complete use of its features after going through a very small learning curve.
  • It provides you with the advantage of using a highly effective object recognition feature to identify complex objects using machine learning and AI.
  • It is capable of creating efficient end-to-end tests because of its capability to integrate with the powerful tools in your ecosystem such as the CI/CD solutions, version control tools, defect tracking systems, test management tools, etc.
  • Using this tool, you can easily achieve parallel execution of functional UI tests in the cloud or on your local machine for better stability in the continuous testing and continuous delivery process.
  • This tool supports data-driven testing, keyword-driven testing, and object-driven testing, along with database testing for better ease of operation.
  • You also get support for testing enterprise applications such as SAP, Oracle EBS, and Salesforce.

4. Selenium

Selenium is a widely used and extremely popular open-source test automation framework that has been serving thousands of companies for nearly two decades now. You must already know how Selenium WebDriver brings immense advantages in automating regression tests but its supremacy does not end here. It provides immense flexibility to be used on various third-party IDEs and supports multiple popular programming languages. Now, though these advantages have made it a renowned industry-standard testing platform, its steep learning curve makes people choose efficient alternatives like Preflight over it. You can have an in-depth idea about how you can automate tests using Selenium from the article “An Introduction To Codeless Selenium Test Automation”. Now, it’s time to dive into the features that made it gain such immense popularity.

  • You get the benefit of its amazing cross-platform support for operating systems like Windows, Linux, and macOS, and cross-browser compatibility with popular browsers like Google Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer as well as headless browsers.
  • It also supports mobile testing on popular platforms like Android and iOS.
  • It allows you to write test scripts in various programming languages such as JavaScript, Python, Java, C#, PHP, Ruby, etc.
  • Though being a free solution, it does not come with in-built support, its large community of users helps you overcome small issues and obstacles.
  • It provides you with an amazing record and playback feature with the browser add-on Selenium Integrated Development Environment (IDE).
  • Due to its capability of easily integrating with popular CI/CD tools like Jira, Jenkins as well as other VSTeam services, it is tremendously used in crucial initiatives like Continuous Delivery, Agile Methodologies, and DevOps.

However, as described in the above-mentioned article, Selenium has a steep learning curve that turns out to be immensely time-consuming and expensive for businesses. Also, it does not come with a reporting feature, or active support, and is exclusive to web-based apps. Because of all these drawbacks along with the point that due to being hardcoded, Selenium tests can fail with small UI changes, everyone finds alternatives like Preflight as a much better choice.

5. TestIM

TestIM is one of the most popular names for SaaS testing solutions. It was built by a group of expert developers with the objective of preventing the wastage of time and energy for every small to large bug fix. This simple yet effective UI testing tool is a blessing to businesses that look for a magical solution to execute complicated workflows. Its key features are -

  • Its intuitive interface helps you to easily create tests.
  • It offers smart locators as an integrated solution for test automation along with providing a smart strategy to maintain them.
  • This tool is renowned for providing an awesome self-healing capability as part of its Smart Locator technology.
  • Its Dynamic locator concept offers you immense ease to deal with tests like functional testing, end-to-end testing, and UI testing.
  • Besides increasing the stability and extensibility of your test suites, it allows the testing teams to have the flexibility of broadening the functionalities of the platform using complicated programming logic with HTML and JavaScript.

Conclusion

This article lets you know about the top 5 automated UI testing tools that exempt you from the hassle of manual testing. Making the best use of all the features that they provide can let you achieve maximum efficiency in your quality assurance process. All you have to do is to carefully go through every detail mentioned here and pick the best-suited one for your project.

However, if you are looking for an overall simplest yet most effective testing solution, Preflight is the tool you need to use every moment. This highly effective browser extension is capable of letting you create, run, manage, and maintain various forms of tests without involving you in even a little bit of coding. To experience a new era of absolutely codeless application testing, you just have to sign up with us.

For more information, you are always welcome to our website, and feel free to reach out to us for any query. Also, if you are fond of knowing about the latest technologies, make sure to follow our blog page regularly.