Appium vs BrowserStack

Overview

BrowserStack

Stacks2.7K

Followers2.0K

Votes533

Appium

Stacks650

Followers574

Votes28

GitHub Stars20.8K

Forks6.2K

Appium vs BrowserStack: What are the differences?

Introduction

Appium and BrowserStack are two popular tools used for mobile app and web testing. While they serve similar purposes, there are key differences between the two.

Platform Support: Appium is an open-source mobile automation framework that supports both Android and iOS platforms. It allows developers to write test scripts in multiple programming languages such as Java, Ruby, Python, etc. On the other hand, BrowserStack is a cloud-based testing platform that offers support for testing on various devices, browsers, and operating systems. It provides a wide range of real devices including Android, iOS, Windows, and Mac for app and web testing.
Automation Capabilities: Appium is primarily focused on mobile app automation and provides features such as device and app management, screen capturing, touch gestures, etc. It supports both native and hybrid applications. BrowserStack, on the other hand, is designed for web testing and offers advanced automation features like parallel testing, automated screenshots, CSS and XPath selectors, etc. It enables developers to perform cross-browser testing using real devices or virtual machines.
Execution Environment: In Appium, the test scripts are executed on the local machine or on a remote machine connected to the device. It requires additional setup and configuration to establish the connection between the machine and the device. BrowserStack, on the other hand, provides a cloud-based testing environment where the test scripts can be executed on real devices or virtual machines located in their data centers. It eliminates the need for device setup and connection establishment.
Ease of Use: Appium requires a certain level of technical expertise to set up and configure the automation environment. It requires the installation of various tools and libraries and may involve some coding to write test scripts. On the other hand, BrowserStack provides a user-friendly interface that allows users to easily set up test environments, configure devices, and write test scripts using their codeless testing feature. It requires minimal technical knowledge and allows users to create tests using a simple drag and drop interface.
Integration and Collaboration: Appium integrates well with popular continuous integration and test automation tools such as Jenkins, CircleCI, etc. It allows for easy collaboration and integration with other development and testing frameworks. BrowserStack also provides integrations with various popular tools and frameworks like Jenkins, Jira, Slack, etc., making it easier for teams to manage their testing workflows and share test results.
Cost: Appium being an open-source framework is free to use and does not have any licensing costs. However, it requires additional infrastructure and resources to set up the testing environment. BrowserStack is a paid platform that offers different pricing plans based on the usage and requirements. It provides a range of plans catering to different team sizes and testing needs.

In summary, Appium is an open-source mobile automation framework focused on mobile app testing, while BrowserStack is a cloud-based testing platform that supports both mobile app and web testing on a wide range of devices and browsers. Appium requires setup and configuration, whereas BrowserStack offers a ready-to-use testing environment. Appium is free to use, while BrowserStack requires a subscription.

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CLI (Node.js)

Manual

Advice on BrowserStack, Appium

Rinchin

Jul 20, 2020

Needs adviceon

Selenium

Sauce Labs

I am looking to purchase one of these tools for Mobile testing for my team. It should support Native, hybrid, and responsive app testing. It should also feature debugging, parallel execution, automation testing/easy integration with automation testing tools like Selenium, and the capability to provide availability of devices specifically for us to use at any time with good speed of performing all these activities.

I have already used Perfecto mobile, and Sauce Labs in my other projects before. I want to know how different or better is AWS Device farm in usage and how advantageous it would be for us to use it over other mentioned tools

217k views217k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

BrowserStack	Appium
BrowserStack is the leading test platform built for developers & QAs to expand test coverage, scale & optimize testing with cross-browser, real device cloud, accessibility, visual testing, test management, and test observability.	Appium is an open source test automation framework for use with native, hybrid, and mobile web apps. It drives iOS and Android apps using the WebDriver protocol. Appium is sponsored by Sauce Labs and a thriving community of open source developers.
Get instant access to 20,000+ real mobile devices and browsers, which include real iOS and Android devices, Chrome, IE, Firefox, Safari; Test websites hosted on internal dev and staging environments with zero setup or configuration; Run hundreds of tests concurrently to speed up the execution time of your test suite by more than 10x	Works on native and hybrid mobile apps; Write mobile tests using any language or framework; Open source; Facilitates mobile continuous integration; Mobile test automation tool; Cross-platform (iOS, Android); Framework based on Selenium
Statistics
GitHub Stars -	GitHub Stars 20.8K
GitHub Forks -	GitHub Forks 6.2K
Stacks 2.7K	Stacks 650
Followers 2.0K	Followers 574
Votes 533	Votes 28
Pros & Cons
Pros 135 Multiple browsers 76 Ease of use 65 Real browsers 44 Ability to use it locally 27 Good price Cons 2 Very limited choice of minor versions	Pros 12 Webdriverio support 6 Java, C#, Python support 3 Open source 2 Active community 2 Great GUI with inspector
Integrations
Cypress QMetry Jira WordPress Shopify Zapier Drone.io Jenkins Slack GitLab	Sauce Labs

What are some alternatives to BrowserStack, Appium?

Selenium

Selenium automates browsers. That's it! What you do with that power is entirely up to you. Primarily, it is for automating web applications for testing purposes, but is certainly not limited to just that. Boring web-based administration tasks can (and should!) also be automated as well.

Sauce Labs

Cloud-based automated testing platform enables developers and QEs to perform functional, JavaScript unit, and manual tests with Selenium or Appium on web and mobile apps. Videos and screenshots for easy debugging. Secure and CI-ready.

LambdaTest

LambdaTest platform provides secure, scalable and insightful test orchestration for website, and mobile app testing. Customers at different points in their DevOps lifecycle can leverage Automation and/or Manual testing on LambdaTest.

Karma

Karma is not a testing framework, nor an assertion library. Karma just launches a HTTP server, and generates the test runner HTML file you probably already know from your favourite testing framework. So for testing purposes you can use pretty much anything you like.

Playwright

It is a Node library to automate the Chromium, WebKit and Firefox browsers with a single API. It enables cross-browser web automation that is ever-green, capable, reliable and fast.

Rainforest QA

Rainforest gives you the reliability of a QA team and the speed of automation, without the hassle of managing a team or the pain of writing automated tests.

WebdriverIO

WebdriverIO lets you control a browser or a mobile application with just a few lines of code. Your test code will look simple, concise and easy to read.

Testrail

TestRail helps you manage and track your software testing efforts and organize your QA department. Its intuitive web-based user interface makes it easy to create test cases, manage test runs and coordinate your entire testing process.

TestingBot

TestingBot provides automated and Manual cross browser testing in the cloud. Make sure your website looks ok in all browsers.

Ghost Inspector

It lets you create and manage UI tests that check specific functionality in your website or application. We execute these automated browser tests continuously from the cloud and alert you if anything breaks.

Related Comparisons

Appium vs BrowserStack: What are the differences?

Introduction

Appium and BrowserStack are two popular tools used for mobile app and web testing. While they serve similar purposes, there are key differences between the two.

Platform Support: Appium is an open-source mobile automation framework that supports both Android and iOS platforms. It allows developers to write test scripts in multiple programming languages such as Java, Ruby, Python, etc. On the other hand, BrowserStack is a cloud-based testing platform that offers support for testing on various devices, browsers, and operating systems. It provides a wide range of real devices including Android, iOS, Windows, and Mac for app and web testing.
Automation Capabilities: Appium is primarily focused on mobile app automation and provides features such as device and app management, screen capturing, touch gestures, etc. It supports both native and hybrid applications. BrowserStack, on the other hand, is designed for web testing and offers advanced automation features like parallel testing, automated screenshots, CSS and XPath selectors, etc. It enables developers to perform cross-browser testing using real devices or virtual machines.
Execution Environment: In Appium, the test scripts are executed on the local machine or on a remote machine connected to the device. It requires additional setup and configuration to establish the connection between the machine and the device. BrowserStack, on the other hand, provides a cloud-based testing environment where the test scripts can be executed on real devices or virtual machines located in their data centers. It eliminates the need for device setup and connection establishment.
Ease of Use: Appium requires a certain level of technical expertise to set up and configure the automation environment. It requires the installation of various tools and libraries and may involve some coding to write test scripts. On the other hand, BrowserStack provides a user-friendly interface that allows users to easily set up test environments, configure devices, and write test scripts using their codeless testing feature. It requires minimal technical knowledge and allows users to create tests using a simple drag and drop interface.
Integration and Collaboration: Appium integrates well with popular continuous integration and test automation tools such as Jenkins, CircleCI, etc. It allows for easy collaboration and integration with other development and testing frameworks. BrowserStack also provides integrations with various popular tools and frameworks like Jenkins, Jira, Slack, etc., making it easier for teams to manage their testing workflows and share test results.
Cost: Appium being an open-source framework is free to use and does not have any licensing costs. However, it requires additional infrastructure and resources to set up the testing environment. BrowserStack is a paid platform that offers different pricing plans based on the usage and requirements. It provides a range of plans catering to different team sizes and testing needs.

Appium vs BrowserStack

Overview

Appium vs BrowserStack: What are the differences?