Appium vs TestFlight

Overview

TestFlight

Stacks1.1K

Followers705

Votes163

Appium

Stacks650

Followers574

Votes28

GitHub Stars20.8K

Forks6.2K

Appium vs TestFlight: What are the differences?

Introduction:

Appium and TestFlight are both widely used tools in the field of software testing. While Appium is an open-source tool for automating mobile applications, TestFlight is a beta testing service provided by Apple. Despite their similarities, there are several key differences between these two tools.

Platform Support: Appium supports both Android and iOS platforms, making it a popular choice for cross-platform mobile app testing. On the other hand, TestFlight is exclusive to iOS devices, limiting its applicability for developers who work on multiple platforms.
Automation Approach: Appium uses the WebDriver protocol, which allows for testing native, hybrid, and mobile web apps. It utilizes the UI automation frameworks provided by each platform, such as UIAutomator for Android and XCTest for iOS. TestFlight, on the other hand, focuses solely on beta testing and does not offer automation capabilities.
Installation and Setup: Appium requires separate installations of the Appium server and the desired automation framework for each platform being tested. Additionally, it requires setting up and managing device farms for distributed testing. TestFlight, on the other hand, is a service hosted by Apple and can be integrated directly into the Xcode development environment, simplifying the installation and setup process.
Testing Distribution: Appium relies on third-party services or in-house solutions for distributing test builds to various devices for testing. TestFlight, on the other hand, is designed specifically for the distribution of beta builds to external testers, making it a more streamlined solution for this particular use case.
Integration with Xcode: TestFlight provides seamless integration with Xcode, allowing developers to upload and distribute builds directly from their development environment. Appium, on the other hand, requires additional configuration and setup to enable integration with Xcode.
Community and Support: Appium has a large and active community that provides extensive support, resources, and guides for users. The open-source nature of Appium also allows for easy customization and extension. TestFlight, being an Apple service, has limited community support and is more tightly integrated with the Apple ecosystem.

In summary, Appium is a versatile cross-platform automation tool with a strong community and support base, while TestFlight is a specialized beta testing service exclusively for iOS apps, tightly integrated with Xcode and Apple's ecosystem.

Share your Stack

Help developers discover the tools you use. Get visibility for your team's tech choices and contribute to the community's knowledge.

View Docs

CLI (Node.js)

Manual

Detailed Comparison

TestFlight	Appium
With TestFlight, developers simply upload a build, and the testers can install it directly from their device, over the air.	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.
Sessions- Discover how testers are using your application. Watch as they progress and take unexpected turns.;Crash Reports- Reported in realtime, with environment snapshots and full session activity.;In-App Questions- The most effective way to get tester feedback. Get the answers you need by asking questions the moment a checkpoint is passed.;Checkpoints- Place checkpoints throughout your app to see how far testers are getting, confirm which areas are popular and reveal ones that need more testing.;Remote Logging- TFLogs are attached to your session and crash reports.;In-App Updates- Prompt testers to install the latest version of your app. This is the easiest way for your testers to take advantage of installing on the fly.	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 1.1K	Stacks 650
Followers 705	Followers 574
Votes 163	Votes 28
Pros & Cons
Pros 62 Must have for ios development 49 Beta testing 20 Easy setup 10 Easy way to push out updates for internal testers 7 In-App Updates	Pros 12 Webdriverio support 6 Java, C#, Python support 3 Open source 2 Great GUI with inspector 2 Active community
Integrations
Trigger.io	Sauce Labs

What are some alternatives to TestFlight, Appium?

HockeyApp

HockeyApp is the best way to collect live crash reports, get feedback from your users, distribute your betas, and analyze your test coverage.

TestFairy

When testing apps in the crowd, you never know what exactly was done, and what went wrong on the client side. TestFairy shows you a video of the exact test that was done, including CPU, memory, GPS, network and a lot more.

Beta by Crashlytics

A streamlined solution for distributing apps that gives you a single, cross-platform toolset for iOS and Android, and a delightful, effortless onboarding for your testers.

Fabric by Twitter

Installing and managing a wide range of SDKs can be cumbersome and complex. Fabric solves this problem by combining all seven of our SDKs under one roof and organizing them into three Kits: the Crashlytics Kit, the Twitter Kit, and the MoPub Kit.

EarlGrey

EarlGrey is a native iOS UI automation test framework that enables you to write clear, concise tests. With the EarlGrey framework, you have access to enhanced synchronization features. EarlGrey automatically synchronizes with the UI, network requests, and various queues; but still allows you to manually implement customized timings, if needed.

Kobiton

It enables developers and testers to perform automated and manual testing of mobile apps and websites on real devices. Modern DevOps and Quality environments require apps to be tested on hundreds of device/OS/browser combinations. Managing an in-house device-lab is expensive, resource intensive, restrictive and very manual. Kobiton allows for instant provisioning of real devices for testing with automated or manual scripts, and also allows current on-premise devices to be plugged in to form a holistic testing cloud.

Kiwi

It is a Behavior Driven Development library for iOS development. The goal is to provide a BDD library that is exquisitely simple to setup and use.

pCloudy

It is a smart mobile app testing solution that lets developers ensure their users enjoy a smooth and consistent experience. With it, developers can access manual and automated testing options to facilitate the swift debugging of their applications.

Magneto

Magneto was built by Automation Engineers for Automation Engineers out of necessity for a mobile centric test automation framework that's easy to setup, run and utilize.

Experitest

It allows users to create and run Appium, Selenium, XCUITest & Espresso tests against real devices and web browsers. Users can create & execute hundreds of manual or automated tests in parallel on IOS & Android devices. Users can automate their cross-browser testing, perform visual testing and access advanced analytics.

Related Comparisons

Appium vs TestFlight: What are the differences?

Introduction:

Platform Support: Appium supports both Android and iOS platforms, making it a popular choice for cross-platform mobile app testing. On the other hand, TestFlight is exclusive to iOS devices, limiting its applicability for developers who work on multiple platforms.
Automation Approach: Appium uses the WebDriver protocol, which allows for testing native, hybrid, and mobile web apps. It utilizes the UI automation frameworks provided by each platform, such as UIAutomator for Android and XCTest for iOS. TestFlight, on the other hand, focuses solely on beta testing and does not offer automation capabilities.
Installation and Setup: Appium requires separate installations of the Appium server and the desired automation framework for each platform being tested. Additionally, it requires setting up and managing device farms for distributed testing. TestFlight, on the other hand, is a service hosted by Apple and can be integrated directly into the Xcode development environment, simplifying the installation and setup process.
Testing Distribution: Appium relies on third-party services or in-house solutions for distributing test builds to various devices for testing. TestFlight, on the other hand, is designed specifically for the distribution of beta builds to external testers, making it a more streamlined solution for this particular use case.
Integration with Xcode: TestFlight provides seamless integration with Xcode, allowing developers to upload and distribute builds directly from their development environment. Appium, on the other hand, requires additional configuration and setup to enable integration with Xcode.
Community and Support: Appium has a large and active community that provides extensive support, resources, and guides for users. The open-source nature of Appium also allows for easy customization and extension. TestFlight, being an Apple service, has limited community support and is more tightly integrated with the Apple ecosystem.

Appium vs TestFlight

Overview