Robot Framework vs Selenium

Overview

Selenium

Stacks16.2K

Followers12.6K

Votes527

GitHub Stars33.6K

Forks8.6K

Robot Framework

Stacks344

Followers525

Votes120

Robot Framework vs Selenium: What are the differences?

Introduction

The Key differences between Robot Framework and Selenium are as follows:

Architecture: Robot Framework is an open-source test automation framework that uses a keyword-driven approach, allowing testers to write tests in a domain-specific language (DSL) using keywords and reusable high-level test templates. Selenium, on the other hand, is a set of open-source tools and libraries used to automate web browsers for testing purposes. It provides a programming interface to control browser actions and interact with web elements directly.
Language Support: Robot Framework supports its own DSL that is based on the keyword-driven testing approach. It also provides support for writing test cases in other languages such as Python, Java, and .NET by using their respective libraries. Selenium primarily supports writing test scripts in programming languages like Python, Java, C#, Ruby, and JavaScript, with each language having its own Selenium bindings.
Test Data Handling: Robot Framework offers built-in support for handling test data in tabular format using plain text or CSV files. Test data can be easily managed using variables and data-driven approaches, allowing for easy test case customization and reusability. Selenium does not provide a specific mechanism for managing test data, and it relies on programming languages and external libraries for handling test data and data-driven testing.
Test Execution: Robot Framework allows for test execution in various ways, including running tests sequentially, in parallel, or distributed across multiple machines. It provides command-line and IDE support for executing tests and generating test reports. Selenium relies on test scripts written in programming languages and requires a test runner to execute tests. It provides libraries and frameworks for running tests using popular unit test frameworks like JUnit and TestNG.
Browser Compatibility: Robot Framework supports various web browsers through Selenium and other browser-specific libraries. It provides cross-browser testing capabilities, allowing users to execute tests on different browsers and platforms. Selenium, being a set of tools and libraries, directly interacts with web browsers and supports a wide range of browsers, including Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Internet Explorer.
Community and Ecosystem: Robot Framework has a strong and active community with a wide range of libraries, plugins, and integrations available. It has a supportive user base and provides extensive documentation and resources for learning and troubleshooting. Selenium also has a large community and ecosystem with a vast array of resources and libraries available. It is widely adopted and used by both individual testers and large organizations.

In summary, the key differences between Robot Framework and Selenium lie in their architecture, language support, test data handling, test execution capabilities, browser compatibility, and community ecosystem.

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Advice on Selenium, Robot Framework

Shivam

Mar 5, 2020

Needs advice

we are having one web application developed in Reacts.js. in the application, we have only 4 to 5 pages that we need to test. I am having experience in selenium with java. Please suggets which tool I should use. and why ............................ ............................ .............................

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Detailed Comparison

Selenium	Robot Framework
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.	It is a generic test automation framework for acceptance testing and acceptance test-driven development. It has easy-to-use tabular test data syntax and it utilizes the keyword-driven testing approach. Its testing capabilities can be extended by test libraries implemented either with Python or Java, and users can create new higher-level keywords from existing ones using the same syntax that is used for creating test cases.
Statistics
GitHub Stars 33.6K	GitHub Stars -
GitHub Forks 8.6K	GitHub Forks -
Stacks 16.2K	Stacks 344
Followers 12.6K	Followers 525
Votes 527	Votes 120
Pros & Cons
Pros 177 Automates browsers 154 Testing 101 Essential tool for running test automation 24 Record-Playback 24 Remote Control Cons 8 Flaky tests 4 Slow as needs to make browser (even with no gui) 2 Update browser drivers	Pros 23 Easy with CI/CD 22 Open Source 21 Simple Usage 14 Easily extendable 13 Vast Scope more than Front End Cons 8 Nested Loops 1 Mostly for python 1 Devtooling is not there 0 Mobile supports 0 Extensive library support

What are some alternatives to Selenium, Robot Framework?

BrowserStack

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.

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.

Karate DSL

Combines API test-automation, mocks and performance-testing into a single, unified framework. The BDD syntax popularized by Cucumber is language-neutral, and easy for even non-programmers. Besides powerful JSON & XML assertions, you can run tests in parallel for speed - which is critical for HTTP API testing.

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.

Cucumber

Cucumber is a tool that supports Behaviour-Driven Development (BDD) - a software development process that aims to enhance software quality and reduce maintenance costs.

TestCafe

It is a pure node.js end-to-end solution for testing web apps. It takes care of all the stages: starting browsers, running tests, gathering test results and generating reports.

Related Comparisons

Robot Framework vs Selenium: What are the differences?

Introduction

The Key differences between Robot Framework and Selenium are as follows:

Architecture: Robot Framework is an open-source test automation framework that uses a keyword-driven approach, allowing testers to write tests in a domain-specific language (DSL) using keywords and reusable high-level test templates. Selenium, on the other hand, is a set of open-source tools and libraries used to automate web browsers for testing purposes. It provides a programming interface to control browser actions and interact with web elements directly.
Language Support: Robot Framework supports its own DSL that is based on the keyword-driven testing approach. It also provides support for writing test cases in other languages such as Python, Java, and .NET by using their respective libraries. Selenium primarily supports writing test scripts in programming languages like Python, Java, C#, Ruby, and JavaScript, with each language having its own Selenium bindings.
Test Data Handling: Robot Framework offers built-in support for handling test data in tabular format using plain text or CSV files. Test data can be easily managed using variables and data-driven approaches, allowing for easy test case customization and reusability. Selenium does not provide a specific mechanism for managing test data, and it relies on programming languages and external libraries for handling test data and data-driven testing.
Test Execution: Robot Framework allows for test execution in various ways, including running tests sequentially, in parallel, or distributed across multiple machines. It provides command-line and IDE support for executing tests and generating test reports. Selenium relies on test scripts written in programming languages and requires a test runner to execute tests. It provides libraries and frameworks for running tests using popular unit test frameworks like JUnit and TestNG.
Browser Compatibility: Robot Framework supports various web browsers through Selenium and other browser-specific libraries. It provides cross-browser testing capabilities, allowing users to execute tests on different browsers and platforms. Selenium, being a set of tools and libraries, directly interacts with web browsers and supports a wide range of browsers, including Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Internet Explorer.
Community and Ecosystem: Robot Framework has a strong and active community with a wide range of libraries, plugins, and integrations available. It has a supportive user base and provides extensive documentation and resources for learning and troubleshooting. Selenium also has a large community and ecosystem with a vast array of resources and libraries available. It is widely adopted and used by both individual testers and large organizations.

Robot Framework vs Selenium

Overview

Robot Framework vs Selenium: What are the differences?