UI testing is the stage of complex software testing at which QA specialists check the quality of all components of the interface. It helps ensure that the software features are goal-oriented and user-friendly. The UI testers have to make certain all the UI functions are bug-free. As a result, the software quality is improved and the user-friendliness of the application is guaranteed.
When testing a product’s interface, QA engineers pay special attention to the following aspects:
- Visual design
- Functionality
- Usability
- Performance
- Consistency
Why Is UI Testing Crucial?
A well-conducted UI test helps specialists make sure the application meets functional requirements, and users can use the application without any risks. In addition, an intuitive interface with ease-of-use features reduces customer churn rates and advances user experience. For these reasons, user interface testing plays a paramount role before a product is released.
Manual VS Automated UI Testing
You can conduct either manual or automated UI testing. In the first case, testers manually run each test on all the elements. However, today’s most websites and apps require rich user interfaces, while manual testing is suitable for simple websites only.
Here, automated UI testing comes in handy. It is part of the testing process where software is used to perform UI tests and check test results. The main goal of automation is to speed up the testing process without sacrificing quality, as well as to free up testers and allow them to focus on testing the product’s business logic from the end user’s perspective.
Advantages of UI Test Automation
A greater number of companies see UI test automation as an opportunity to streamline this stage and increase efficiency. Automated UI test has great value, the statistics show that the value of the automation testing market was calculated as USD 20 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow at over 15% CAGR by 2032.
Here’s a list of benefits this technology brings to those embedding automation:
- Time. Manual testing is slow and doesn’t keep up with the releases in full.
- Cost. The manual approach requires considerable resources and costs for its conducting and further maintenance.
- Accuracy. The chances for errors when performing mundane tasks are much higher. Automation reduces the probability of these errors.
- Complexity. It is difficult to rely on the reliability of manual testing to perform complex actions.
- Speed. Time spent on writing automated test scripts is reduced by more than 20 times.
- Reporting. Automated testing presupposes generating reports and sending them to the parties involved.
- Flexibility. You can run tests at any time convenient for you or at a specific event. This is mostly done during nights or off-hours, which allows more efficient use of test resources.
10 Best Automated UI Testing Tools
For the benefit of all software developers and testers, we’ve collected the top test automation tools that are believed to best address the challenges in automation over the next few years:
1. DogQ
DogQ is a powerful codeless test automation tool that enables facilitated testing of UI. The tool utilizes multiple automation scenarios to reach an intuitive, bug-free and easy-to-use interface. Moreover, DogQ is cloud-based, which allows it to work properly on any browser.
The key features of DogQ include:
- High compatibility with modern front-end frameworks
- Test scenarios are built automatically without a single line of code
- The tool generates test cases for prompt error detection and flawless system performance
- Advanced reports and analytics with visual dashboards
- Extended functionality with third-party integrations
- A much higher automation speed compared to other average-market tools
- Ease of test execution by non-technical users
The overall process of utilizing this UI automated testing tool boils down to the following. As soon as you add a current project to the dashboard, you can set up scenarios. Scenarios can be created and edited without any lines of code. Then, a CI/CD approach is taken up to run the necessary number of tests. Additionally, you can take advantage of all the supplementary features of the tool to advance and refine the product’s interface.
2. Selenium
Selenium is a widely used open-source test automation tool used to test a website during a continuous deployment release and test automation. It is actually a software library that allows you to develop programs that control browser behavior, including UI interface.
The key features of Selenium include:
- Open-source availability with no upfront direct costs involved
- It supports many programming languages (Java, Perl, Python, C#, Ruby, Groovy, JavaScript, etc.)
- It provides operation and support across multiple operating systems
- Constant updates as it is supported by a community
- The possibility to use various testing tools, add-ons, and test across browsers
3. TestProject
TestProject is a free end-to-end test automation platform for web, mobile, and API testing. The tool has proved to generate detailed reports, be flexible for various needs and robust enough for tests across browsers and operating systems.
The key features of TestProject include:
- It can be integrated with other useful automation libraries
- Detailed HTML and PDF test reports with screenshots
- It supports both local and remote launch
- Cross-platform tool operating on Mac, Windows, Linux, Docker, iOS, Android, web services
- The tests can be integrated into the CI/CD pipeline through continuous integration
- The results can be analyzed using dashboards and other useful add-ons embedded by developers
4. Cypress
One more reliable automated UI testing tool, Cypress offers a complete end-to-end testing experience. It allows testing at different levels to prevent the bug in production, and its tests are run at the browser level, not just remote-controlling.
The key features of Cypress include:
- Its debugging capability allows testers to see errors in a readable format instantly
- Cypress brings implicit waiting for actions in UI, so there is no need for appropriate checks
- Automatic reloads allow to make real-time changes to tests
- Fast execution of tests and easy implementation
5. Puppeteer
Puppeteer is emerging as one of the prominent frameworks that offer headless browser testing for Google Chrome. This Node.js library can be used to create programs for the automatic collection of data from websites, imitating the actions of the ordinary user.
The key features of Puppeteer include:
- It crawls a SPA (Single-Page Application) and generates pre-rendered content
- The tool runs tests with the latest version of Chrome and using the latest JavaScript and browser feature
- The framework captures a timeline trace of your site to help diagnose performance issues
- It is easy to set up with just one command
- Taking a screenshot is easy, all the screenshots are placed in a PDF file
6. Playwright
Playwright is a Node.js library that many businesses are harnessing to automate Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit with a single API, while QA engineers extensively use it for UI testing. The tool is designed to enable fast and reliable web automation.
The key features of Playwright include:
- Playwright is comprehensive as it supports all modern browsers and operation systems
- Its features of auto-wait and tracing provide high-quality resilience
- One can test scenarios that span multiple tabs, multiple origins and multiple users
- Playwright creates a browser context for each test to deliver full test isolation
7. Katalon
Katalon is essentially a tool that allows us to perform different types of automation testing, including UI, API, or Mobile to achieve bug-free and user-friendly graphical user interfaces in conjunction with lots of incorporated tools that are already incorporated.
The key features of Katalon include:
- Users can save team effort while debugging interface points with such features as the time capsule, test failure snapshots and self-healing.
- Smart Wait Function allows automatic waiting until the web page is fully loaded before moving on to the next automation step
- Katalon Studio supports the function of objects spying as well as record and playback
- It allows you to group existing test suites and, thereby, enhance their control and accelerate the execution process
8. TestComplete
TestComplete is a powerful tool that enables teams to automate UI testing for desktop, mobile, and web applications. It allows running functional tests in parallel, on-premise, or in the cloud to reduce testing times and expand coverage.
The key features of TestComplete include:
- Record & replay function to build complex scripts
- Multiple programming languages including JavaScript, Python, VBScript, Jscript, DelphiScript, C#, and C+
- Built-in sample projects help testers get up and running much quicker.
- Detailed reporting and snapshot notification
- Fast cross-browsers scripts
9. UFT (Unified Functional Testing)
UFT UI testing tool is also in high demand as it supports more than 200 enterprise apps, technologies, and environments. The tool is used to run UI-based test cases and it also automates non-UI test cases such as file operations, database testing, desktop applications, etc.
The key features of UFT include:
- It supports nearly every major software application and environment
- UFT has its own in-built object repository that helps in organizing application data
- It handles the controls within a browser like a favorite bar, address bar, back, and forward buttons, etc.
10. Squish
Squish is widely used for automated testing of the graphical user interface. It proposes an IDE and a framework allowing testers to implement acceptance testing for the interface, automate execution and check in real-time if the application is true to its specifications.
The key features of Squish include:
- Test script recording and recognition of high-level interactions and objects instead of low-level events
- Integrated script debugging, object spying and advanced script editing and maintenance.
- The tool provides extensive integration options
- Advanced verification options of elements and groups of controls
Conclusion
There are a number of automated UI testing tools available on the market. The tools mentioned in the list above are embedded with numerous features which enable UI testers to deliver flawless user interfaces and execute testing in the shortest time limits.
The choice of testing automation tools depends entirely on the business requirement but with a single aim: quality software at speed. However, it is recommended to consider the features that are more valued for each software, as well as the integrations with other tools and the ability to reuse tests regarding cross-browser testing.
