Top 3 Tools For Automated Mobile App Testing And Their Pros And Cons

Running automated tests has become something of a norm every time a testing process is conducted. This is no longer a surprising aspect, however, as automated testing is done in an organized manner, it has been found to drastically cut down the time required for a testing process. That’s not all for it also does away with the human factors such as omissions and errors that are normally associated with manual testing. Every tool that you pick up is unique in its own way and also possesses a number of distinguishing characteristics.

Here, I have pulled together three of the best automated mobile app testing tools ruling the roost in the market at present. A summary of their pros and cons will help you make a better judgment of who deserves the top prize.

Calabash

An open source acceptance testing framework, Calabash is designed to suit automation testing on both iOS and Android platforms with separate libraries for both segments. A cross-platform framework, Calabash is supportive of Cucumber which allows the app behavior to be expressed in natural English language alongside the implementation of BDD or Behavior Driven Development.

Pros:

  1. You get to enjoy support from a large and enthusiastic community
  2. Test statements are in simple and expressive English
  3. Support for cross-platform development – works on both iOS and Android devices

Cons:

  1. Once a test step fails, all subsequent steps are skipped, which could lead to severe product issues being overlooked
  2. Friendly only towards Ruby programming language

Frank

A Mobile App Development Company, app automation framework, Frank allows test scenarios to be written in structured English sentences based on Cucumber. It gets compiled inside the application that needs to be tested, making it mandatory for changes to be made to the source code. The code is largely a combination of JSON and Cucumber commands that are run through leveraging the UISpec on your native application.

Pros:

  1. Use of cucumber framework allows test scenarios to be written in simple understandable English sentences
  2. It has an ever-expanding library
  3. You will be actively supported by the Frank community

Cons:

  1. It does not have a recording feature
  2. The Configuration file has to be modified once you move from a test device to running on a real device

Appium

No discussion of an automated app testing tool is complete without the mention of Appium, which is a test automation framework in an open-source form, used with mobile, hybrid, and native web apps. It is a cross-platform tool that can be used on both iOS and Android operating systems. It also supports development in multiple languages such as Ruby, Python, Java, and anything else that is supported by the Selenium web-driver.

Pros:

  1. Permits cross-platform script development in multiple programming languages
  2. Offers support for script recording on Mac
  3. Supports automation on mobile, hybrid, as well as native web applications

Cons:

  1. Appium server desktop applications get frequent unstable releases
  2. Script recording option is disabled for Application server desktop meant for running on Windows OS

Automating the testing process represents a complex task that demands a considerable amount of research and preparation. You need to keep yourself abreast of all the novelties from the world of test automation tools, applications, and information technology because they need to be implemented thoroughly for coming up with the most effective of application tests.



Sudeep Bhatnagar
Co-founder & Director of Business
Sudeep Bhatnagar

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