Selenium, Cypress, or Katalon Studio – are you confused?

Posted by admin | Posted On October 13th, 2022 | General

Digital Enterprises seek to employ test automation and continuous testing to deliver quality more efficiently and quickly than before. The most commonly used web application automation tools are Selenium, Cypress, and Katalon Studio. While each is distinctly helpful, each has some features which overpower the others. Let’s dive deep into each of these three automation tools.

Selenium

Selenium has been the most preferred and widely used open-source test automation tool for automated cross-browser testing of web applications. The W3C Standardization for the WebDriver API is a major architectural update in Selenium 4. This will make cross-browser testing more reliable and efficient.

Selenium enables automated testing of webpages and web applications across numerous browsers and operating systems. Testers may automate their website testing in any programming language they are familiar with, thanks to Selenium’s interoperability with various programming languages, including Java, JavaScript, Python, C#, and more.

By automating repetitive test cases, testers can produce test cycles more quickly using the Selenium framework. Selenium can assist with a reliable, bug-free release deployment workflow when connected with CI/CD pipeline.

Top Features:

Supports multiple browsers: Selenium supports multiple browsers like Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari, Microsoft Edge, etc. One can launch any browser by just giving simple commands.
Supports multiple Programming Languages: Selenium supports multiple programming languages for writing test scripts. It includes JavaScript (Node.js), C#, Groovy, Java, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, and Scala.
Execution Speed: There is no need for an intermediate server as Selenium directly conveys with the browser.
Easy to Identify and use web elements: Locators in Webdriver help find the web elements in web applications. This advantage is very easy for testers to implement.
Open Source and Portable: It is a significant benefit that Selenium is Open-Source and portable.
Works On different Operating Systems: Selenium web driver scripts can work on multiple operating systems such as Windows, Linux, and macOS.
Simple Commands: Selenium has very simple commands to implement. It can be learned quickly.

Cypress

Cypress is a next-generation front-end test automation tool built for the modern web. Cypress address the key pain points developers and QA engineers face when testing modern applications. The software focuses on performing end-to-end testing and is compatible with any front-end framework. Users may quickly debug using the software’s stack traces and readable errors using well-known tools like Chrome DevTools. While the tests are running, Cypress.io collects snapshots, allowing the user to easily hover over commands in the command log to monitor and examine what happened at each stage. Every time the test is modified, the software reloads itself. Additionally, this software allows users to view the commands in real time.

Top Features:

Time Travel: Cypress takes snapshots as your tests run. Hover over commands in the Command Log to see exactly what happened at each step.
Debuggability: Stop guessing why your tests are failing. Debug directly from familiar tools like Developer Tools. Our readable errors and stack traces make debugging lightning fast.
Automatic Waiting: Never add waits or sleeps to your tests. Cypress automatically waits for commands and assertions before moving on. No more async hell.
Spies, Stubs, and Clocks: Verify and control the behavior of functions, server responses, or timers. The same functionality you love from unit testing is right at your fingertips.
Network Traffic Control: Easily control, stub, and test edge cases without involving your server. You can stub network traffic however you like.
Consistent Results: Our architecture doesn’t use Selenium or WebDriver. Say hello to fast, consistent and reliable tests that are flake-free.
Screenshots and Videos: View screenshots were taken automatically on failure or videos of your entire test suite when run from the CLI.
Cross-browser Testing: Run tests within Firefox and Chrome-family browsers (including Edge and Electron) locally and optimally in a Continuous Integration pipeline.
Integrated support for CI tools – Slack, GitHub, CircleCI, GitHub Actions, BitBucket, GitLab CI, AWS CodeBuild, Jenkins, etc.
Cypress Component Testing – provides a testable component workbench for you to build and test any component quickly — no matter how simple or complex.
Outstanding support for cutting-edge javascript frameworks like React, Angular, Vue, etc.
Parallelization and automatic load balancing support

Katalon Studio

Katalon is a modern, comprehensive quality management platform that helps teams of any size deliver the highest quality digital experiences with an AI-augmented platform that lets you plan, author, and execute automated tests.

Katalon Studio is a cost-effective automation tool for desktop, mobile, and online API testing. Integrating all necessary test components with project templates and built-in keywords puts an end to the complexity of developing an automation framework. Katalon Studio presents test data and execution results via reports, charts, and graphs. Additionally, users can begin automating tests by using its friendly interface. It includes a complete range of functionality, including a thorough automation approach that considers various testing platforms and types. Additionally, essentials like test management, test execution, and test preparation are included in the Katalon Studio. Due to its easy-to-use analytics dashboard and reports that interact with DevOps workflow and other tools, Katalon Studio is the ideal automation software.

Groovy and Java are the two main programming languages utilized in Katalon Studio.

Top Features:

Simple deployment, quick and easy setup
Unified IDE to test all apps
Multi-Browser and Multi-OS Compatibility
Support Test Automation of Web, Mobile, API, and Desktop applications
No-code, low-code, or full code – testers with any skill level can use Katalon
Builtin AI – Self-Healing, Visual Testing, Test Failure Analysis, and Autonomous Script Generation
Better Reporting, Analytics, Real-time visibility, actionable insights
Seamless Continous Testing experience – Robust native integrations with DevOps tools, No workarounds are needed, such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, AWS, Jira, AzureDevOps, Git, Gitlab, Bitbucket, GitHub Actions, Jenkins, Travis CI, Harnes, Bamboo, etc.,
Differentiators – Speed, Affordability, Scalability, Visibility Innovation
TestCloud’s on-demand environments make it easy to run tests in parallel across browsers, devices, and OS while we take care of the heavy lifting of setup and maintenance.
Runtime Engine streamlines execution in your environment with smart wait, self-healing, scheduling, and parallel execution.

Selenium vs. Katalon Studio vs. Cypress

Features	Selenium	Katalon Studio	Cypress
Framework	Selenium Web Driver	Hybrid Automation Framework, built on – Selenium and Appium	Cypress is built on Node
Supported Languages	Java, JavaScript, C#, Ruby, Python	Groovy built on Java	JavaScript & TypeScript
Supported Browsers	Firefox, Google Chrome, IE, Safari, Microsoft Edge, Opera	Firefox, Google Chrome, IE, Safari, Microsoft Edge, Opera	Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Safari
Test Framework	PyUnit, JUnit, TestNG, and almost any language-specific test framework can be adapted.	Builtin Test Framework, just like TestNG	Mocha JS
Integrations	Extensive integration options. Ranging from CI/CD tools, Reporting, Cross Browser Testing, etc.,	Plenty of Integrations, with tools such as ALM & Test Management API Testing CI/CD Collaboration Cross Browser Testing Mobile Device Testing Source Code Management Test Data Management Test Impact Analysis Visual Testing	Limited Integration
Parallel Testing and Load Balancing	Yes, Selenium Grid	Yes, using RE	Yes
Features	Multi-browser and multi-language support, open source and portable, simple commands, no server installations,multi-tab support, etc.,	Simple Deployment, Quick, Builtin-AI, Unified IDE, Faster, Multi-browser support, Web/API/Mobile/Desktop automation support, TestCloud, multi-tab support, etc.,	Time Travel, Real-time reloads network traffic control, spies, stubs and clocks, and automatic waiting. No-multi-tab support.
Application under test support	Web	Web, Mobile, API, and Desktop	Web and API
Support for Multi Tab / Browser Instances	Yes	Yes	No
iframe support	Yes	Yes	Partial Support

Conclusion:

There is no clear winner, but these tools have made web automation consistent, fast, reliable, and flake-free.

Selenium requires high skilled team, Cypress requires at least a moderate to high skills team, whereas teams with any skill level can use the Katalon platform.

This article compares the three leading test automation tools, Selenium, Katalon, and Cypress. The tool to use depends on the team’s skills, project requirements, and many other factors, as these three tools have unique advantages and disadvantages. You must think long-term and consider the required testing features for choosing the right tool.

Please feel free to reach out to us at sales@qualitlabs.com for any help.