Appium vs Applitools

Overview

Applitools

Stacks62

Followers163

Votes15

Appium

Stacks650

Followers574

Votes28

GitHub Stars20.8K

Forks6.2K

Appium vs Applitools: What are the differences?

Appium and Applitools are two different tools used in mobile app testing and quality assurance. Here are the key differences between Appium and Applitools:

Purpose and Functionality: Appium is an open-source mobile app automation framework for writing and executing automated tests across iOS and Android platforms using popular programming languages. Applitools is a cloud-based visual testing platform that uses AI to detect visual regressions and ensure pixel-perfect UI consistency across devices and screen resolutions.
Testing Approach: Appium is primarily used for functional testing and end-to-end testing of mobile applications. Testers write scripts that simulate real user interactions with the app, such as tapping buttons and inputting text. Applitools, on the other hand, is focused on visual testing. It captures screenshots of the app's UI across various devices and browsers and uses AI algorithms to compare them to detect any visual differences.
Automation and Ease of Use: Appium is an automation framework that requires testers to write scripts to automate test cases. While it offers flexibility and control over test scenarios, it also requires a certain level of coding expertise and maintenance effort. Applitools, on the other hand, offers a codeless testing approach for visual UI testing. Testers can use its intuitive visual testing dashboard to easily configure and manage test suites without writing code.
Integration and Reporting: Appium integrates with various testing frameworks, build tools, and continuous integration (CI) systems. It provides detailed test reports and logs that help identify test failures and issues. Applitools integrates with popular testing tools like Selenium, Appium, and Cypress, making it easy to add visual testing capabilities to existing automation suites. Its visual comparison reports highlight the detected visual differences, making it easier for teams to understand and address UI issues.
Pricing Model: Appium is an open-source framework. However, setting up and maintaining the test infrastructure may involve additional costs. Applitools offers a subscription-based pricing model. It offers a free tier for smaller projects and trials for users to evaluate the platform's features.

In summary, Appium is a powerful open-source mobile app automation framework used for functional testing, while Applitools is a cloud-based visual testing platform focused on detecting visual UI regressions.

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Detailed Comparison

Applitools	Appium
Applitools delivers the next generation of test automation powered by AI assisted computer vision technology known as Visual AI. Visual AI helps Developers, Test Automation Engineers and QA professionals release high-quality web and mobile	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.
Integration with functional testing tools;Automated visual comparisons of application pages;Validation interface;Share bug reports with team & ticketing systems;SDKs for common languages	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 62	Stacks 650
Followers 163	Followers 574
Votes 15	Votes 28
Pros & Cons
Pros 3 Visual AI is 99.9999% accurate 2 Test against multiple browsers, viewports, and devices 2 Augments any testing framework - easy to implement 2 AI & ML eliminate false positives (vs. pixel-based)) 2 Fast cross-browser test execution Cons 2 Ambiguous 2 Colours with small contrast diff are not identified 2 Lot of bugs 2 Problems with integration 2 Mismatched image test results	Pros 12 Webdriverio support 6 Java, C#, Python support 3 Open source 2 Great GUI with inspector 2 Active community
Integrations
GitHub CircleCI Slack Jenkins OpenCV Cypress Travis CI Azure DevOps Jira React Storybook	Sauce Labs

What are some alternatives to Applitools, Appium?

Percy

Catch visual bugs in static & dynamic UI components with Percy. Ensure your website’s UI reliability in dynamic environments. Detect and resolve bugs at speed for each component across browsers and viewports.

Ghost Inspector

It lets you create and manage UI tests that check specific functionality in your website or application. We execute these automated browser tests continuously from the cloud and alert you if anything breaks.

Chrome DevTools

It is a set of web developer tools built directly into the Google Chrome browser. It can help you edit pages on-the-fly and diagnose problems quickly, which ultimately helps you build better websites, faster

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.

Responsively

It is a modified browser built using Electron that helps in responsive web development. Preview all target screens in a single window side-by-side. Brings down your development time. Use your already-familiar dev-tools from the browser. No additional learning curve.

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.

Requestly

Requestly is a lightweight proxy available as a browser extension & desktop app to intercept & modify network requests. Using Requestly you can Modify Headers, Redirect URL, Mock API response, Delay/Throttle requests, etc.

Related Comparisons

Purpose and Functionality: Appium is an open-source mobile app automation framework for writing and executing automated tests across iOS and Android platforms using popular programming languages. Applitools is a cloud-based visual testing platform that uses AI to detect visual regressions and ensure pixel-perfect UI consistency across devices and screen resolutions.
Testing Approach: Appium is primarily used for functional testing and end-to-end testing of mobile applications. Testers write scripts that simulate real user interactions with the app, such as tapping buttons and inputting text. Applitools, on the other hand, is focused on visual testing. It captures screenshots of the app's UI across various devices and browsers and uses AI algorithms to compare them to detect any visual differences.
Automation and Ease of Use: Appium is an automation framework that requires testers to write scripts to automate test cases. While it offers flexibility and control over test scenarios, it also requires a certain level of coding expertise and maintenance effort. Applitools, on the other hand, offers a codeless testing approach for visual UI testing. Testers can use its intuitive visual testing dashboard to easily configure and manage test suites without writing code.
Integration and Reporting: Appium integrates with various testing frameworks, build tools, and continuous integration (CI) systems. It provides detailed test reports and logs that help identify test failures and issues. Applitools integrates with popular testing tools like Selenium, Appium, and Cypress, making it easy to add visual testing capabilities to existing automation suites. Its visual comparison reports highlight the detected visual differences, making it easier for teams to understand and address UI issues.
Pricing Model: Appium is an open-source framework. However, setting up and maintaining the test infrastructure may involve additional costs. Applitools offers a subscription-based pricing model. It offers a free tier for smaller projects and trials for users to evaluate the platform's features.

Appium vs Applitools