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BrowserStack vs Kobiton: What are the differences?

Introduction

In this Markdown code, we will discuss the key differences between BrowserStack and Kobiton in the context of website testing.

  1. Deployment Options: BrowserStack supports both cloud-based and on-premise deployment options. It offers a wide range of real devices and browsers to test on, ensuring comprehensive coverage. On the other hand, Kobiton primarily focuses on cloud-based testing, offering a vast collection of real devices with different OS versions for testing.

  2. Integration Capabilities: BrowserStack provides seamless integration with popular testing frameworks, CI/CD tools, and bug tracking tools like Jira and Trello. It also offers RESTful APIs to integrate with custom tools and workflows. In contrast, Kobiton offers integrations with popular testing frameworks and CI/CD tools, but its options are relatively limited compared to BrowserStack.

  3. Parallel Testing: BrowserStack allows running tests in parallel across multiple devices, browsers, and OS versions, significantly reducing the overall testing time. It provides flexible parallel testing options based on the chosen pricing plan. In comparison, Kobiton also supports parallel testing but with certain limitations on the number of concurrent devices, which may vary depending on the subscription plan.

  4. Automation Testing Support: BrowserStack offers extensive automation testing capabilities, supporting popular automation frameworks like Selenium, Appium, and Xamarin. It provides official bindings and plugins for different programming languages and tools, ensuring a smooth automation testing experience. Conversely, Kobiton also supports automation testing but it may have limited support for certain automation frameworks or specific programming languages.

  5. Network Conditions: BrowserStack allows simulating different network conditions during testing, including 3G, 4G, and unstable connections, to ensure the compatibility and performance of the website in real-life scenarios. It also provides testing under different geolocations. Conversely, Kobiton may have limited options for simulating network conditions and geolocations during testing.

  6. Pricing Structure: BrowserStack offers flexible pricing plans based on usage, providing options for startups, small teams, and enterprises. It offers free trials and a pay-as-you-go model. On the other hand, Kobiton provides pricing plans based on the number of concurrent sessions, which may limit the scalability for organizations with a higher testing demand.

In summary, BrowserStack provides versatile deployment options, extensive integration capabilities, and flexible parallel testing, along with comprehensive automation testing support and network condition simulation. It also offers flexible pricing options. On the other hand, Kobiton primarily focuses on cloud-based testing with a vast device library, but with more limited integration capabilities and pricing structure.

Advice on BrowserStack and Kobiton

I am looking to purchase one of these tools for Mobile testing for my team. It should support Native, hybrid, and responsive app testing. It should also feature debugging, parallel execution, automation testing/easy integration with automation testing tools like Selenium, and the capability to provide availability of devices specifically for us to use at any time with good speed of performing all these activities.

I have already used Perfecto mobile, and Sauce Labs in my other projects before. I want to know how different or better is AWS Device farm in usage and how advantageous it would be for us to use it over other mentioned tools

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Replies (3)
Aaron Evans
Testing Strategist at One Shore · | 3 upvotes · 6.1K views

A SaaS offering like Sauce Labs (or BrowserStack or LambdaTest, etc) will provide a remote Selenium/Appium Grid including the ability to run test automation in parallel (up to the amount based your subscription level) an a wide array of browsers and mobile devices.

These tools can be expensive, but if you can afford them, the expertise and effort of maintaining the grid, browser updates, etc. is worth it.

AWS Device Farm can be significantly cheaper, but is much more work to setup and run. It will not give you as many devices, or the reporting and screen/video capture you get with the the services. And there is no support for AWS Device Farm, and very poor documentation. I have used it, but do not recommend it. Running your own grid and physical device lab is better, but I'd stick with a service like Sauce Labs or Perfecto which will save you time and give you better services despite the higher price tag.

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Stability - Just works. Availability - More than 15 datacenters. Enterprise features like SSO, local testing and SOC2/GDPR compliant.

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Jaymie Falconi
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BitBar's Dedicated Devices would be a great option for you. It allows you to dedicate (reserve) devices for your use only which also having access to all of the devices in the shared cloud. BitBar has the features and integrations that you are looking for as well.

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Pros of BrowserStack
Pros of Kobiton
  • 134
    Multiple browsers
  • 75
    Ease of use
  • 63
    Real browsers
  • 43
    Ability to use it locally
  • 26
    Good price
  • 20
    Great web interface
  • 18
    IE support
  • 16
    Official mobile emulators
  • 14
    Instant access
  • 14
    Cloud-based access
  • 11
    Real mobile devices
  • 7
    Selenium compatible
  • 7
    Screenshots
  • 7
    Multiple Desktop OS
  • 6
    Can be used for Testing and E2E
  • 5
    Pre-installed developer tools
  • 4
    Video of test runs
  • 3
    Webdriver compatible
  • 3
    Many browsers
  • 3
    Supports Manual, Functional and Visual Diff Testing
  • 3
    Favourites
  • 2
    Cypress Compatible
  • 2
    Test automation dashboard
  • 2
    Unify and track test cases
  • 2
    Free for Open Source
  • 2
    Test Management
  • 2
    Cross-browser testing
  • 2
    Bi-directional Jira Sync
  • 1
    Speed is fast
  • 1
    Real devices
  • 0
    Web accessibility
  • 0
    Test WCAG Compliance
  • 0
    Visual testing and review
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    Cons of BrowserStack
    Cons of Kobiton
    • 2
      Very limited choice of minor versions
    • 1
      Limited minutes

    Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions

    What is 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.

    What is 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.

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    What companies use BrowserStack?
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    What tools integrate with BrowserStack?
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    What are some alternatives to BrowserStack and Kobiton?
    Browserling
    We run the browsers on our servers. Fully interactive sessions, not static screenshots. No flash, no applets, nothing to install. Powered entirely by <canvas> and javascript.
    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.
    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.
    AWS Device Farm
    Run tests across a large selection of physical devices in parallel from various manufacturers with varying hardware, OS versions and form factors.
    Appium
    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.
    See all alternatives