7 Best Software Testing Tools (Free and Paid) in 2024
To help you review and compare different software testing tools, we’ve created a list with some of the top QA Test Automation Tools available today. We hope it will be helpful in your search for the right software testing tool for your company’s needs.
Every day thousands of applications are being released into the market, and there are certain factors that decide whether an application will grow or not. One such factor is how user-friendly your application is. User experience plays an important role in the popularity of your application.
The initial stage, where you get to test your application, is after it has been developed. You can either use QA Test Automation Tools or do it manually. Many QA software testing tools are available for this purpose, some are paid, while others are free.
What is a Software Testing Tool?
A software tool that is used to test the functionality of an application is referred to as a software testing tool. These tools are usually used by QA (Quality Assurance) testers for functional testing, performance testing, cross browser testing and other types of testing to determine if a system is ready for deployment into production.
How QAs use these Software Testing Tools?
There are many ways in which an organization can use Software Testing Tools, including:
- To manage the software testing process
- To help with the design of test cases for functional testing
- To improve efficiency during execution of tests (e.g., running many tests with one click)
- To collect data after the execution of tests
- To manage test results and generate reports
- To interact with other tools (e.g., bug tracking software, source control software, etc.)
What are the Types of Software Testing Tools?
Software Testing Tools can be split into two categories: open source software and commercial software.
Software Testing Tools help us in releasing a high quality product, improving the performance of our software, and minimizing the time spent on manual efforts while testing.
Types of Software Testing Tools – there are numerous testing tools for each phase of the software development lifecycle.
Functional Testing Tools:
Functional testing tools are used to validate the application’s behavior.
Functional testing tools can be divided into numerous categories, such as unit testing, integration testing, acceptance testing, smoke testing, and so on.
Non-Functional Testing ToolsÂ
Non-Functional testing tools are used to validate the application’s performance.
Non-Functional testing tools can be divided into numerous categories, such as performance testing, load testing, security testing, usability testing, and so on.
Don’t miss: Functional Testing vs Non-functional Testing
What are the most essential factors to consider while selecting a software testing tool?
Before you choose a tool, consider the following points.
- Software/Hardware requirement.
- Easy maintenance.
- Compatibility across platforms.
- Compatibility across OS.
- Reporting mechanism
- The cost of training employees on a new tool.
- Reviews of the tool – The company’s reputation is a major aspect of its success.
- Customer support.
- Ease of creating test scripts.
- License cost.
List of Best Software Testing Tools
Let’s have a look at some of the most popular software testing tools in the market.
#1. Testiny
Best test management tool for small to mid-sized QA teams, looking to integrate test management into their test automation and CI/CD/DevOps process.
Testiny is the most easy-to-use test management tool you will find, with a blazing fast and really responsive UI. It’s perfect for managing all kinds of tests, integrates with every CI/CD pipeline or DevOps process and helps monitoring your testing process to keep quality at a high level. Visualise your test results, create reports, upload results from automated tests and much more with Testiny.
Testiny is free for open-source projects and small teams of up to 3 users. Beyond that, it offers very attractive pricing and amazing customer support.
Features:
- Free for small teams and open-source projects
- Fast and responsive UI
- Usability
- Integrations (CI/CD, requirements/defect tracking like Jira, …)
- Supports any automation tool
- Dashboards and Reporting
- REST API
Free Trial: 14 days (can be extended; no credit card required)
Pricing:
- Completely free for small teams (up to 3 users) and open-source projects
- Pricing starts at $17/user per month
- Automatic volume discounts and yearly subscription discounts
#2. Selenium
Best Open Source Test Automation Tool
Selenium is an open-source automatic testing software that automates web browsers. Automation testers choose it as their preferred automation tool. It serves as a fundamental framework for open-source test automation programs such as Watir, Robot Framework, Katalon Studio, and Protractor.
This free QA tools helps automate the web application testing process. It is one of the best tools available in order to test your web-based applications. Selenium supports multiple browsers and it helps in creating your automated script for testing purposes
It supports languages such as Java, Python, C#, Groovy, PHP, Perl, and Ruby. It works with Windows, Mac, Linux operating systems. It supports web browsers including Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer 9 or later, and headless browsers.
#3. Appium
Best for automating native, mobile web, and hybrid applications on iOS mobile, Android mobile, and Windows desktop platforms.
Appium is a renowned name in the field of mobile app development. Appium is a tool that may be used to test mobile apps in the most effective way possible. It’s also considered a cross-platform automation solution since it allows testers to execute tests on Android and Safari, as well as Chrome applications on iOS. As a result, testers may now write tests for a variety of platforms with similar APIs.
#4. Sauce Labs
Best Cloud-based Testing Platform
SauceLabs is a cloud-based application testing solution that caters to businesses and open source development teams. It supports more than 800 browser platforms and mobile devices, with both automated and manual testing available (Android and iOS).
#5. JMeter
Best load testing tool.
JMeter is one of the most popular open-source load testing tools on the market. Even though JMeter has revolutionised the field of load and performance testing. It was originally intended for testing Web Applications, but it has grown to include additional test capabilities.
#6. PractiTest
PractiTest is an end-to-end SaaS test management platform that enables you to manage all your QA efforts in one place. With PractiTest you can visualize your data to extract valuable actionable insights and collaborate with all teams to reach business goals.
#7. Bugzilla
Bugzilla is a web-based bug tracking software developed by Mozilla. It is one of the most popular bug tracking software used by businesses.
Some other categories in the software testing tools are as follows.
- Automated Testing Tools – Learn more
- Mobile Testing Tools – Learn more
- Performance Testing Tools – Learn more
- Cross-browser Testing Tools – Learn more
- Test Management Tools – Learn more
- Bug Tracking Tools – Learn more
- Web Application Testing Tools – Learn more
- Security Testing Tools – Learn more
- Functional Testing Tools – Learn more
- Unit Testing Tools – Learn more
- Visual Testing Tools – Learn more
- Penetration Testing Tools – Learn more
- API Testing Tools – Learn more
- Test Data Managment Tools – Learn more
- ETL Testing Tools – Learn more
- Exploratory Testing Tools – Learn more
- Regression Testing Tools – Learn more
- Continuous Testing Tools – Learn more
- Codeless Testing Tools – Learn more
Conclusion
In summary, software testing tools are incredibly helpful for QA engineers when considering how to identify, log, fix, and test potential software issues before releasing them into production.
Quality assurance professionals use these tools to identify potential issues before customers experience them.
Within the field, there are two main types of software testing tools – functional testing tools like Testiny, Selenium, or Appium, as well as non-functional tools such as SauceLabs, or JMeter.
With so many on offer, it’s essential to consider what your specific requirements are and weigh up both the functionality and cost of each tool.
Hopefully, this guide has provided an overview of key features available in some of the leading software testing tools, and you have enough knowledge to make an informed decision when selecting the ideal testing tool to best suit your needs.