Software Testing Tools

Software Testing tools are the tools that are used for the testing of software. Software testing tools are often used to assure firmness, thoroughness, and performance in testing software products. Unit testing and subsequent integration testing can be performed by software testing tools. These tools are used to fulfill all the requirements of planned testing activities. These tools also work as commercial software testing tools. The quality of the software is evaluated by software testers with the help of various testing tools. 

Types of Testing Tools

Software testing is of two types, static testing, and dynamic testing. Also, the tools used during these testing are named accordingly on these testings. Testing tools can be categorized into two types which are as follows:

1. Static Test Tools: Static test tools are used to work on the static testing processes. In the testing through these tools, the typical approach is taken. These tools do not test the real execution of the software. Certain input and output are not required in these tools. Static test tools consist of the following:

• Flow analyzers: Flow analyzers provides flexibility in the data flow from input to output.
• Path Tests: It finds the not used code and code with inconsistency in the software.
• Coverage Analyzers: All rationale paths in the software are assured by the coverage analyzers.
• Interface Analyzers: They check out the consequences of passing variables and data in the modules.

2. Dynamic Test Tools: Dynamic testing process is performed by the dynamic test tools. These tools test the software with existing or current data. Dynamic test tools comprise the following:

• Test driver: The test driver provides the input data to a module-under-test (MUT).
• Test Beds: It displays source code along with the program under execution at the same time.
• Emulators: Emulators provide the response facilities which are used to imitate parts of the system not yet developed.
• Mutation Analyzers: They are used for testing the fault tolerance of the system by knowingly providing the errors in the code of the software.

There is one more categorization of software testing tools. According to this classification, software testing tools are of 10 types:

1. Test Management Tools: Test management tools are used to store information on how testing is to be done, help to plan test activities, and report the status of quality assurance activities. For example, JIRA, Redmine, Selenium, etc.
2. Automated Testing Tools: Automated testing tools helps to conduct testing activities without human intervention with more accuracy and less time and effort. For example, Appium, Cucumber, Ranorex, etc.
3. Performance Testing Tools: Performance testing tools helps to perform effectively and efficiently performance testing which is a type of non-functional testing that checks the application for parameters like stability, scalability, performance, speed, etc. For example, WebLOAD, Apache JMeter, Neo Load, etc.
4. Cross-browser Testing Tools: Cross-browser testing tools helps to perform cross-browser testing that lets the tester check whether the website works as intended when accessed through different browser-OS combinations. For example, Testsigma, Testim, Perfecto, etc.
5. Integration Testing Tools: Integration testing tools are used to test the interface between the modules and detect the bugs. The main purpose here is to check whether the specific modules are working as per the client’s needs or not. For example, Citrus, FitNesse, TESSY, etc.
6. Unit Testing Tools: Unit testing tools are used to check the functionality of individual modules and to make sure that all independent modules works as expected. For example, Jenkins, PHPUnit, JUnit, etc.
7. Mobile Testing Tools: Mobile testing tools are used to test the application for compatibility on different mobile devices. For example, Appium, Robotium, Test IO, etc.
8. GUI Testing Tools: GUI testing tools are used to test the graphical user interface of the software. For example, EggPlant, Squish, AutoIT, etc. 
9. Bug Tracking Tools: Bug tracking tool helps to keep track of various bugs that come up during the application lifecycle management. It helps to monitor and log all the bugs that are detected during software testing. For example, Trello, JIRA, GitHub, etc.
10. Security Testing Tools: Security testing is used to detect the vulnerabilities and safeguard the application against the malicious attacks. For example, NetSparker, Vega, ImmuniWeb, etc.

Top 10 Software Testing Tools

1. BrowserStack Test Management: BrowserStack Test management is the latest software test management platform that offers a centralized test case repository with the best-in-class UI/UX. Integrates with other BrowserStack software testing tools such as Live, Test Observability, Automate & App Automate.

Features: 

• Facilitates two-way integration with Jira, enhancing traceability for test cases and runs.
• Provides a rich dashboard for real-time reports & insights.
• Users can import data from existing tools using APIs or CSVs, with smart parsing for CSV fields. 
• Test results can be uploaded from Test Observability or report formats like JUnit-XML/BDD-JSON.
• Supports test automation frameworks such as TestNG, WebdriverIO, Nightwatch.js, Appium, Playwright, etc.
• Integrates with CI/CD tools such as Jenkins, Azure Pipelines, Bamboo & CircleCI.

2. TestComplete: TestComplete developed by SmartBear Software is a functional automated testing tool that ensures the quality of the application without sacrificing quality or agility.

Features:

• TestComplete has built-in keyword-driven test editor that consists of keyword operations that correspond to automated testing actions.
• It records the key actions that are necessary to replay test and discard all unneeded actions.
• It can run several automated tests across separate virtual machines.
• It has built-in code editor that helps testers write scripts manually. 
• It automatically captures screenshots during test recording and playback.

3. LambdaTest: LambdaTest is a cross-browser testing tool that helps to evaluate how web application responds when accessed through a variety of different browsers. 

Features:

• It has Selenium scripts on 3000+ browsers and operating system environments, giving higher test coverage.
• It can perform automated cross-browser testing of locally hosted web pages using LambdaTest tunnel.
• It can also help to run a single test across multiple browser/ OS configurations simultaneously.

4. TestRail: TestRail is a test management tool that helps to streamline software testing processes, get visibility into QA. This tool is used by testers, developers, and team leads to manage, track, and organize software testing efforts.

Features:

• It helps to manage test cases, plans, and runs.
• It helps to increase test coverage.
• It helps to get real-time insights into your QA progress.
• It helps to document test plans and track real-time progress.

5. Xray: Xray is a test management app for Jira that helps to plan, execute, and track quality assurance with requirements traceability. 

Features:

• It promotes Native Quality Management, where all tools, tests used by QA are built natively into development environment like Jira. 
• It integrates with leading automation frameworks like Cucumber, Selenium, and JUnit to automate testing.
• It allows easy integration with CI tools like Jenkins, Bamboo, and GitLab.
• It helps to easily map stories using BDD.

6. Zephyr Scale: Zephyr Scale is a test management provides a smarter and more structured way to plan, manage, and measure tests inside Jira.

Features:

• It offers cross-project integration, traceability, and a structured designed useful in large environments.
• It helps to scale tests in Jira.
• It helps to improve visibility, data analysis, and collaboration.
• It provides detailed changed history, test case versioning, and end-to-end traceability with Jira issues and challenges.

7. Selenium: Selenium provides a playback tool for authoring tests across most web browsers without the need to learn a test scripting language.

Features:

• It provides multi-browser support.
• It makes it easy to identify web elements on the web apps with the help of its several locators. 
• It is able to execute test cases quicker than the other tools.

8. Ranorex: Ranorex Studio is a GUI test automation framework used for testing web-based, desktop, and mobile applications. It does not have its own scripting language to automate application.

Features:

• It helps to automate tests on Windows desktop, then execute locally or remotely on real or virtual machines.
• It runs tests in parallel to accelerate cross-browser testing for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, etc.
• It tests on real iOS or Android devices, simulators, emulators, etc.

9. TestProject: TestProject is a test automation tool that allows users to create automated tests for mobile and web applications. It is built on top of popular frameworks like Selenium and Appium.

Features:

• It is a free end-to-end test automation platform for web, mobile, and API testing.
• Tests are saved as local files directly on your machine with no cloud-footprint to get a complete offline experience.
• It helps to create reliable codeless tests powered by self-healing, adaptive wait, and community add-ons.
• It provides insights about release quality, step-by-step detailed report with screenshots and logs.

10. Katalon Platform: Katalon Platform is a comprehensive quality management platform that enables team to easily and efficiently test, launch, and optimize the best digital experiences.

Features:

• It is designed to create and reuse automated test scripts for UI without coding.
• It allows running automated tests of UI elements including pop-ups, iFrames, and wait-time.
• It eases deployment and allows wider set of integrations compared to Selenium.