Due to the popularity of mobile devices, mobile app testing has become one of the most rapidly growing markets in the present application development and testing industry. However, the mobile app testing industry is also highly complex due to the diversity of devices that are currently available. For reference, more than 1000 devices come to the market every year only in the Android segment.
So, while executing mobile app testing, the application developers must choose the correct mobile testing tools that not only align with the testing requirements and the company standards but also with the preferences of the testers. This will help in the smooth transition while executing the test cases and also maintaining the accuracy and quality of the application.
Since Appium is one of the most popular tools in the segment of mobile app testing, we are going to compare Appium with other alternatives available in the market. We will also list the pros and cons of Appium to understand how it stands up against the competition. Finally, we will also understand some other critical parameters that will help the developers choose the correct tool based on their requirements and preferences.
Understanding the Basic Structure of Appium
Appium is a popular open-source tool to verify the proper functioning of mobile applications. While using Appium, the application developers can test the functioning of both Android and iOS applications. Using the Appium API, app developers can verify the performance of multiple mobile apps like cross-platform apps, native apps, and hybrid apps.
While using Appium for executing mobile app testing, the developers can create automation test scripts in multiple popular programming languages like JavaScript, Java, and Python. The most unique advantage of Appium is that it interacts with the applications like a normal user making it one of the most popular choices for executing real automation testing instances.
Target Platforms for Appium
- Mobile App Testing
The core interface of Appium is designed to work seamlessly with multiple mobile platforms like iOS, Windows, and Android. Moreover, using the Appium API, the application developers can also execute test cases on native web and hybrid mobile apps. In simple terms, the primary goal of Appium is to streamline the entire mobile application testing process.
- Expanding the Testing Reach
Recently, Appium has released a massive update that has extended its reach to multiple new browsers like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Safari. Now the developers can also use Appium to verify the performance of desktop apps created for Mac and Windows. Finally, after this update, the developers and testers can also use Appium to verify the functioning of TV applications as well.
Analyzing the Pros and Cons of Appium
Before comparing Appium with other mobile testing tools, let us analyze the pros and cons of using Appium for executing automated mobile application testing:
Pros
- Cross-Platform Support
While using Appium for mobile application testing, the developers can execute automation test cases on iOS, Windows, and Android apps. Moreover, it uses a single API for executing all these test cases which makes it a convenient option for testing across different platforms.
- Wide Language Support
Appium supports multiple programming languages like JavaScript, Java, Python Ruby, and C#. Therefore, while using these tools, the testers and developers have the flexibility to create the automation test cases in their preferred programming language.
- Support for Multiple Mobile Apps
The Appium API can execute automation testing on native hybrid and mobile web apps. Therefore, it is a highly versatile option for different types of mobile application testing and massively increasing the audience reach for the company.
- Integration with Selenium
It is natively possible to integrate Appium with the Selenium WebDriver API. Using this approach, the testers familiar with Selenium can easily transition to mobile application testing. This integration also supports the execution of advanced testing processes like automated cross-browser testing.
- Large and Active Community
Since Appium is an open-source mobile app automation tool, it has a large and active community of developers and testers. These people are actively contributing to creating various documentation, best practices, debugging tips, and new features to improve the testing experience with this tool.
Moreover, the new developers and testers can also refer to this community whenever they are stuck with any feature of Appium.
Cons
- Setup Complexity
The most prominent disadvantage of Appium is the complex setup process, especially for beginners. This is because it requires the installation and configuration of various components like WebDriver agents, Appium servers, and platform-specific dependencies. Therefore, the new testers and developers have to go through a complex and lengthy initial learning curve to get accustomed to Appium.
- Limited Support for Gestures and Interactions
Modern mobile applications consist of various gestures and unique interactions to improve user engagement. However, Appium has limited support for complex gestures and interactions compared to other tools. Therefore, the testers might be limited to certain testing scenarios while using this tool.
- Performance Overhead
It is common for the Appium tests to suffer from performance overhead due to communication layers between the test scripts and mobile devices. This performance overhead can negatively impact the test execution speed. In certain instances, this performance overhead can delay the entire testing phase by several months.
- Device Management
While executing mobile application testing, the developers have to verify the functioning of the app on multiple mobile devices, tablets, and other handhelds. However, managing multiple real devices or emulators and simulators can be a challenging task while using Appium. This obstacle becomes even more eminent when the app developers are working with a distributed testing environment.
- Platform Dependencies
While using Appium, the testers have to rely on platform-specific automation frameworks like UIAutomator for Android and XCUITest for iOS. Due to the integration of these dependencies, the developers and testers will also have to face various platform-specific issues and limitations. Moreover, they also have to go through the learning curve for each of these individual frameworks.
Comparing Other Mobile Testing Tools with Appium
Now that we have understood the major pros and cons of using Appium for mobile app automation testing, let us compare it with other popular options available in the present market:
- Selenium
Selenium is a popular open-source test automation suite for executing automation testing on web applications. Mobile testers can also use Selenium for executing mobile web app testing. However, while using Selenium, the developers can only test mobile web apps and not native or hybrid apps. Therefore, it is a major disadvantage of Selenium compared to Appium.
- Expresso
Espresso is a testing framework that is specifically designed for verifying the performance of Android applications. This tool provides better integration and performance with Android Studio compared to Appium while executing Android app testing. However, compared to Appium, Espresso doesn’t support cross-platform app development and cannot be used with iOS and Windows apps.
- XCUITest
XCUITest is Apple’s native testing framework for verifying the performance of iOS applications. Since it provides tight integration with Xcode and Swift, it offers excellent performance and reliability for iOS app testing. However, this tool is only limited to iOS testing and cannot be used for verifying the performance of Android and Windows applications.
- Calabash
Calabash is another open-source mobile testing framework that supports both iOS and Android application testing. The setup process for this tool is also very simple compared to Appium. However, it does not have the same level of cross-platform support and flexibility as Appium.
How to Choose the Perfect Tool
Since we have mentioned multiple tools for mobile app testing in this article, it can become a confusing process to choose the correct tool according to the requirements of the application development company. So, to simplify this decision-making process we have mentioned some of the most important factors:
- Team Expertise
The first step in this process is to verify whether the testing team has enough experience using the programming languages or frameworks supported by the chosen mobile app testing tool. It is also important to analyze whether you have enough knowledge to debug the issues, bugs, and other errors that you will face with this tool.
- Mobile Platforms
The next factor is to consider whether your tool supports the platforms that you are currently targeting. For instance, if your company specializes in cross-platform development, it is very important to understand whether you choose a tool that smoothly executes the test cases on multiple platforms like iOS, Windows, and Android. This will help prevent the hassle of creating individual test cases for every platform.
- Budget
Another crucial factor is to have a clear idea about the budget allocation for the mobile app automation tool. This is because various tools have expensive licenses to access all their features. On the other hand, for new companies or individual developers who cannot afford to invest in these apps, you must consider using open-source tools like Appium.
- Test Complexity
Finally, the testers need to analyze whether they require advanced features like image recognition or large-scale test execution. Based on these parameters, they should adjust their target mobile app testing tools. In modern times, we would also advise the developers to ensure that their chosen tool has support for cloud testing.
This is because using cloud platforms, the developers can execute real device testing on thousands of mobile devices and browsers through remote servers. For instance, LambdaTest is a cloud platform that allows developers to execute the Appium test cases on multiple mobile devices, browsers, and other device combinations at the same time.
LambdaTest also integrates artificial intelligence, native bug tracking, and live test activity logs to further boost the accuracy and dependency of the test instances.
We would advise the developers and testers to try out different tools before coming to a conclusive position. Various mobile app testing tools have free trials or limited functionality versions for this purpose.
The Bottom Line
In short, Appium offers cross-platform support and flexibility. However, this option also comes with some performance overhead and setup complexity. Therefore, choosing the right tool depends on multiple factors like familiarity with the tool, product requirements, and specific testing needs of the app development project.
It is also important to understand the target audience requirements and analyze whether it is possible to apply these customizations using the chosen tool. We also advise developers and testers to stay updated with all the new trends and innovations in the segment of modern automation testing. Practices like these are crucial to constantly elevate the testing quality and maintain a positive brand image.
