Top 10 Mobile Testing Tools in 2024: Data-Driven Benchmarking

Mobile testing has become crucial for businesses to ensure that their mobile apps function correctly to provide a good user experience and maintain customer satisfaction. Business leaders should aim to choose a mobile testing tool, considering: 

• In 2022, the number of people who own a smartphone was estimated to be 7.4B.

This article aims to provide a data-driven comparison of the top 10 testing tools to help businesses in their selection process.

Key considerations for Mobile testing tools

Businesses need to consider the specific needs of their mobile app and development team to choose a test automation tool. Here are some of them:

1. Platform support: Ensure the tool supports your target platforms (iOS, Android, or both).
2. Automation capabilities: Look for a tool that allows for the automation of test cases to save time and improve efficiency.
3. Integration: Consider if the tool can integrate with your existing development and testing tools, such as your continuous integration system.
4. Scripting language: Ensure that the tool supports a scripting language that your team is familiar with or is easy to learn.
5. Test coverage: Check if the tool can handle the tests you need to perform, such as functional, performance, and security testing.
6. Community and Support: Look for a tool that has a large and active community. This will make it easier to find help and resources when you need them.
7. Pricing: Consider the cost of the tool and if it fits within your budget.
8. Low Code: No-code tools have a record and playback design that allows users with little coding knowledge to execute tests.

How to determine other key criteria for best automation vendors? 

Considering that over 50 mobile app testing tools are in the market, we are applying two publicly verifiable parameters to narrow down the number of vendors we analyze to provide a better benchmark. 

1. References: We aim to analyze vendors with proven success; the vendors we analyze will have references and positive feedback from industry-leading companies or have at least one Fortune 500 reference to be included in this list.
2. Test automation criteria: We only consider tools that offer test automation capabilities.

Based on our analysis, we took the following vendors and their mobile app testing tools for our analysis. We ranked them alphabetically, except Testifi, since it is one of the sponsors of AIMultiple, (see the transparency statement below).

Transparency Statement 

AIMultiple is sponsored by many emerging tech businesses, including Testifi, which is why it is ranked at the top of our list.

1. Testifi CAST
2. AccelQ
3. Appium
4. Calabash
5. Espresso
6. Kobiton
7. Perfecto
8. Ranorex
9. Robotium
10. Testgrid

Based on the vendor’s claims, we created a summary of the features and specifications of the tools provided by the vendors. See the table below.

1. Testifi Cast

Testifi’s CAST is a low code test automation tool that offers mobile testing with performance testing and static code analysis.

CAST is a low-code tool that benefits companies aiming to lessen reliance on difficult-to-hire technical talents. Industry leaders like BMW, Vodafone, and Amazon use Testifi’s services. CAST uses a shift-left and test-first approach and can be integrated with CI/CD tools such as Jira, Jenkins, Zephyr, and Xray.

Check the video below to see how CAST works:

2. AccelQ

AccelQ is a cloud-based mobile testing platform that offers several features for automating mobile app testing. AccelQ supports iOS and Android platforms and can be integrated with popular CI/CD tools such as Jenkins, Bamboo, and TeamCity. AccelQ supports multiple scripting languages, including Java, Python, and C#.

Check the video below to see how AccelQ works:

3. Appium

One of the most widely used open-source test automation frameworks is Appium. Both native and hybrid mobile apps can make use of it. Appium powers iOS, Android, and Windows apps using the Selenium WebDriver protocol. 

Appium includes an inspector that allows you to inspect the elements of your app, making it easy to create test cases. It supports both real devices and emulators. It can be integrated with other test frameworks like TestNG, JUnit, etc. Appium allows you to test your app on cloud-based platforms such as Sauce Labs, BrowserStack, and TestObject.

See the tutorial below for automating mobile applications using Appium:

4. Calabash

Calabash is an open-source framework for automating mobile app testing on iOS and Android platforms; it allows you to create and run automated acceptance tests for mobile applications. Calabash can simulate touch gestures, such as taps, swipes, and pinch-to-zoom, to interact with the app you’re testing. It supports Cucumber, a behavior-driven development (BDD) framework, which allows you to write tests in natural language, making it easy to understand and maintain.

Check this video below for a demonstration of Calabash testing:

5. Espresso

Espresso, a tool created by Google, enables you to create Android UI tests. The developer can adapt and customize this open-source technology to suit their needs. The tool supports the automatic syncing of apps and tests. Most developers prefer Espresso due to its straightforward API and customization options. 

Check the video below for an example of testing with Espresso:

6. Kobiton

Testers can access real devices through Kobiton’s platform for manual and automated testing. Kobiton’s mobile testing tool allows users to utilize device connection management while supporting ADB shell commands. Kobiton can test iOS and Android apps and be integrated with Travis CI, TeamCity, Jenkins, and Azure DevOps.

Check this video below to see a simple demonstration 

7. Perfecto

Perfecto is a mobile testing tool that allows users to test mobile apps on the cloud. Industry leaders such as Ford, IBM, and Verizon use Perfecto services. The tool enables users to test mobile web applications; thus, it can run on a browser on mobile devices. Perfecto’s mobile testing tool offers cross-browsing and record-and-replay functionality. 

Check this video to see their offerings:

8. Ranorex

Ranorex Studio is a Windows GUI test automation application. By capturing UI actions, its user interface enables automated UI testing. Ranorex can be used for both iOS and Android applications.

Check this video to see their offerings.

9. Robotium

Robotium is a free and open-source framework for automating Android app testing for both native and hybrid apps. With Robotium, users can execute functional, system, and user acceptance test cases. 

Robotium has a simple and intuitive API, making it easy to write test cases for developers new to test automation. It can handle complex situations such as pop-ups, dialogs, and menus. Users can utilize Robotium to test Android apps running on other platforms, such as Amazon Kindle Fire and Nook.

10. Testgrid

Tesgrid is a mobile test platform that offers both manual and automated testing. With Testgrid, you can use already written test cases on multiple apps for faster test execution. Testgrid is available both on-cloud and on-premise and supports programming languages like Java, C#, Ruby, Python, Perl, and PHP. 

Check the video below to see their offerings.

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