Effective UI Automation Testing Tools and Strategies

Creating a reliable and effective toolstack for your UI testing presents a host of benefits, including faster tests, improved collaboration, higher productivity, and a better final product.

We’ve created a list of some of the best UI testing tools available that we recommend adding to your process.

How to Choose the Right UI Testing Tools

There is a wide range of UI automation testing tools to choose from, many of which offer quality solutions that can improve your productivity and efficiency while helping you catch more bugs. So how do you choose the right one for your team?

Of course, a good place to start is by looking at the price. You can find many tools that are free and open-source, though they often have premium options as well. While many UI test automation tools are offered on a subscription basis, it can often be more cost-effective to purchase a permanent license.

You should also consider the size of your team and the testing method you use. For instance, certain automated UI testing tools are better at Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) than others. It’s also important to consider the integrations and API of each of your tools. Finding UI automation testing tools that already feature built-in integrations will help save you time and money by creating a quick and seamless transition.

What Are the Tools Used for UI Testing?

Ranorex Studio

Ranorex is a powerful and efficient UI test automation software that is trusted by more than 4,000 companies worldwide. It includes a suite of UI test automation tools that can identify visual elements, record and replay test executions, create custom reports, and easily pull test data from a CSV, SQL, or Excel file.

Ranorex Studio can run cross-browser tests in parallel, and test on both real and emulated mobile devices without the need to jailbreak. It supports all popular web browsers as well as Windows, Android, iOS, and other popular operating systems. In addition to a flexible API, Ranorex also features built-in integrations with all of the automated UI testing tools listed below.

DesignWise

While UI test automation is designed to cut back on the amount of time that you spend testing, it can be easy to design too many tests and start to lose efficiency. DesignWise will help you maintain optimal test coverage to ensure that you perform enough tests to catch the bugs that you need to, without executing too many tests and wasting time.

DesignWise is also designed to help members of your organization who may not have a lot of experience with coding. It enables developers to write tests in natural language with the Gherkin editor, which also helps them ensure that the tests are functional with autocomplete and syntax highlighting features.

DesignWise is one of the best automated UI testing tools for teams looking to use Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) because it empowers less experienced members of the team and encourages cross-department collaboration.

Bugzilla

Using a strong bug-tracking tool will help your QA testing team track progress and ensure strong collaboration within and across teams. Bugzilla was primarily designed for tracking and managing individual bugs, feature requests, enhancements, and other improvements to code. But it also features workflow management tools that allow developers to create custom fields and statuses to align with their specific testing processes.

Bugzilla’s tools include email notifications to relevant stakeholders on status updates, an access control system, a complex search system, and robust integrations with other tools.

TestRail

Used by more than 10,000 QA teams to create high-quality products, TestRail is a web-based management tool that helps QA teams manage and organize their test cases, plan test runs, track test results, and generate comprehensive reports. It can be effective for streamlining the testing process and improving communication between team members.

TestRail helps teams maintain a systemic approach to testing in which everyone is on the same page. It also has a robust approach to security, including an audit log, custom roles, roles-based access, and single sign-on policies.

Selenium

Selenium is a free and open-source automated testing suite for web applications that work across different browsers and platforms.

There are multiple components of Selenium, including the WebDriver, which helps create browser-based regression automation suites. There is also Selenium IDE, which allows developers to quickly create bug reproduction scripts as well as scripts for exploratory testing with tools like record-and-playback. Lastly, there is Selenium Grid which allows developers to manage tests on multiple machines from a centralized location.

Certain UI automation testing tools, such as Ranorex, feature a built-in Selenium Webdriver integration, which greatly simplifies the testing process. Developers can automate their tests in Selenium faster and more efficiently with a single point of maintenance. It also allows members of the team without expert coding knowledge to easily execute their tests.

Microsoft Excel

While Microsoft Excel may be a common software tool, knowing how to use it effectively is essential to creating and presenting your test data. You can use Excel, SQL, or CSV formats, as long as your UI automation testing tools can support them. Make sure your tools can easily import and export data to your spreadsheet software. It’s even better if you use UI testing tools that can automatically generate reports in Excel without you needing to take that extra step.

Add Ranorex to Your Automated UI Testing Tools

Ready to build out your UI automation testing tools? Get a free trial of Ranorex to see how easy it is to execute automated tests today.