Anyone ever used Ranorex for Test-Automation?

Ask general questions here.
johnwalker1
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Feb 25, 2020 6:25 am

Anyone ever used Ranorex for Test-Automation?

Post by johnwalker1 » Tue Feb 25, 2020 6:28 am

So I started a new position as an Automation Engineer. My background is within Selenium, but I'm honestly tired of the out-dated UI and the effort it requires to maintain selenium, the amount of explaining necessary (for non-QA people), and the belief system that Selenium is the pinnacle in QA Automation.

Selenium is great. It's just not as progressive as I'd like in automated GUI Testing. Or even for regression testing. So, I figured I'd explore some other options. I started a trial for Ranorex, and while it's not cheap...it's a pretty great product and I was curious if anyone else has used both it and Selenium ?

If you have used both, which do you prefer? Why? I'm leaning towards Ranorex at this juncture, even with the cost. But I'd love to hear other opinions.

Thanks!

scrushmaster
Posts: 13
Joined: Thu Dec 08, 2016 1:46 am

Re: Anyone ever used Ranorex for Test-Automation?

Post by scrushmaster » Wed Feb 26, 2020 1:58 am

I like Ranorex as I run QA solo and Selenium is too cumbersome. Selenium is for a larger team with more dev experience on the QA end, it can be better than Ranorex but will take more time to develop and maintain for that extra 20%. Most Selenium projects get outside the framework and become a mess for others to jump into, where Ranorex forces you into at least a semblance of a framework. Both have their place and work well.

User avatar
odklizec
Ranorex Guru
Ranorex Guru
Posts: 7470
Joined: Mon Aug 13, 2012 9:54 am
Location: Zilina, Slovakia

Re: Anyone ever used Ranorex for Test-Automation?

Post by odklizec » Wed Feb 26, 2020 9:04 am

Hi,

I'm extensively using Ranorex, because it covers all required scenarios and platforms (desktop, web and mobile). But I've got a chance to briefly work with Selenium too.

With Selenium, you are locked just to web-based apps. But that may be OK for you? My biggest gripe with Selenium is the lack of central repository, which means that all xpaths (locators) are written directly in code. This is, in my opinion, a nightmare for maintenance and long term usability? And of course, the initial setup and jump-in is much more complicated, especially for users with zero or minimal scripting experience. This is where Ranorex with its sleek IDE, Test Suite organization, central repository and recording capability simply wins. True, there is something called Selenium IDE, which has recording too. But Selenium IDE (and coded Selenium) test organization is nowhere as easy as with Ranorex Studio and its Test Suite.

Of course, there are also positives about Selenium. The first one is obviously price, but it comes at a cost of nowhere as good and speedy support! And while the community support is a nice thing, it does not really replace professional support. The only major advantage I found about Selenium, is its much more advanced xpath implementation. And the ability to use multiple locators in single action. So if one of the locators fails to find an element, there is always a possibility that the other one may still find it. A downside of this approach could be maintenance, where soon or later many locators will not get updated and left to 'rot' in code, which may lead to messy code ;)
Pavel Kudrys
Ranorex explorer at Descartes Systems

Please add these details to your questions:
  • Ranorex Snapshot. Learn how to create one >here<
  • Ranorex xPath of problematic element(s)
  • Ranorex version
  • OS version
  • HW configuration