Free Record & Replay Web Testing Tools Roundup
Gartner reports that by 2020, Selenium WebDriver will have been adopted as the standard for all Web Testing. At Edgewords we provide training on developing WebDriver Tests programmatically, but what if we want to utilise simple Record & Replay Tools to get us up and running quickly?
Originally we had the Selenium IDE Firefox add-in to achieve this, but as of Firefox 55, this add-in was deprecated, so what other choices have we got. Below you will find a round-up of some of the more popular free tools available.
| Tool | Record Facility | Keyword (Actions) View | Code View | Export as WebDriver Script | Cross Browser Support | Appium Support | Platforms | Notes |
| MicroFocus Silk WebDriver | Yes | Yes | No | Yes in all formats | Yes | Yes, with Pro version | Win (OSX planned for future) |
Excellent record tool for creating WebDriver exported scripts |
| Selenium IDE | Yes | Yes | No | Yes in all formats | Only through coding | No | Win OSX Linux |
The original record & replay WebDriver tool, deprecated as of Firefox 55, but community building a replacement |
| Katalon Studio | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Win OSX Linux |
Full IDE, with Test Suites, Object Reps, Test Cases etc. designed to keep scripts contained in IDE, no export feature |
| Ranorex.io (Ranorex Online) | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | Win OSX Linux Android iOS |
Cloud-hosted web testing. Execution is against local browsers |
| endtest.io | No | Yes | No | Export as an executable (.exe) or with paid version as Python | Yes, Free version only executes against Chrome | No | Win OSX Linux |
Cloud-hosted web testing. Captures video of test execution. Execution is against cloud-hosted browsers |
Silk WebDriver
From the list above, one of our favourites is the Silk WebDriver. It is simple to use, creates proper WebDriver scripts that can be exported in many language bindings, and allows us to still develop our own Automation Framework in our choice of IDE such as Eclipse or Visual Studio. In the video below we show you how to get up and running quickly with it.
You can download it from here
And create a free account with MicroFocus here
