A steady increase is being noted in the number of enterprises implementing agile methodology to deliver software applications rapidly. Many enterprises adopt DevOps – as an extension of agile methodology – to deliver high quality software applications by unifying software development and IT operations. Both agile methodology and DevOps emphasize on continuous delivery and test automation. The enterprises should coordinate the manual and automation testing efforts to get the best results.

With more and more enterprises adopting DevOps and agile methodology, the QA testing professionals have to do software application testing continuously to accomplish the predefined goals. The QA professionals will need robust testing automation tools in 2018 to test software applications continuously under varying conditions. A large percentage of automation testing tools and frameworks do not support agile methodology and DevOps.

Most of the existing automation testing tools will be upgraded and rewritten in 2018 to meet the latest development methodologies. The QA professionals will further opt for tools that enable them to run automated tests each time the code changes. There are still a number of automation testing tools that will be used widely by QA professionals in 2018. However, the QA professionals will opt for the most recent version of the best automation testing tools of 2018.

10 Best Automation Testing Tools That Most QA Testing Professional will Use in 2018

1) Selenium

QA professionals use Selenium for web application automated testing extensively to test a variety of web application efficiently by supporting various operating systems, web browsers, and programming languages. The tools provided by the open source test automation framework further help testers to automate both web browsers and web-based administrative tasks. The QA professional with programming and scripting skills can use Selenium can further integrate Selenium with other test automation frameworks. In 2018, testing professionals will use both Selenium WebDriver and Selenium IDE to write tests in their preferred programming language.

2) Katalon Studio

The open source automated testing is developed based on Selenium and Appium. The tools provided by Katalon Studio helps QA professional to test web applications, mobile apps, and application programming interfaces (APIs). At the same time, Katalon Studio accelerates software testing by keeping the test scripts lightweight and maintainable. The project templates provided by the framework helps testers to keep the test cases, keywords, and object repository organized. In addition to generating test scripts with varying keywords automatically, Katalon Studio enables testers to write advanced test scripts through an IDE. The QA professionals will use Katalon Studio to write and execute test scripts without putting extra time and effort.

3) Micro Focus Unified Functional Testing (UFT)

The Windows-based functional and regression testing tool was originally developed by Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). At present, Micro Focus Unified Functional Testing (UFT) is used widely by testing professionals for evaluating web applications, mobile apps, APIs and packaged applications. UFT accelerates software testing by supporting major web browsers and mobile platforms, along with widely used technologies like Java, Microsoft .NET, SAP, and Oracle. Also, it enables testers to write the test cases once and run the same test across multiple web browsers. Likewise, the testing professionals can also use UFT to test mobile apps with real mobile devices. UFT even facilitate collaboration between members of a distributed software testing team.

4) TestComplete

TestComplete is a commercial automated UI testing tool. In addition to supporting multiple scripting languages, it also allows testers to record automated tests. It further facilitates cross-browser testing by allowing testers to record the automated tests on a browser and then execute the same automated test across multiple browsers. The robust tools provided by TestComplete further helps testing professionals to perform regression testing, maintain test scripts, facilitate continuous integration, and implement data-driven testing. The testers can further monitor and track test progress through a single interface.

5) Watir

Watir is almost synonymous with Ruby web applications QA testing. It is actually a collection of Ruby libraries to automate web browsers. While testing Ruby web applications, QA testers can use Watir to interact with the web browser just like real users – clicking on links, validating input and filling out forms. The open source testing tool further simplifies cross-browser testing by supporting a number of widely used web browsers. The developers can further perform data-driven testing by integrating Watir with a number of software testing tools for Ruby – Cucumber, RSpec and Test/Unit.

6) TestingWhiz

TestingWhiz is designed as a codeless automation testing tool. The QA professionals use the commercial automation testing tool to evaluate web applications, mobile apps, databases, API, cloud, and web services. TestingWhiz further provides a number of solutions for automating web application testing, regression testing, cross-browser testing, database testing, mobile app testing, and web services testing. In addition to providing a record-and-playback test automation tool, TestingWhiz further enables QA testing professionals to run a number of built-in commands. The testers even have option to integrate TestingWhiz with several widely used test management and bug tracking tools.

7) Rational Functional Tester

IBM has developed the automated functional and regression testing tool. The tools provided by Rational Functional Tester (RFT) enable testing professions to automate functional, regression, GUI, and data-driven testing. At the same time, RFT simplifies software testing by supporting a wide range of technologies – Java, Microsoft .NET, SAP, Adobe Flex, AJAX, Adobe PDF documents and PowerBuilder. It further allows testers to record user actions through a recorder and provides a number of options to customize the recorded tests. The testers have option to perform the same test actions with varying data sets. They can even integrate RTF with other test automation frameworks and tools.

8) Ranorex Studio

The tools provided by the commercial test automation framework makes it easier for QA professionals to test desktop, web, and mobile applications. The advanced GUI recognition capability of Ranorex Studio further enables testers to record tests by following some simple steps. Ranorex further reduces testing time significantly by allowing testers to reuse both code and action modules across multiple test cases. Also, the bug tracking feature of the test automation tool helps QA professionals to detect bugs in the code early and quickly. At the same time, the QA professionals can also integrate Ranorex Studio with several third-party continuous integration systems and test management tools.

9) Telerik Progress Test Studio

The Windows-based test automation solution provides features and tools to accelerate testing of desktop, web, and mobile applications. The testing professionals can even use the commercial automation testing tool to perform functional testing, performance testing, load testing, and API testing. In addition to providing a point-and-click recorder, Progressive Test Studio further allows testers to write test scripts in robust programming languages like C# and VB.NET. It facilitates seamless collaboration between programmers and testers by storing all test elements in a centralized location and supporting continuous integration with source control.

10) Tricentis Tosca

The modern automation testing tool is designed based on agile methodology and DevOps principles. In addition to facilitating continuous testing, Tricentis Tosca also overcomes important shortcomings of conventional software testing tools. Its model-based test architecture further help testers to maintain and reuse test scripts without putting extra time and effort. In addition to simplifying mobile, API, exploratory testing and cross-browser testing, Tosca supports emerging technologies like big data and robotics. It further improves quality of test reports by including dashboards, analytics, and risk analysis.

Software applications are becoming more complicated and demanding with each passing day. So the enterprises will have to invest more time and energy in automation testing tools to evaluate software applications. The testing professionals have to evaluate various automation testing tools based on precise needs. Hence, the choice of automation testing tools will differ from one QA professional to another in 2018. Many organizations do not have the resources and bandwidth for software testing. They should outsource software QA testing and focus on their core capabilities.