Top Open Source Test Automation Frameworks

Test automation services is very essential for a successful and on–time automation testing process. 

These frameworks help the testing team to reduce the cost and testing efforts by providing high RoI on the testing initiatives.

The idea of this blog is to walk you through the top open source test automation frameworks that are available in the market.

Every test automation framework has its own advantage and disadvantage. Let’s explore the list

Most commonly used open-source test automation frameworks are listed below :

Selenium 4.0

Selenium is, without a doubt, one of the best open source research tools available today. Selenium is an excellent automation testing platform for mobile apps since it is compatible with a wide range of programming languages, testing platforms, browsers, and operating systems.

It facilitates the development of highly successful test scripts for regression testing, exploratory testing, and bug replication.

Selenium is the most widely used open source web application test automation platform. Selenium is the foundation for a large number of other research instruments.

Pros:

• Supports a wide variety of languages, including C#, Java, Python, PHP, Ruby, and others; cross-platform and cross-browser
• To meet everyone’s needs and specifications, it’s highly extendable across a range of libraries and APIs.
• Flexible and easy to maintain
• Possibility of writing more complex test scripts to reach varying levels of complexity
• One of the most extensive support networks available
• Provides a test authoring replay tool (Selenium IDE) without the need to learn a scripting language.

Appium

Appium is a tool for testing mobile apps. It’s built with the idea that you shouldn’t have to recompile or change your software in any way to test it. You shouldn’t have to run the tests in a particular language or structure.

• Quick to set up
• Cross-platform – the same API can be used to evaluate across different platforms (iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac).
• Code is reused through iOS, Android, and Windows test suites.
• Simulators (iOS) and emulators (Android) are supported
• Native, web, and hybrid applications, as well as desktop apps, are supported.
• Centered on a client/server model
• The user can use any test runner and application they want; the client libraries are HTTP clients that can be mixed into your code, allowing you to handle your test environment however you want.
• You can build element repositories and manage them after changes.

Robot Framework

Robot Framework (RF) is widely used for user acceptance testing or acceptance test-driven development (ATDD).

This mature solution uses keyword driven approach to create easy and readable tests. It is written in Python, but also can run on Jython (Java) and IronPython (.NET) and therefore can be used across platforms (Windows, Linux, or MacOS).

Pros:

• The main advantage of Robot Framework is that it can simplify the test automation process by utilizing the keyword-driven approach
• Has easy to use test data syntax.
• Has a generous network of APIs around it consisting of generic test libraries and tools that can be developed as separate projects.
• The APIs of this framework makes adds extensible quality to the framework.
• Even though the tool is not having a built-in ability, Robot Framework enables to run parallel tests through pabot libraryor Selenium Grid.

 Cons:

• It is not easy to customize HTML reports.

Bottom-line:

This tool is highly recommended due to its keyword driven approach. This quality of the framework makes it compatible with wide range of libraries and extensions.

Only a basic knowledge of Java/Python/C programming language is essential to use the tool efficiently.

Cucumber

Cucumber is an open-source platform that is built on the principle of behavioural guided development, and it allows you to perform automated acceptance testing by running the examples that best explain the application’s actions.

It supports cross-platform operating systems and programming languages such as Ruby, Java, and.NET.

Pros:

• Set up an execution quickly and easily; allows code reuse in tests;
• A single up-to-date document includes both the specification and test documents.
• It may be beneficial to include business stakeholders or other people unfamiliar with testing in the process, as test reports are written in business readable English.
• Functional validation automation in a format that is easily readable and understandable;
• Platform-independent;
• Originally written in Ruby, it was later ported to the Java platform.
• Code can be used with Selenium, Watir, Capybara, and other tools;
• Supports Python, PHP, Perl,.NET, Scala, Groovy, and other programming languages;
• Is concerned with the end-user experience.

JUnit

JUnit is a framework to perform unit testing for Java applications and is used to write and execute repeatable tests. JUnit is a part of XUnit and can support different OS.

Pros:

• Tests are written in pure Java which is known as the leading programming language worldwide.
• Supports test-driven development (TDD).
• Helps to create a discrete unit test case suite.
• JUnit can be integrated seamlessly with other tools and IDEs
• Has history – so it has a large user base that makes it easy to find documentation on it.

Cons:

• The readability score is very less when it comes to non-technical people, since JUnit is constrained by Java conventions.

Bottom-line:

The tool is the best option for performing unit testing for java applications. However, the tool does not support for functional testing or non-Java applications.

NUnit

It is unit-testing framework that can be used for all DotNet based applications. Junit firstly derives NUnit and it is written in C#, and has been wholly redesigned to support .NET applications.

Pros:

• Quick initiation and test execution.
• Comes with assertions and annotations
• Enables parallel testing
• Supports test-driven development (TDD)

Cons:

• Do not support cross platform applications
• Cannot be integrated with Visual Studio and involves more maintenance

Bottom-line:

This tool is a best option for C# unit testing, with a matured history and decent status.

TestNG

TestNG is a dedicated test automation framework for Java based application that is inspired by JUnit and NUnit. It includes improved and new functionalities that covers all the test automation categories such as unit testing, functional test, end-to-end integration testing.

Pros:

• The tool runs in hand with Maven cycle
• Flexible test cases can be created with this tool
• Supports Data Driven testing (DDT)
• Annotations are easy to understand
• Test cases can be grouped easily
• Allows you to create parallel tests

Cons:

• Only supports Java, so you need to have at least a basic knowledge of the Java programming language.
• You have to invest time in framework setup & design.

Bottom-line:

The basic requirement of TestNG is time. One should be willing to invest ample amount of time to set up this framework. After this, the tool can be used efficiently end-to-end test automation.