Following is the list of the most popular and the most preferred best open source mobile test automation tools.
- Appium – A widely recognized open source tool that lets automate all forms of applications – native, hybrid and mobile web. Appium offers support for Android and iOS platforms alike. Some of the benefits that Appium offers are –
- Offers support for multiple languages.
- Provides cross platform script development.
- Has a very large community support center.
- Has the feature of script recording in Mac PC’s.
- The ‘Inspector’ tool lets us extract identifiers.
- Appium server desktop application offers support for ‘Selendroid’.
- Offers support for frameworks like UI Automation for iOS, Selendroid for android.
- Real mobile devices and emulators are supported by Appium framework.
- Calabash (Android and iOS) – An open source platform which integrates iOS and Android libraries separately. Calabash offers a cross platform framework that enables a user to analyse the behaviour of an app in English language.
Advantages of Calabash:- English like statements make it easier for the user of the tool to understand the underlying meaning in a better way.
- Support for user actions like touch, swipe, pinch, rotate and tap.
- Same code can be used for android as well as iOS.
- Frank (iOS) – Using Frank one can write test scenarios in English language using Cucumber. Frank facilitates writing of structured acceptance tests and requirements and execute them against the iOS application. Frank consists of “app inspector” that can fetch detailed information about the running app.
Advantages:- Frank allows writing tests in English language with the help of Cucumber framework.
- Frank integrates a live inspection tool named “Symbiote”.
- When the team has an experience on web automation framework with selenium and cucumber, this tool is definitely the target choice.
- Frank has an active community support.
- A library support that is expandable in nature.
- MonkeyTalk (Android and iOS) – This tool automates functional interactive tests for devices. With MonkeyTalk we can perform smoke tests, data driven tests for native, hybrid and web applications.
- iOS UI Automation – It lets us automate user interface tests for iOS apps. The script is in JavaScript that tells the app as what needs to be done.
- Robotium (Android) – Offers full support for native and hybrid apps. Robotium allows writing black-box UI tests which is quite powerful and robust in nature. With robotium we can write function and user acceptance test scenarios for different Android devices.
Advantages:- Robotium is available for individuals and enterprise users.
- It has complete support for activities, dialogs, toasts, menus and context menus.
- Robotium is a black box testing tool that automates user interactions such as touch, click, text entry etc.
- Robotium is developed in Java and based on Junit test framework.
- iOS-Driver (iOS) – iOS driver lets us automate any native, hybrid or mobile web application using Selenium (WebDriver API). iOS-driver integrates Selenium Grid that facilitates reuse of our existing web automation infrastructure which includes utility and helper classes.
- UI Automator (android) – This tool lets us test the user interface by creating functional UI test cases. One may find UI automator API within UI Automator.jar file. UI automator is a testing framework which provides a set of API’s for interactions on user apps and system apps. Some of the tasks that can be tested using UI automator are open settings menu or app launcher in a test device. Some of the advantages of this tool are:
- Viewer inspects layout hierarchy.
- API’s that supports cross-app UI testing are available.
- KeepItFunctional (iOS) – It facilitates easier automation of iOS apps by integrating an amazing feature to aid people with visual disabilities.
- Selendroid (Android) – An automation framework for Android native and hybrid applications. Selendroid tests use Selenium Web Driver client API allowing full integration with existing Selenium frameworks.
- EarlGrey – It is an iOS automation test framework for testing UI of any application. EarlGrey integrates Xcode’s test navigator to enable running test directly from Xcode or command line.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, when it comes to finding the best mobile test automation tools, it is crucial to consider factors such as ease of use, flexibility, robustness, and compatibility with various platforms. By leveraging the right automation tool, businesses can streamline their testing processes, improve efficiency, and ensure the delivery of high-quality mobile applications. It is recommended to thoroughly evaluate different options based on specific requirements and choose the tool that best aligns with the organization’s testing goals and objectives.
With the right mobile test automation tool in place, companies can save time, reduce manual efforts, and enhance overall software testing practices, ultimately leading to better user experiences and increased customer satisfaction.