Selenium Alternatives for Web Test Automation

Liviu Lupei

Founder & Solutions Architect, Endtest · April 1, 2024

Selenium WebDriver has been around for a number of years.

Like it or not, it has been the default option for web test automation.

Let's see what the alternatives are.

1. Endtest

Endtest is a cloud platform where you can create, manage, and execute automated tests.

It's using webdrivers to send commands to the browsers, and it's significantly faster than Selenium.

A major advantage is that it provides all the additional components required for managing test automation, such as a cross-browser cloud grid and features for collaboration and orchestration.

Features:

• ✅ Works with Chrome
• ✅ Works with Firefox
• ✅ Works with Safari
• ✅ Works with Edge
• ✅ Works with Internet Explorer 11
• ✅ Works with mobile browsers
• ✅ Supports testing in iframes
• ✅ Supports testing in multiple browser tabs
• ✅ Multiple domains can be tested in same test
• ✅ Supports testing in Shadow DOM
• ✅ Advanced actions such as Drag and Drop
• ✅ Functionality to test API requests

That's why Endtest is a great option for automated e2e testing.

2. Playwright

Playwright is a Node.js library developed by Microsoft.

It can be used to automate Chromium-based browsers and Firefox.

Currently, there is no clear advantage in using Playwright over Selenium.

Features:

• ✅ Works with Chrome
• ✅ Works with Firefox
• ⬜ Works with Safari
• ✅ Works with Edge
• ⬜ Works with Internet Explorer 11
• ⬜ Works with mobile browsers
• ✅ Supports testing in iframes
• ✅ Supports testing in multiple browser tabs
• ✅ Multiple domains can be tested in same test
• ✅ Supports testing in Shadow DOM
• ✅ Advanced actions such as Drag and Drop
• ✅ Functionality to test API requests

3. Puppeteer

Puppeteer is a Node.js library developed by Google.

It can be used to automate Chromium-based browsers and it also offers beta support for Firefox.

Incredibly similar to Playwright, even when comparing the speed of execution.

Features:

• ✅ Works with Chrome
• ✅ Works with Firefox
• ⬜ Works with Safari
• ✅ Works with Edge
• ⬜ Works with Internet Explorer 11
• ⬜ Works with mobile browsers
• ✅ Supports testing in iframes
• ✅ Supports testing in multiple browser tabs
• ✅ Multiple domains can be tested in same test
• ✅ Supports testing in Shadow DOM
• ✅ Advanced actions such as Drag and Drop
• ✅ Functionality to test API requests

4. Cypress

Cypress is a wrapper around Mocha that allows you to interact with elements on a web page.

Due to the severe limitations of their technology, it has limited cross-browser support and limited functionalities.

For example, it cannot be used to test in multiple browser tabs.

And the support for iframes seems to be extremely flaky.

Features:

• ✅ Works with Chrome
• ✅ Works with Firefox
• ⬜ Works with Safari
• ✅ Works with Edge
• ⬜ Works with Internet Explorer 11
• ⬜ Works with mobile browsers
• ⬜ Supports testing in iframes
• ⬜ Supports testing in multiple browser tabs
• ⬜ Multiple domains can be tested in same test
• ⬜ Supports testing in Shadow DOM
• ✅ Advanced actions such as Drag and Drop
• ⬜ Functionality to test API requests

5. Watir

Watir is an open-source Ruby library.

It can be described as a BDD wrapper around Selenium.

The main advantage is the API is a bit easier to use, adding a layer of simplicity over the heavy Selenium API.

The main disadvantage of using Watir is that it's less popular than Selenium and that makes finding answers for your questions a bit more difficult.

Features:

• ✅ Works with Chrome
• ✅ Works with Firefox
• ✅ Works with Safari
• ✅ Works with Edge
• ⬜ Works with Internet Explorer 11
• ⬜ Works with mobile browsers
• ✅ Supports testing in iframes
• ✅ Supports testing in multiple browser tabs
• ✅ Multiple domains can be tested in same test
• ⬜ Supports testing in Shadow DOM
• ⬜ Advanced actions such as Drag and Drop
• ⬜ Functionality to test API requests