Applitools vs Selenium: What are the differences?

Key Differences between Applitools and Selenium

1. Integration and Supported Platforms: Applitools offers seamless integration with various test automation frameworks, allowing users to easily incorporate visual testing into their existing workflows. It supports platforms such as Selenium WebDriver, Appium, and more. On the other hand, Selenium is primarily a web automation tool that supports multiple programming languages and browsers, but does not provide built-in visual testing capabilities like Applitools.

2. Visual Testing Capabilities: Applitools specializes in visual testing, providing advanced features like AI-powered visual validations, automated visual testing across different browsers and devices, and sophisticated comparison algorithms for detecting visual differences in UI elements. Selenium, on the other hand, focuses mainly on functional testing and lacks built-in support for visual validations.

3. Cross-Browser and Cross-Device Testing: Applitools enables users to perform visual testing on multiple browsers and devices simultaneously, ensuring consistent UI rendering across different platforms. It provides automated scaling and testing capabilities on various screen resolutions and operating systems. Selenium also supports cross-browser testing but requires additional configuration and setup to achieve similar capabilities as Applitools.

4. Reporting and Test Management: Applitools offers comprehensive reporting and test management capabilities, allowing users to track and manage their visual tests effectively. It provides detailed visual test results, including screenshots, visual diffs, and logs, as well as seamless integration with popular test management tools. Selenium, on the other hand, provides basic test result reporting but lacks built-in test management features offered by Applitools.

5. Image-Based Testing: Applitools utilizes image-based testing, where it captures screenshots of the application under test and compares them against the baseline images. It can accurately detect visual differences, even in dynamic web applications with changing elements. Selenium, on the other hand, relies on DOM-based testing, which compares the HTML structure and properties of web elements, making it less suitable for comprehensive visual testing.

6. Maintenance and Scalability: Applitools reduces maintenance efforts and enhances scalability by automatically maintaining and updating the baseline images, accommodating UI changes without requiring manual interventions. It also offers parallel testing capabilities, enabling faster test execution and scalability. Selenium requires manual maintenance of test scripts and baseline images, making it more time-consuming and less scalable compared to Applitools.

In summary, Applitools provides seamless integration with various test automation frameworks, advanced visual testing capabilities, extensive cross-browser and cross-device testing, comprehensive reporting and test management features, image-based testing for accurate visual validations, and reduced maintenance efforts and enhanced scalability. Selenium, on the other hand, is primarily a functional testing tool with limited visual testing capabilities and requires manual configuration and maintenance for cross-platform testing.