12 Best Mobile Testing Tools (2023 edition)
In the rapidly evolving world of mobile applications, delivering a flawless user experience is paramount. Smartphone penetration in the world today is 6.92 Billion, which translates to 86.29% of the world's population owning a smartphone. This booming digital shift will soar by a staggering 7.5 billion by 2026.
As the use of mobile devices continues to grow exponentially, the need for mobile testing tools also becomes increasingly important.
To help you navigate the ever-expanding landscape, we present to you the 12 best mobile testing tools for 2023. These cutting-edge solutions will empower you to create high-performing mobile apps and exceed user expectations.
But first, let's find out what is mobile app testing?
What is Mobile App Testing?
As the term deciphers, Mobile app testing evaluates and validates mobile applications to ensure they meet quality standards. It involves testing the app's functionality, usability, performance, compatibility, and security across different devices and platforms.
Apparently, mobile app testing is crucial to deliver a high-quality app, providing an exceptional user experience, maintaining brand reputation, ensuring compatibility, enhancing security, and optimizing cost and time efficiency.
What Makes a Great Mobile App Testing Tool - Key Considerations?
A package of salient features and key factors that you must consider while choosing the best mobile app testing tool is listed down:
- Platform Compatibility: Ensure the tool supports the platforms you intend to test, such as iOS and Android, and offers comprehensive coverage across different versions and devices.
- Testing Types: Look for tools or frameworks that support a wide range of testing types, including functional testing, usability testing, performance testing, compatibility testing, security testing, and localization testing, to cater to your specific testing requirements.
- Automation Capabilities: Assess the tool’s automation features, such as the ability to create and execute automated test scripts, support for popular programming languages, ease of script maintenance, and integration with continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines.
- Device and Emulator Support: Consider whether the tool provides access to real devices or emulators/simulators for testing. Real device testing is preferable for accurate results, but emulators can be helpful for quick testing iterations and cost savings.
- Test Reporting and Analytics: Look for tools that offer comprehensive test reporting capabilities, including detailed logs, screenshots, and performance metrics. Analytics features can provide valuable insights into test results, test coverage, and app performance.
- Scalability: Assess whether the tool can handle your current and future testing needs as your app grows, accommodating a more extensive user base and complex features.
- Ease of Use: Look for tools with an intuitive user interface, easy setup, and a low learning curve to enable efficient adoption and usage by your team.
List of The Top 12 Mobile Testing Tools
1. ACCELQ
ACCELQ is the only Mobile automation testing tool in the market shouldering a holistic view of codeless philosophy. In the storm of codeless mobile testing tools that seek a narrow view of text complexity and oversimplification, ACCELQ empowers discipline and flexibility. It is a Forrester recognised mobile test automation AI Powered cloud platform that automates and executes tests across iOS & Android devices.
Key Highlights:
- Design, develop and execute mobile test automation with zero setups and no coding.
- Get Mobile, Web, API, backend, and full stack automation in the same unified flow.
- Integrated Device Cloud Labs for cross-device testing in Plug & Play model.
- Automation flow recorder, coupled with powerful Natural Language no-code editor.
- Powered with robust and sustainable Automation that’s significantly low on maintenance.
- Design-first approach with inbuilt modularity; no need for custom frameworks.
- You can find extensive documentation, tutorials, and resources to help you start with ACCELQ.
Pricing: Enterprise
Supported Platforms: Web on Mobile, Native iOS, Native Android , Hybrid Apps.
Website: https://www.accelq.com/
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2. Appium
Appium is an open-source mobile testing tool popular among mobile app developers and testers. It is impressive to note that Appium is cross-platform. This leverages you to create test cases against multiple platforms (iOS, Android, Windows) using the same API. In addition, it inherits the popularity of Selenium and a notable mobile test automation framework.
Key Highlights
- Allows writing tests using various programming languages, including Java, Python, and Ruby.
- Appium supports cross-platform mobile application testing, allowing you to write tests using a single codebase that can be executed on multiple platforms.
- Provides a WebDriver interface to interact with mobile apps.
- Easily adaptable with Selenium experience.
- Enables incorporating mobile app testing into your existing CI/CD pipelines for seamless automation.
Pricing: Open Source
Supported Platforms: iOS, Android, Windows, and Linux
Website: https://appium.io/
3. Espresso
Espresso grabs a spot when it comes to a popular open-source testing framework specifically designed for automating the testing of Android applications. Developed by Google, Espresso provides a simple and efficient way to write UI tests for Android apps, enabling developers and QA teams to ensure the quality and reliability of their applications.
Key Highlights
- Offers a simple and intuitive API.
- Focuses on UI interaction testing, allowing developers to simulate user actions like button clicks, text input, and swipes.
- Supports Java and JUnit for native applications
- Seamlessly integrates with Android Studio, Google’s official integrated development environment (IDE) for Android app development.
Pricing: Open Source
Supported Platforms: Android
Website: https://developer.android.com/training/testing/espresso
4. Selendroid
Selendroid is a mobile test automation framework that focuses on automating the UI of Android native, hybrid applications and mobile web applications. It leverages the Selenium 2 client API to write tests and interact with the user interface of these applications.
Key Highlights
- Provides flexible locator strategies to identify and interact with UI elements.
- It incorporates a built-in test server, which allows seamless communication between the automation framework and the target app.
- Capable of Automating tests without switching to a different AUT.
- Allows Test execution in parallel on multiple devices or emulators, reducing time.
5. MonkeyTalk
MonkeyTalk is a mobile app testing tool that aims to simplify automated testing for mobile applications. It provides a record-and-playback functionality, making it easier for testers to create test scripts without extensive coding knowledge.
Key Highlights
- Offers a cross platform support.
- Features Interactive script editing to modify and enhance the recorded scripts to meet specific testing requirements.
- Ensures data-driven testing facilitating testers to parameterize their test scripts by incorporating external data sources
- Easier integration with various test management tools.
Pricing: Open Source
Supported Platforms: Native, Mobile Web, and Hybrid iOS and Android Apps.
Website: https://gorillalogic.com/
6. Robotium
When looking for a mobile testing tool that provides a simple yet robust way to write automated UI tests for Android apps, Robotium fits in that prospect. It allows developers and QA teams to ensure the quality and reliability of their applications.
Key Highlights
- Offers an intuitive and easy-to-use API that simplifies test development.
- Allows for comprehensive testing of UI components and user flows.
- Compatible with various Android versions.
- Provides the creation of complex test scenarios by combining multiple actions and assertions.
Pricing: Open Source
Supported Platforms: Android v1.6+ applications, both native and hybrid.
7. XCUI Test
XCUI Test is Apple's native testing framework for automating the testing of iOS applications. It offers a range of features to ensure top-notch quality and reliability. It is tailored for testing iOS applications, allowing developers to write tests using Swift or Objective-C.
Key Highlights
- Allows interaction with other apps installed on the device, enabling end-to-end testing scenarios involving multiple apps.
- Tightly integrated with Xcode, Apple’s development environment.
- Integrates seamlessly with CI systems like Xcode Server and Jenkins.
Pricing: Open Source
Supported Platforms: iOS Apps
8. Robot Framework
This dynamic and extensible open-source platform revolutionizes how you create and execute tests across multiple platforms. It offers a concise syntax, benefitting non-programmers to effectively create and manage test cases.
Key Highlights
- Easy to understand and maintain test cases, promoting smooth collaboration across the team.
- Provides a modular and extensible architecture for users to create custom libraries and keywords.
- Hosts a rich set of standard and third-party test libraries
- Equipped with Built-in Test Reporting and Logging
9. Xamarin.UITest
Xamarin.UITest is a powerful mobile test automation platform designed specifically for testing mobile applications developed with Xamarin. Its seamless and efficient way of automating UI tests for iOS and Android platforms leverages developers with top-notch quality and reliability of their Xamarin-based mobile apps.
Key Highlights
- Ensures cross-platform testing saves time and effort.
- Easy for developers already familiar with C# and NUnit to write and maintain tests.
- Provides a rich set of APIs and assertions to perform robust UI testing.
- Offers detailed test reports, including test results, logs, screenshots, and performance metrics.
Pricing: Open Source
Supported Platforms: iOS & Android
Website: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/appcenter/test-cloud/frameworks/uitest/
10. Earl Grey
Earl Grey is a versatile iOS UI mobile testing tool enabling you to write concise tests. This framework offers incredible access to enhanced synchronization features that mimic fundamental user interactions, enabling thorough validation of the app's behavior and functionality. It automatically synchronizes with the UI, network requests, and various queues; while allowing manually implemented customized timings.
Key Highlights
- Integrates well with popular Continuous Integration systems
- Supports parallel test execution, allowing multiple tests to run simultaneously.
- Integrates with Xcode, the primary development environment for iOS apps
Pricing: Open Source
Supported Platforms: Native iOS Apps
Website: https://github.com/google/EarlGrey
11. UI Automator
UI Automator by Google enables developers to automate user interface (UI) tests for Android applications. It is suitable for cross-app functional UI testing across systems and installed apps.
Key Highlights
- Well-suited for writing opaque box-style automated tests
- Compatible with Android devices running Android 4.1 (API level 16) or higher
- Understands the app’s UI layout and assists in writing more accurate and efficient test scripts.
Pricing: Open Source
Supported Platforms: Android
Website: https://developer.android.com/training/testing/other-components/ui-automator
12. Calabash
Calabash is an Acceptance Testing framework designed to facilitate the creation and execution of tests for both iOS and Android applications. To work with Calabash, the test should be written in Ruby using Cucumber.
When you opt for a mobile testing tool like Calabash, it simplifies testers' tasks in terms of a versatile platform to validate the behavior and functionality of mobile apps.
Key Highlights
- Get interactions from an active Community and Support.
- Extending capabilities with a Rich Ecosystem of Plugins.
- Boosts throughput/ productivity.
Pricing: Open Source
Supported Platforms: iOS, and Android
Which Mobile Testing Tool Would You Choose?
Here's the extensive list of the top 12 mobile application testing tools you can consider to simplify mobile testing. Of course, when looking for the finest framework, you must evaluate various parameters and go on board if a tool checks all the boxes.
But if I have to put my words, ACCELQ is an excellent mobile testing tool due to its codeless automation approach, enabling efficient and accessible test creation and execution. It is one intelligently crafted mobile testing tool that executes across Mobile OS and is agnostic of Development frameworks. Moreover, with low maintenance and no labor of manual testing, it undoubtedly accelerates your mobile testing efforts with brilliance and efficiency.
If you are looking for a one-stop solution that fits into your mobile testing ecosystem gently, consider ACCELQ, which gives a unified view of your Quality Lifecycle. Still in doubt? Try it yourself here!
Pooja Sharma
Content Manager at ACCELQ
Pooja is a content manager at ACCELQ. She’s obsessed with technology, plants, and writing, well may not be in the same order. When she’s not working, she’s chasing her five-year-old.
