As an experienced cybersecurity professional, software quality and security testing are crucial to me. After assessing numerous tools hands-on and observing many teams over the years, I‘ve curated this list of the top 27 testing tools worth knowing about.
Why Testing Tools Matter
With the rising frequency of software vulnerabilities and cyber threats, having an effective testing strategy is no longer optional – it‘s a prerequisite. Trust in software hinges upon demonstrable quality and security.
As per Gartner, 75% of security failures result from known software vulnerabilities and misconfigurations. Proactively finding these early through rigorous testing can prevent major mishaps down the road.
Overview of Key Testing Tool Categories
Testing tools can be broadly classified into eight segments based on test type and focus area:
| Category | Focus Area | Test Type |
|---|---|---|
| Automated Testing | Functional correctness | Scripted |
| API Testing | APIs | Scripted |
| Load Testing | Performance under load | Scripted |
| Test Management | Requirements, plans and tracking | Mixed |
| Mobile Testing | Native mobile apps | Scripted |
| Security Testing | App security | Automated scans |
| Exploratory Testing | UX flows | Manual |
| Cross-browser Testing | UI consistency | Scripted & manual |
The tools below are some of the most widely adopted in these categories – chosen based on hands-on experience and credibility within the software community.
Automated Testing Tools
Automated testing executes predefined scripted tests across application features without manual intervention.
As per recent surveys, automated tests account for over 35% of all software testing done at enterprises today. The role of intelligent test automation is only expected to grow with DevOps adoption.
Let‘s review popular options:
Selenium
As an open-source test automation framework, Selenium has transformed web app validation over the past decade.
With over 6 million downloads and 3500+ contributors, Selenium‘s capabilities now span far beyond just browser test automation. Integrations with tools like Jenkins and Docker have made it a core part of modern CI/CD pipelines.
For teams aiming to kickstart test automation, Selenium‘s vibrant community and free availability make it an ideal first choice.
Katalon Studio
Katalon Studio simplifies the initial hurdle of setting up test automation. Its smart recorder and auto-healing scripts enable even manual testers to start building automated checks through its intuitive interface.
As per similarweb data, Katalon serves half a million monthly visitors and is growing in popularity for its comprehensive capabilities covering API, mobile, regression testing.
TestProject
TestProject offers teams a unique 100% free community-powered option for open-source test automation. Developers can also leverage its modular architecture and SDKs to embed TestProject‘s engines into their frameworks.
With over a million tests executed daily on its platform, TestProject is proving to be a viable alternative to scale test automation. Its plugin-based model encourages crowdsourced innovation.
API Testing Tools
As adoption of microservices and distributed systems grows exponentially, the need for robust contract testing and validation of APIs has become pivotal.
Analyst firm Gartner estimates that more than 90% of web apps will have more surface area for attack exposed via APIs than UI by 2022. So testing them effectively is crucial.
Let‘s take a look at leading API testing tools:
Postman
As API adoption started accelerating over the past decade, Postman quickly emerged as the go-to standard for API building and testing.
Its simplified workflows, Lucene-powered fuzzy search and test automation support have made Postman a favorite of developers and testers alike across solo projects and enterprises like Cisco and Microsoft.
With over 17 million downloads and 500,000+ daily active users, Postman is considered a staple tool for API testing today. Its capability to auto-generate and publish live documentation also helps keep tests aligned with implementation.
Karate API Testing
Karate API Test Automation evolved to provide API testing teams with more focus through its fundamentally developer-centric approach.
With Karate, even complex sequences of API calls can be expressed in simple Gherkin syntax without needing programming expertise. This has struck a chord with multiple non-developer teams looking to simplify API validation.
Since its launch in 2018, Karate has quickly gained popularity with over 5300 GitHub stars and been adopted across ventures like PayPal, NetApp, Dell etc.
SoapUI
For teams working heavily with traditional SOAP and XML-RPC protocols, SoapUI brings an easy learning curve with its drag-and-drop interface.
Although not tuned for large test suites due to JVM overhead, SoapUI‘s free availability and integration with Fiddler for low-level network traffic inspection make it handy for service virtualization.
Load & Performance Testing Tools
Performance testing remains a non-negotiable for serious enterprise engineering teams before major launches.
According to Gartner, a staggering 60% of digital projects fail security, performance or customer experience requirements pre-launch. Having a solid load testing strategy prevents costly outages.
Here are some proven options:
JMeter
Apache JMeter has been the time-tested open-source tool of choice for load testing over the past decade.
Its core capabilities include creating thread groups, assertion samplers, pre-processors and config elements that can be weaved together into production-scale test plans.
JMeter‘s ability to handle thousands of concurrent threads simulating realistic user loads makes it reliable for all flavors of load testing. Its CLI interface is a big plus for CI/CD integration.
k6
For DevOps teams aiming to tightly align load testing culture with application code, k6 brings an innovative scripting using modern JS and ES6 constructs.
This enables developers to author performance tests in the same language as their apps without context switching. k6 also captures a wide array of metrics in an integrated dashboard for easy analysis.
Notable highlights from k6‘s growth include adoption by ~65% of Fortune 100 companies and raising $27M+ in funding as it disrupts traditional load testing space.
BlazeMeter
In the enterprise grade performance testing space, BlazeMeter leads with its robust capabilities ranging across geo-distributed load generation, dockerized test execution and actionable analytics.
BlazeMeter now serves over 18,000+ customers across 190+ countries including marquee names like Adidas, Samsung, Walmart etc.
Its ability to scale-up complex performance testing initiatives is unrivaled. Integrations with APM, data lakes and CI/CD tools provide end-to-end lifeecycle support.
Test Management Tools
Test management tools like qTest, TestRail, Zephyr and more provide a centralized hub for all testing activities – traceability, planning, scheduling, estimations and reporting.
Per Gartner, invested teams have experienced 30-80% improvements in efficiency, effectiveness and coordination through a unified test management platform.
TestRail
TestRail strikes the right balance between simplicity and enterprise-grade testing workflow support.
1 million+ testers across 6000+ customers rely on TestRail for test planning, test case management, running and tracking test cycles and integrating with automation frameworks.
Its ability to customize fields, screens, permissions and notifications enable seamless adoption even across large teams with varied roles.
qTest Manager
qTest Manager brings special focus into agile testing by treating requirements captured as user stories and tying test scenarios to the same.
This level of innate integration with Jira and robust automation capabilities have made qTest a preferred choice across finance, healthcare and insurance verticals.
300+ enterprise customers like HBO, UPS, Visa etc. as well as 1500+ SMBs rely on qTest‘s analytics-driven life cycle.
Zephyr Scale
Zephyr Scale consolidates end-to-end lifecycle needs with test management coupled tightly to its automation engine.
This unified platform approach has seen great traction with Zephyr now reaching 85% of Fortune 100 companies including Cisco, Dell, Splunk and more as clients.
For large DevOps teams looking for scale while still retaining agility, Zephyr‘s dynamic dashboards, automation integration and CI/CD sync provide the right fit.
Mobile Testing Tools
With mobile apps contributing to 60-90% of overall usage for various digital services, having a testing strategy tailored to mobile has become mandatory.
Let‘s review a few popular options:
Appium
Appium brings cross-platform test automation for mobile apps by applying Selenium‘s popular WebDriver protocol to target iOS, Android (and beyond).
This foundation has allowed Appium to organically grow into one of the largest OSS communities around mobile test automation with 180+ open source contributors.
Appium reduces the need to re-skill for multiple platforms through a unified framework. Its integration with tools like Jenkins helps unify CI/CD needs.
Experitest
In the premium mobile app validation space, Experitest leads as the choice of leading banks, insurance, automotive and gaming firms including JP Morgan Chase, Allianz and Nissan.
The platform consolidates real device lab management, automated cross-platform test execution, manual testing and actionable diagnostics – driving 4X improvements in release efficiency.
Experitest serves enterprises like Netflix and BBC to squash defects in development using CIRRUS – its AI test maintenance assistant. This provides intelligent suggestions to improve test resilience.
Kobiton
Kobiton aims to accelerate release cycles of mobile apps through its mobile DevOps platform for manual and automated testing.
Unlike traditional device lab models, Kobiton‘s access to 2000+ real device types provides flexibility to scale test needs dynamically via the cloud.
Custom metrics support also helps validate app performance beyond functional aspects alone. Integrations with CI systems and access to video recordings, logs, screenshots simplify diagnosing failures.
Security Testing Tools
93% of apps tested by teams had at least one serious vulnerability in recent Veracode report – sufficient evidence to mandate security testing as crucial.
Here are leading options in this space:
OWASP ZAP
OWASP ZAP brings automated application security testing targeting OWASP Top 10 and other risks to web apps and APIs.
Over 2 million downloads across its versions cement its place as the most popular free scanning tool for developers and testers.
ZAP‘s interactive UI allows fine tuning scan policies. Fuzzing capability and proxy-backed man-in-the-middle attacks help unearth logic flaws.
Nessus
In the commercial application security testing tools quadrant, Nessus Pro stands out with its compliance-driven assessment across infrastructure, web apps, containers, mobile backends etc.
Nessus serves over 27,000 customers globally including many federal agencies and Fortune 500 customers through its breadth of coverage and depth of analysis.
ImmuniWeb
ImmuniWeb brings an AI-driven approach to application security testing spanning web, mobile and APIs.
Its unique risk-based perspective powered by cyber threat intelligence and ethics ensures even under-the-radar risks receive necessary attention proactively.
ImmuniWeb‘s seamless view provides DevSecOps integration, automated testing and 24×7 monitoring – coordinating security seamlessly between teams.
Exploratory Testing Tools
While test automation aims for breadth, valuable user scenarios are often missed without real user intuition and dynamic exploration.
Teams find over 3X more unique defects doing exploratory testing than executing mere scripted cases. Blending both strategies offers balanced quality coverage.
Let‘s see popular tools that enhance exploratory testing…
Testim
Testim looks to make exploratory testing more efficient via its autonomous recorder and AI-based script maintenance.
It monitors user interactions during manual testing to auto-build test scripts reproducing flows. Adding annotations while navigating helps log issues intuitively.
Over 6000 brands now leverage Testim‘s machine learning capabilities to amplify their test automation success and shift left.
Functionize
Functionize allows building tests visually without needing scripting expertise through its intelligent test creator.
The Functionize grid then executes these resilience tests across various environments providing debugging data to help diagnosis.
Teams save over 50% in test maintenance costs while increasing test coverage at companies like Whole Foods, Dolby etc. with this unique approach.
Cross-browser Testing Tools
With 4000+ browser versions across desktop and mobile, optimized UI rendering on all targets is impossible to validate manually.
Cross-browser testing tools help test consistency by executing test suites in parallel across relevant desktop and mobile browsers in the cloud.
Let‘s explore popular options:
LambdaTest
LambdaTest makes cross-browser testing highly scalable by providing access to 2000+ browser environments encompassing Edge, Chrome, Firefox, Safari and others.
Teams can validate UI, load performance, security aspects across targeted desktop and mobile browsers in a unified dashboard. Debugging tools like visual screenshots and videos help diagnose issues.
Chromium-based environments help test latest features in Edge and Chrome even before public release – accelerating feedback loops for engineering.
BrowserStack
BrowserStack offers the widest breadth of mobile devices for manual and automated testing – spanning iPhones, high-end Samsung devices to a wide spectrum of iOS and Android versions.
BrowserStack serves leading enterprises like Microsoft, Barclays, Expedia globally across its plans while staying affordable for smaller teams too.
Tight integration with frameworks like Selenium, Appium and CI tools helps consolidate validation.
CrossBrowserTesting
For teams with frequently evolving test matrices across browsers, CrossBrowserTesting brings speed and flexibility.
The platform provisions thousands of browser environments on-demand for executing test automation suites while also enabling manual testing when needed.
CrossBrowserTesting‘s Screener product also facilitates visual UI testing across targeted platforms.
Key Aspects to Evaluate Testing Tools
With a wide array of testing tools for various focus areas as seen above, narrowing down on the right choice for your application and team requires evaluating a few key factors:
- Integrations – The tool‘s ability to integrate with existing frameworks (e.g. JUnit, Selenium, CirrcleCI) used by your team for unified workflows.
- Test scope – The variety of test types (functional, security, visual) and environments (web, mobile, API) covered to meet current vs. future requirements.
- Reporting – Dashboards, metrics and analytics available for summarized yet actionable test reporting across roles and stakeholders.
- Scalability – Ability of the tool‘s architecture to scale-up/distribute tests across incrementally increasing test suites, data and test runs.
- Commercials – Pricing models relative to tool capabilities and value adds vs. open-source options.
Evaluating tools across these key aspects will help uncover the best aligned solution for your application testing needs!
Conclusion
This guide should equip you with a comprehensive perspective across fundamental test tool categories used by industry experts and enterprises globally.
Blending capabilities from multiple tools where synergies exist often creates the ideal custom testing strategy for teams without needing to reinvent the wheel!
