21 Software Testing Tools That Can Aid You in QA

Software testing tools have become intelligent, capable, precise, and highly capable of integrating QA into your SDLC. From defect tracking to test execution and automation of tests. They can help you with a multitude of options when it comes to software testing.

However, you cannot simply deploy a tool into your development pipeline and expect it to deliver great results. Before choosing a tool for your company you need to ask certain questions yourself so that you will have a clear understanding of what you are looking for and to pick one from a bazillion options out there in the market.

There are plenty of free options available at present. But, even if it’s free if it doesn’t fit your requirement the tool will not add any value to your business.

Here are some of the questions you need to consider

• Does it meet your project requirement?
• Consider your existing tool or procedure as your benchmark and then compare
• Do you have test cases that are highly repetitive?
• Does it have cross-browser/cross-platform compatibility?
• Is it easy to operate and maintain?
• Does the price fit your budget?

Let’s have a look at 25 software testing tools in the market so that you get an idea about what they can do?

1) Selenium

Selenium does not require any introduction. A superstar in the software testing tools category

Selenium has the ability to test across multi-platform and browsers. One of the factors that make Selenium famous is that the tool is absolutely free of cost and has the ability to

Components of selenium include

Selenium WebDriver

• Drives the browser natively, by a user or using a remote machine
• Refers to language bindings as well as the implementation of browsers
• Precise and concise programming interface
• Drives browsers effectively

Selenium IDE

• Breakpoints can be easily set
• Pausing on exceptions is an easy task
• No additional set up required
• Can be used to record multiple elements its locator interacts with
• You can use one tase case multiple times
• Has an extensive control flow structure
• The capability of selenium IDE can be extended through plugins

Selenium grid

• Ability to scale up while local execution
• Tests can be run in parallel
• Allows cross-platform testing
• Helps in load balancing

2) Micro Focus

Microfocus is an AI powers test automation tool that works exemplarily on mobile, web, desktop, enterprise app, composite, and mainframe.

Features of Micro Focus include,

• Centralized functional testing
• Helps in streamlining manual and automated testing
• Easy to maintain and operate when it comes to functional testing
• Helps in boosting test coverage
• Has a visual test-driven design that helps in multilayered testing
• Helps in API testing without much coding
• Helps in DevOps approach
• AI helps the tool to create and maintain tests very easily

3) Katalon Studio

Katalon is an end-to-end test automation tool built on top of the famous open-source test automation tool Selenium.

Features of Katalon include

• The automated tests are generated by IDE and that too for all platforms
• Recording UI elements in this tool is a piece of cake which makes the elements highly reusable
• Can be integrated into any production environment with ease
• Maintenance is very less
• The scripting and test execution process is very easy to do
• Quality insights can be built into CI/CD pipeline

4) Appium

Appium is an open-source test automation tool that’s built on the idea that testing native apps should be easy and must not be slowed down by the requirement of an SDK or even recompilation.

Features of Appium include,

• Appium can be used to automate any app despite language and framework
• Apium gives complete access to test code and DB ( database)
• Appium does not require an application course code or library
• Can be used for the test automation of the web. Mobile and native apps
• Appium also allows for the execution of test scripts in parallel to other tests
• Supports languages Ruby, Python, Java, C#, HP, JavaScript with node.js

5) Progress Test Studio

A windows based test automation tool that can be used for functional, performance, and RESTful API testing.

Features of Test Studio include

• Possess a fast recorder and playback option
• Requires very less maintenance
• Can be used for data-driven testing
• Codeless test execution of RESTful API
• CI/CD integration
• Very good dashboard and web-based reports
• Has provisions for dynamic API tests
• Helps in the evaluation of Server performance and stability

6) Tricentis Tosca

Tricentis Tosca is an end to end testing tool that has the ability to accelerate the testing process with the help of a codeless and AI-powered approach

Features of Tricentis Tosca include

• AI in the tool can create a mockup before writing any code so that you can start testing your app from an early stage of development
• Without any information about the technical aspects of the app, you can automate tests
• Helps in risk-based testing so that testing can be done swiftly and effectively
• Virtualization of services helps in accessing services that are hard to access
• Tricentis Tosca can create synthetic, masked, or imported data that can be used for testing
• Multiple tests can be done parallelly
• Codeless API testing

7) Watir

Ruby-based test automation tool that can be used for automating web browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Safari.

• Automated element scrolling
• Has a lot of in-built libraries that help a lot in testing
• Since watir contains selenium aspects it’s very good in testing API
• Has Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) capabilities

8) JIRA

Agile project workflows can be easily customized using JIRA. Let’s have a look at it features

• Iterative and incremental value can be fastly delivered with the help of customizable scrum boards
• Dependencies across teams and projects can be easily tracked
• A built-in road mapping software helps the team to be focused on target
• Kanban board in JIRA gives complete visibility and a heads up regarding what’s next
• With Zephyr integration, you can easily create and track tests in JIRA
• With ZAPI integration test automation can be easily carried out
• Jira also has Go2Group SynapseRT: integration that helps in easy test management and requirement based testing

9) Testpad

An easy-to-use test plan creation tool that can also help you in the manual form of testing.

Features of Testpad include

• Keyword-driven interface
• Checklists that have syntax highlighting added to it
• New tests can be added while executing existing ones
• Mind mapping features
• Email invitation to add new testers
• Drag n drop functionality for adding proofs
• Helps in creating your own test plan templates
• Secured AWS hosting

10) PractiTest

PractiTest is en end to end test management platform that can be used for manual, exploratory, and automation tests.

Features of PractiTest include

• Test elements can be reused to save time
• Test execution can be seen in real-time
• Can be easily connected with your existing testing tool
• Reusable test elements can be modified upon wish before execution

11) TestRail

TestRail is suitable for teams of varied sizes and can be run locally or on cloud architecture. With the help of TestRail you can run, capture and create tests just like that

Feature of TestRail includes

• Reusable test cases can be stored in folders
• Tests can be linked with requirements and defects in other JIRA, GITHUB, etc. so that traceability reports can be generated swiftly and the status of the tests can be seen in realtime by other team members
• Test related activities and metrics can be stored in one platform
• Provision to integrate with any test automation framework
• Can be integrated with Jira

12) XRAY

Xray is a great aid in manual testing and test automation. The tool can be integrated with Jira so that its full potential can be unraveled.

Features of Xray include

• Native quality management solution
• Detailed traceability report
• What’s happening in your agile boards can be clearly seen with the help of Xray
• Intuitive dashboard
• Easy to assess product backlog items so that risk can be assessed better

13) Zed Attack Proxy (ZAP)

ZAP is created by OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project). It’s an open-source tool and has the ability to detect the vulnerabilities of web applications.

Features of Zed Attack Proxy (ZAP) include

• AJAX spidering to detect AJAX requests on AJAX rich web apps
• JENKINS plugin in Zed Attack Proxy (ZAP) helps in incorporating security into CI/CD pipeline
• Ability to FUZZ application with payloads
• Analyzing and tampering with web socket is a piece of cake with Zed Attack Proxy (ZAP)
• Security tests can be automated with the help of scripts
• Scan policy can be devised based on the requirement
• Has a well-documented API

14) Wfuzz

A tool exclusively designed for brute-forcing web applications. Wfuzz is developed in Python language. The most astounding specialist about Wfuzz is that it has no GUI and is operated through the command line.

Features of Wfuzz include

• Can be used for SQL. LDAP, XSS injection
• Has colored output, output to HTML, regex line numbers, etc.
• Can be used for cookie fuzzing, multi-threading, etc.

15) Invicti

A remarkable tool that can be used for automated scans to reveal vulnerabilities such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), etc.

Features of invicti include,

• Easy to generate management as well as stakeholder reports
• Reveals false positives after a scan
• Helps in easy asset discovery and management
• Support REST API
• Vivid notification features

16) ImmuniWeb

Immuniweb used artificial intelligence to do security testing and continuous compliance monitoring.

Features of ImmuniWeb include

• Penetration testing of API, apps, web, and PCI DSS
• Attack surface management
• Cloud-based penetration testing
• Threat intelligence
• Security posture analysis and management
• Exposure to the dark web can be monitored
• SSL compliance and certificate test
• Penetration testing for evaluating GDPR compliance
• Security assessment of network
• Third-party integration risk assessment

17) Acunetix

Acunetix pioneered automated vulnerability scanning. The tool has black box scanning and SPA crawling to aid in testing.

Features of Acunetix include

• Helps in finding vulnerabilities such as OWASP Top 10, Exposed databases, XSS, SQL injections, Misconfigurations, etc.
• Automatic prioritization of vulnerabilities
• Helps in scanning multiple environments at the same time
• Helps in eliminating false positives
• Gives developers insights on how to resolve a security flaw

18) IBM Rational Functional Tester

IBM Rational Functional Tester is a functional as well as regression testing tool that helps in the automation of regression, functional, GUI, and data-driven testing.

Features of IBM Rational Functional Tester include

• Helps in testing web-based,.Net, Java, SAP, Siebel, etc. applications
• With the help of visual editors testers can edit and modify tests without tampering with the test scripts
• Detects the places where data has been entered and prepared for data-driven testing
• Best for testing frequent UI changes

19) Sahi Pro

Sahi Pro is a low code application testing tool when it comes to test automation that’s mainly built for an agile team.

Features of Sahi Pro include

• Easy for test creation and maintenance
• Good for continuous integration
• Detailed reporting
• People with minimal technical knowledge can perform test automation
• One script can be used for different browsers
• Excellent recorders
• Does not require separate libraries for every browser

20) Test Complete

Test Complete is an easy-to-use test automation tool with AI-based object recognition combined with scriptless test automation.

Features of Test Complete include

• Helps in the automation of GUI applications based on various frameworks
• Creates reusable tests for all web-based applications
• Can be used for functional UI tests of iOS and Android apps. No jailbreaking required
• Possess flexible UI testing tool

21) Espresso

Espresso is a great aid in writing reliable UI tests. The tool possesses an API that’s easy to access, understand, and customizable.

Features of Espresso include

• Mainly created for developers who wish to put test automation in their SDLC
• High synchronization capability
• Less flakiness when it comes to mobile test automation \
• Helps in delivering fast and consistent feedback for developers

Final note…

Hope you have learned a thing or two about some of the most important software testing tools used by many leading software providers and QA companies in the industry.

However, if you think that skill + right tool is the correct approach in QA, please reach out to us as we have some of the best on this list ready to be deployed in any kind of SDLC.