Cross browser testing in Selenium helps teams ensure their websites work smoothly for everyone, no matter which browser or operating system they use. From Chrome to Safari, Firefox to Edge, each browser interprets code a little differently. Even the same browser can behave in surprising ways across versions or devices.
That’s where Selenium WebDriver comes in. It allows you to write test scripts once and run them across multiple browsers to verify that layout, functionality, and performance remain consistent.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through:
Let’s get started!
Selenium WebDriver is an open‑source automation tool that mimics real user actions in browsers such as clicking links, typing into fields, navigating pages. It supports multiple languages like Java, Python, C#, and more.
This cross‑language flexibility means teams can write tests in the language they already know and apply them across different browser types.
WebDriver interacts directly with the browser it controls. It can run tests on real browser instances using specific drivers like ChromeDriver for Chrome or GeckoDriver for Firefox. That gives it both precision and reliability and confirms that your automation runs the same way a user would.
WebDriver fits into the Selenium ecosystem as the powerhouse of programmatic automation. Selenium IDE is better for quick record‑and‑play tasks. Selenium Grid enables running WebDriver tests in parallel across machines.
In a way, WebDriver is your test logic engine, IDE gives you start‑up speed, and Grid handles scale.
Cross browser testing in Selenium means checking that a website or application works the same way across different browsers, browser versions, and operating systems. WebDriver scripts help automate this validation by running the same test on Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, and more. Selenium ensures your site behaves reliably for every user.
Cross-browser testing catches real-world issues that are hard to spot otherwise. Some examples of it are:
With WebDriver, you can automate those checks instead of clicking through each browser manually. That gives you consistent coverage and saves time, so your cross-browser testing process becomes much more reliable and easy to scale.
Each browser processes HTML, CSS, and JavaScript through its own engine:
These engines render the same code with subtle differences, and users switch between devices and browsers all the time. A customer might browse your site on Chrome during lunch, then reopen it on Safari at home. With cross browser testing, you can check that every feature still works perfectly in both places.
Cross-browser testing made easy: Selenium relies on browser-specific drivers such as ChromeDriver, GeckoDriver, SafariDriver, and EdgeDriver that act as bridges between WebDriver and each browser’s automation interface. This allows real browser instances to be controlled directly.
Write once, run anywhere: You can create a single test script that runs across multiple browsers without rewriting logic. Selenium supports multiple languages including Java, Python, C#, Ruby, and JavaScript.
Real browser execution: Selenium WebDriver runs tests within actual browser instances instead of emulating behavior. This ensures accurate simulation of user interactions and page rendering, producing reliable test results.
Open-source and community-driven: Selenium enjoys global community support and integrations across frameworks and platforms, giving teams the flexibility to test reliably on any browser and in any environment.
Selenium WebDriver is a widely used tool for automation testing, and one of its key capabilities is cross-browser testing. This feature lets you ensure that your web application works consistently across different browsers. Below is a detailed breakdown of how to perform cross-browser testing using Selenium WebDriver.
Begin by writing your test cases with Selenium WebDriver. Each major browser (Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari, Internet Explorer) requires its own WebDriver executable, which acts as a bridge between Selenium and the browser.
You’ll need to download and configure the appropriate WebDriver for each browser. For example, use chromedriver for Chrome, geckodriver for Firefox, and msedgedrive for Edge, and so on.
Step 2: Integrate TestNG for Parallel and Parameterized ExecutionRunning your test cases sequentially on each browser is time-consuming. TestNG, a popular testing framework for Java, solves this by allowing you to parameterize your tests and execute them in parallel. By adding the @Parameters annotation, you can pass the browser name from an external configuration file (like testng.xml) into your test script at runtime. This lets you use a single test class for multiple browsers.
Additionally, TestNG’s parallel attribute in the suite configuration enables running the same test case simultaneously on different browsers, speeding up the cross-browser validation process.
Create a single Java test class that handles multiple browsers by using conditional logic in the setup method. Depending on the browser parameter passed in, instantiate the appropriate WebDriver (ChromeDriver, FirefoxDriver, EdgeDriver, etc.). Then write your test method to navigate to the target URL, perform the required actions, and assert the expected results.
This setup ensures that the same test logic is reused across all specified browsers. Once done, you’ll link this test class to a testng.xml file that specifies which browsers to run and enables parallel execution.
This Java class dynamically selects the browser based on a parameter passed from TestNG. It opens Katalon's homepage and verifies the page title for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge.
package com.qa.testcases;
import java.time.Duration;
import org.openqa.selenium.WebDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.chrome.ChromeDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.edge.EdgeDriver;
import org.openqa.selenium.firefox.FirefoxDriver;
import org.testng.Assert;
import org.testng.annotations.BeforeTest;
import org.testng.annotations.Parameters;
import org.testng.annotations.Test;
public class CrossBrowserTestingScript {
WebDriver driver;
@BeforeTest
@Parameters("browser")
public void setup(String browser) throws Exception {
if (browser.equalsIgnoreCase("firefox")) {
driver = new FirefoxDriver();
} else if (browser.equalsIgnoreCase("chrome")) {
driver = new ChromeDriver();
} else if (browser.equalsIgnoreCase("edge")) {
driver = new EdgeDriver();
} else {
throw new Exception("Incorrect Browser");
}
driver.manage().timeouts().implicitlyWait(Duration.ofSeconds(5));
}
@Test
public void verifyTitle() {
driver.get("https://katalon.com/");
System.out.println("Title is: " + driver.getTitle());
Assert.assertEquals(driver.getTitle(),
"AI-powered automation testing tool | Katalon");
driver.quit();
}
}
This testng.xml file defines three tests (Chrome, Firefox, Edge) and passes the browser name to your script. It also enables parallel execution of your tests.Best practices to do Cross Browser Testing in Selenium.
Following these best practices ensures that your cross browser testing in Selenium remains scalable, reliable, and aligned with real-world usage.
Katalon brings the full potential of Selenium to life through a low-code automation platform that works for teams of all experience levels. While Selenium WebDriver is a powerful tool for cross browser testing, Katalon simplifies the process from test creation to execution, reporting, and maintenance.
Katalon enhances every layer of Selenium-based automation. It reduces the technical overhead while maximizing the coverage, speed, and reliability of cross browser testing. Explore more at Katalon Docs and learn from hands-on courses at Katalon Academy.