Top 10 Automated Functional Testing Tools for 2025

Functional testing comes in all shapes and sizes.

So do functional testing tools.

When it comes to functional testing (or just any types of testing), QA teams usually have up to 3 options, with increasing levels of scalability:

1. Open-source functional testing tools/libraries/frameworks
2. Single-point commercial Automation Testing Tool
3. Software Quality Management Platform
   

1. Open-source functional testing tools, libraries and frameworks

One option for your team is to use an open-source testing library as the foundation for your custom testing framework. This core library will provide essential testing features, and you can build additional layers to make the framework more user-friendly and flexible.

The building blocks of a testing framework include:

• Libraries (e.g., Selenium, Playwright, Appium)
• Browser drivers (e.g., geckodriver, Chromium)
• Design patterns (e.g., Page Object Model, Screenplay)
• Coding standards (e.g., KISS, DRY, camelCasing)
• Test artifact management (e.g., object repositories, utilities)
• Reports and logs (e.g., plugins, structured reports)

If you choose this route, you’ll need strong coding skills to connect these components and create a framework that simplifies testing.

Pros:

• Full customization
• Free, aside from your time and expertise

Cons:

• Time-consuming setup
• Requires ongoing maintenance
• Debugging issues in large test suites can slow down testing

Building your own framework gives you more control but requires significant effort to set up and maintain. While it’s cost-effective, the maintenance phase often takes the most time, especially when managing large test suites.

2. Single-point commercial automation testing tools

These are commercial tools i.e. you have to shop around for a suitable one and invest a certain amount in order to get access to the features. As their name suggests, these tools only have to meet a single testing purpose, and we can categorize them based on the purpose they serve:

• System-under-test (web, mobile, API or desktop testing)
• Utility (design/run/get reports)
• Testing types (UI and API testing)  

For example, Postman’s focal point is solely on API performance, security and functionality. If APIs are at the top of your testing list, give it a go. While it is indeed nice to have a tool solely dedicated to a part of your functional testing, there will come a point when you want to have a more comprehensive testing experience. After all, the dedicated nature of these tools also limit their potential for expansion and scaling.

Read More: Top 15 Postman Alternatives You Should Consider For Your Team

In other words, single-point commercial automation testing tools are amazing if your organization only needs to test within the features of that tool. However, as the team scales, and you want to branch out further to test other areas of the software, it is better to go with an entire software quality management platform.

3. Software quality management platforms

A software quality management platform incorporates all functionalities needed to automate and view the full picture of quality activities. In a way it is several single-point commercial automation testing tools unified into one, carrying all of the features that the team potentially need. 

Top 10 automated functional testing tools

To give a non-biased list of tools for automated functional testing, a mix of open-source libraries and vendor solutions are listed below.

1. Katalon (Cross-platform UI and API automated functional testing tools)

Katalon is a true all-in-one automated functional testing tool. With a Katalon license, you can:

• Write UI and API functional test cases for web, desktop, and mobile apps using Katalon's pre-built automation testing frameworks, all without having to code. You don't need to reinvent the wheel.
  
• Run tests on your local machine, remotely, on-cloud, with emulators/simulators, or on a private device that you have. The choice is yours! 3K+ environment combos is in your hand.
• Run tests in parallel from the Command Line Interface (CLI) with Katalon Runtime Engine. This significantly speeds up the test execution process.
• Integrate Katalon tests into your existing top CI/CD tools to automatically trigger tests when code is merged.
• Schedule test execution, manage their status, and generate detailed test reports (screenshots, videos, HTML Snapshot, and Test Suite report email).
  

Katalon is also one of the first AI-powered automation testing tools. Some notable features include:

• Automatic test maintenance

• AI-powered regression testing with TrueTest. TrueTest analyzes user behavior in your production environment and then autonomously generates test cases based on the insights.

Watch this video from Daniel Knott, one of the most popular software testing influencer, to witness Katalon's AI powers in action:

Are you ready for an upgrade of your functional testing?

📝 If you want a more customized automated functional testing tool for your team, you can request a demo from Katalon in this form.

2. Selenium: Automated Functional Testing Framework For Web/Web Apps

Selenium is a suite of libraries and extensions that can be used to build a framework to automate the testing of web applications. 

Actions that users take on web apps like button-clicking, scrolling and inputting username and passwords are replicated and automated by Selenium interacting with the browser drivers. 

Feature highlights:

• Locate relative locators: finds web elements using above, below, toLeftOf, toRightOf, and near
• CDP access: uses Chrome DevTools APIs to mock network request and responses, and debug tests on the fly
• Smart object detection: findElement() method to find locators like ID, Name, ClassName, TagName, LinkText, Partial Link Text, XPath and CSS
• WindowHandlers multi-window/tab: getWindowHandle and getWindowHandles methods to open/close browser tabs

3. Cypress Framework (web, unit, integration, and end-to-end testing)

Cypress is not new to front-end developers using TDD/BDD for JavaScript-based frameworks. With Mocha as its underlying framework, Cypress looks primarily at solving waits and time issues present in Selenium WebDriver. 

Feature highlights:

• Automatic waits: no async/await functions needed to wait for commands and assertions
• Cross-browser: support for Firefox, Edge and Electron browsers
• Dashboard service: parallel and cross-platform execution, load balancing and quality insights
• CI/CD integration: CircleCI, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Bitbucket Pipelines and AWS CodeBuild, or call third-party plugins from code
• Snapshots and videos: review previous states of the DOM to find out what went wrong

Website: Cypress

Pricing: There is a Free version for you to try out the features of Cypress. Paid plans start from $67/month, and there is also an Enterprise tier for custom quote.

📖 Read More: Katalon vs Cypress: A Detailed Comparison

4. Playwright (web, API, and end-to-end testing)

Built by Puppeteer developers themselves, Playwright was developed to widen browser selections for web cross-browser testing. Playwright open source web automation library provides APIs to let developers interact with Chromium, Firefox and WebKit with their JavaScript code. 

Feature highlights:

• Reusable authentication states: Reduce repetitive steps of logging in
• Codegen: Record-and-playback actions a user would take on a UI
• Trace Viewer on local or CI: View recordings of performed steps and actions called, their DOM snapshots, action logs, source code location, network logs and metadata
• Test reports: HTML format and logs in the terminal for headless browsers
• Selenium Grid integration: Parallel executions
• Cross-browser: Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera and Safari
• Language support: TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, Java and .NET

Website: Playwright

Pricing: Open-source

5. Appium (mobile, UI, automated testing library)

Appium is a Node.js library that can be used to build testing frameworks to automate native, web and hybrid mobile testing. It uses the Selenium WebDriver and JSON protocols to communicate with iOS and Android applications. 

Many language bindings already exist for it. This makes getting started with using Appium much easier since you do not have to write all of the code from scratch. Appium also has excellent built-in capabilities for handling gestures and touches so that you can automate all types of user interactions with your app.

Feature highlights:

• Record-and-playback: records user interactions for different scenarios into runnable test scripts.
• Cross-platform execution: test native, hybrid and web apps without repeatedly recompiling code. Create tests on Windows, iOS and Android platforms using one API.
• Cloud environments: integrations with cloud services like Sauce Labs, BrowserStack and Testdroid.

Website: Appium

Pricing: Open-source

6. Tricentis Tosca (enterprise functional testing tool)

Tricentis Tosca is an extensive automation tool tailored for conducting automated UI and functional testing across various domains, including web, APIs, mobile applications, and desktop software. It employs a distinctive model-based testing methodology, enabling users to examine an application's user interface (UI) or application programming interfaces (APIs) to formulate a test model that mirrors real-world business processes. This approach simplifies the process of creating and maintaining tests.

Highlight Features:

• Codeless test creation leveraging the model-based approach. This enhances test asset reusability, reducing redundancy and maintenance efforts.
• Tricentis Tosca incorporates intelligent test design and prioritization based on risk assessment and requirements. This helps in optimizing functional testing efforts by focusing on critical areas.
• Service virtualization capabilities to simulate the behavior of interconnected services, even when they are unavailable or under development.
• Comprehensive support for various API technologies, allowing users to scan and test APIs effectively
• Supports parallel testing and offers cross-platform testing capabilities
• Seamlessly integrates with other testing frameworks and CI/CD tools, promoting automation and efficiency within the testing and development pipeline.

Website: Tricentis

Pricing: Contact sale

7. TestComplete For Functional Testing

TestComplete is a robust automated functional testing tool designed for conducting functional UI testing across desktop, mobile, and web applications. It boasts native support for over 500 different controls and also extends compatibility to third-party frameworks. This allows TestComplete to effectively interact with and recognize dynamic user interface (UI) elements within a wide array of technologies and application environments.

Highlight Features:

• Test results are displayed in the Test Log, which contains a complete record of test actions.
• The log includes messages about the success or failure of each test operation.
• Results can be filtered and reviewed for analysis.Recording tests is the easiest method and doesn't require knowledge of an application's internal objects.
• Recorded actions can be modified and extended with additional operations.
• It recognizes control types and automatically adds relevant methods and properties to program objects.
• Tests can be run as individual items or within larger test suites.
• Tests can be started from the Project Explorer panel or by running the entire project or project suite.

Website: TestComplete

Pricing: There is a 14-day free trial, and after that users can choose 2 pricing plans: Fixed and Floating

8. Karate DSL (API, UI and performance testing)

Karate DSL is designed for non-technical personnel and developers to test APIs in BDD scenarios. Using Gherkin as its main programming language, Karate DSL eliminates the need to add extra Java step definitions and keeps test code shorter. 

Feature highlights:

• BDD syntax: Pre-written test definitions in TestRunner class, script JSON expressions in feature files
• Validate API responses: Ready-made HTTP, JSON, GraphQL and XML assertions, “match” keywords
• Data-driven testing: Test against JSON and CSV files
• Debugger: Fix failed test scripts while it reruns
• Reporting: standard HTML reports. Consolidates logs when running parallel tests

Website: Karate DSL

Pricing: Open-source

9. Rest Assured (web API testing)

Rest Assured is a Java library for testing REST APIs and RESTful (XML and JSON) web services. Similar to Karate DSL, Rest Assured also supports writing in the Given-When-Then syntax and Java for further customization. 

Feature highlights:

• API service assertions: XML and JSON assertions 
• Validations: Status code, status response, headers and body responses
• Data-driven testing: XML as well as JSON data files
• Build tools integrations: Any source code management tools (Ant, Maven)
• Easy maintenance: Put tests in independent Java file to upload all tests at once
• Unit testing: Separate runners to run Java-based unit test frameworks (JUnit, TestNG)

Website: Rest Assured

Pricing: Open-source

10.XCUITests (iOS mobile UI testing)

XCUITest was built targeting iOS developers. As a sub-framework from the XCTest framework, users can validate mobile UI behaviors through test classes, methods and test targets.

Feature highlights:

• Quick setup: integrates with XCode IDE
• Parallel testing: run tests in batches across macOS environments
• Test reporting: Document UI test failures by calling methods to take screenshots or record every action

Pricing: Open-source

Best practice for using functional testing tools

With all of the functional testing tools listed above, you can now start improving your testing activities and streamlining the entire process:

• Leverage the test script creation features those tools provide to create test cases faster, more accurately, without having to worry about technical expertise or coding experience
• Run test scripts on environments, browsers, devices, and OS of your choice
• Usually most functional testing tools also allow you to compare the actual outcomes of the application with the expected outcomes specified in the test scripts. Any inconsistencies will be flagged as defects for you to investigate further.
• Reports can be generated with detailed analytics that your team can use to make data-driven decisions.
• Integrate the tools with your CI/CD pipeline to automatically trigger tests whenever new code is pushed to the repository, catching issues early in the development process.
• If the tool is AI-powered, don't forget to leverage those cutting-edge features to make your functional testing more autonomous i.e. more self-driven by the system and not intervened by humans.

Should functional testing be automated?

Examining if an application works as initially designed takes tremendous time if done manually. While manual testing is still an option for cases like user acceptance testing, inputting test steps into reusable automation scripts would help shorten a team’s testing time. 

Tests that are best for automation testing often are:

• Repetition: running smoke, sanity and regression tests for every new build/release
• Cross-platform compatibility: testing on multiple combinations of browsers, devices and operating systems
• Different data sources for fixed workflows: data-driven tests against databases and files (e.g., filling in information on a form)

Who does functional testing?

The responsibility for software quality is shared across every member. From functionality, security, and performance to usability, testability is ensured by both the developers and quality engineers.

Developers write unit tests before their code develops more dependencies. 

Quality engineers expand out to testing methodologies like behavior-driven development (BDD) and data-driven testing (DDT).