Top 10 Regression Testing Tools and Frameworks That Boosts Automation

Regression testing is boring…only if you are doing it manually.
 

Indeed, it’s just not efficient when you have to manually repeat the same test steps over and over each iteration. Regression testing is best done with a regression testing tool. These tools allow you to create an automated regression test suite that you can run as a batch when the new build is available.
 

Let’s check out the top regression testing tools on the current market. Here's a quick list:

1. Katalon [Great For All Purposes]
2. Selenium [Great For Web Testing Automation]
3. Cypress [Simple and Intuitive Framework]
4. Applitools [Strong in Visual Testing]
5. testRigor
6. Tricentis Tosca
7. Leapwork
8. Apache JMeter
9. Rainforest QA
10. Postman

Here's a quick comparison table of the top tools for you:

1. Katalon [Great For All Purposes]

Katalon supports automation testing for all AUTs: web, desktop, mobile, and even API. You can effortlessly write regression test scripts without having to code. Katalon offers 3 modes of test authoring:

1. No-code mode: turn on the Record-and-Playback feature and manually execute the regression test case. Katalon registers your on-screen actions and turn that sequence of actions into a test script that you can re-execute across environments. This is extremely convenient and can help you achieve higher test coverage in a shorter time frame as compared to you doing it manually.
 

2. Low-code mode: you can craft a full test case from the library of keywords that Katalon offers. For example, you can choose the keyword “Click", and specify which web element you want to click on by typing in the ID, and you already have a script that automate the clicking action on that web element.

3. Full-code mode: finally, you can switch to the Scripting mode to enjoy full customizability. Switch back to the other 2 modes whenever you want and get the best of both worlds. Together, these 3 modes significantly improve efficiency.

That's just the first part. All of your regression test cases can be grouped into test suites and test collections. These tests and their artifacts are stored in the Object Repository. You can assign them with tags, see their status, results, and schedule them for execution on the environment of your choice. 

For example, here's a test call “Download files” that is scheduled to run on July 18 2023 at 10:58. You can set a Repeat time interval, so that these tests are automatically run (on-cloud) without any of your intervention. Talking about convenience!

Download and Witness The Power of Katalon

During execution, you also have a lot of options, from the type of device, operating system, to its version. This helps you cover a wide variety of test scenarios. 

After execution, Katalon generates a rich and detailed test summary report to help you gain a comprehensive view over the project.

Have a quick look at how you can do regression testing effortless with Katalon here:

Other Key Features:

• AI-powered features built-in to generate test scripts from a business language prompt, explain code, or even analyze web traffic to provide regression test recommendations. Learn more about those features of TrueTest.
• Support data-driven testing.
• Diverse integration ecosystem supporting all stages of the STLC with native plugins for CI and DevOps best practices

Start Regression Testing At Ease With Katalon

2. Selenium [Great For Web Testing Automation]

Selenium is favored by developers worldwide for its versatility in web testing. Selenium is compatible with all major browsers, including Chrome, Safari and Firefox, and can be operated on any of the 3 major operating systems, including Macintosh, Windows or Linux. As an automation testing framework, it still requires some effort from the tester to get used to its syntax and mechanism.

Read More: All You Need To Know About Web Testing

Selenium reduces the time and effort needed for manual testing and provides an easy to use interface for creating automated tests. Selenium comes with a rich set of testing functions specifically geared towards web testing needs, with the most notable being:

• Selenium IDE: a simple tool for automated testing of web applications. It is a browser extension (available for Chrome and Firefox) that provides a graphical interface to create and execute test scripts without the need for programming. Selenium IDE provides a Record-and-Playback feature for users to record their interactions and replay as automated tests, which is extremely helpful for regression testing.
• Selenium Grid: a tool used for running tests on different machines and browsers in parallel, reducing the time it takes to execute regression test suites. It allows you to manage multiple environments from a central point, making it ideal for large-scale testing. There is a central hub to coordinate the execution of tests across the nodes in the network.
• Selenium WebDriver: a browser automation framework that allows you to execute your tests against different browsers. It provides a more sophisticated API than its predecessor, Selenium RC, and is designed to support dynamic web pages where elements of a page may change without the page itself reloading.

Of course, there's a catch: Selenium still requires testers to have a decent level of technical expertise and coding experience to get the most out of it. If the team starts from 100% manual testing, they need will need a while to familiarize themselves, and may require some assistance from the dev team to help them onboard.
 

3. Cypress

Similar to Selenium, Cypress is also an end-to-end automation testing framework with features well-suited for web app regression testing. You can set up, write, run, and debug tests thanks to the relatively simple syntax it offers.

If you want to compare Cypress with Selenium, here are some key differences to take into consideration:

• Selenium operates by interacting with browsers using their native support for automation (WebDriver). This means it works by sending commands to the browser through the WebDriver API, which acts as an intermediary. Cypress is designed specifically for modern web applications. It operates directly within the browser, allowing it to interact with the application in the same run-loop as the application itself.
• Since Selenium is essentially on an “intermediary”, the interaction between the WebDriver and the browser can introduce some latency, making tests slower, especially for complex applications. On the other hand, Cypress tests are generally faster because they run inside the browser, leveraging its native event loop.
• In Selenium, testers often need to write explicit waits to handle asynchronous behavior in applications, while Cypress can automatically waits for commands and assertions before moving on.

Key Cypress features:

• Control function behavior, server responses, or timers with tools like spies and stubs
• Manage, stub, and test edge cases without involving your server
• Fast, consistent, and reliable tests free from flakiness.
• Automatically capture screenshots on failure.
• Execute tests within Firefox and Chrome-family browsers (including Edge and Electron) locally.
   

Cypress Website: Cypress

Cypress Documentation: Cypress docs

4. Applitools [Great For Visual Regression Testing]

Applitools is an AI-based test automation tool with a wide range of applications, primarily focusing on testing, monitoring, and managing visual testing activities. Applitools is quite effective for visual regression testing tool, where we run tests to ensure that code changes do not affect the GUI. The most common approach to visual regression testing is comparing the screenshots of 2 versions of the GUI: the expected GUI vs. the actual GUI. If the actual GUI matches the expected GUI, we say that there are no visual regressions.

QA teams can totally write a script to compare those 2 screenshots on a pixel-by-pixel basis. It may sound extremely straightforward, but there are some underlying issues:

1. All websites have dynamic content, such as date, time, or the Cart icon on E-commerce websites. Visual regression testing registers such dynamic content as bugs, while they aren't always necessarily so.
2. Similarly, animations and GIFs on a webpage can also be flagged as a “visual bug” by the screenshot comparison script, yet in reality that is not a bug.
3. Rendering differences between machines, on-screen difference in padding, and even font size can also result in similar false positives.

Smart visual regression testing tools like Applitools can help with these issues, boosting efficiency. Testers can configure the tool to “ignore” dynamic zones in the screenshot comparison process. 

Key Features:

• Utilizes AI-powered computer vision algorithms to emulate the human eye, effectively identifying both visual and functional regressions.
• Capable of recognizing and ignoring dynamic content such as ads or personalized dashboards.
• Integrates seamlessly with Cypress, Selenium, and other test frameworks, allowing tests to run directly within your preferred CI/CD tools like Jenkins, GitLab, GitHub, CircleCI, and more.
• Offers integrations with Jira and other bug reporting tools to enhance results and reporting.

Website: Applitools

Documentation: Applitools Docs

5. testRigor

testRigor is a good tool to help you automate the creation and execution of end-to-end tests. With its generative AI capabilities, anyone in the team can easily build, maintain, and understand tests in plain English. It is possible to copy-paste your manual tests into testRigor, then correct/expand on those tests using built-in plain English instructions.

testRigor is also quite impressive in its scope, when you can cover both cross-browser & cross-platform scenarios within a single test. It has a Record-and-Playback feature to assist you in no-code test creation.

As you can see here, in testRigor it is relatively simple to create a test case. All you have to do is type out the action you want to automate in plain English.

Key Features:

• Creates tests based on documented test cases in plain English, making it easy for anyone to build, understand, and correct tests from an end-user perspective.
• Supports web testing on desktop and mobile across 3,000+ combinations of browsers and devices, and facilitates native desktop testing and mobile testing, including physical devices and hybrid apps.
• Enables API testing, data-driven testing, email testing, 2FA login, and validation of downloaded files, as well as handling of texts in images using OCR.
• Integrates with CI platforms, test case management systems, and ticketing systems, supports the execution of JavaScript in tests, and allows grouping of steps into reusable functions.
• Also supports testing of Chrome extensions and interaction with cookies/local storage.

Website: testRigor

Documentation: testRigor Documentation

6. Tricentis Tosca

Another good regression testing tool for QA team is Tricentis Tosca. Tricentis follows a model-based test automation, separating the automation model from the application. This unique approach ensures that frequent changes to the application do not impact existing tests. 

Tricentis also offers Service Virtualization to help QA teams test scenarios on systems that are difficult to access, ensuring that automated tests can be run anytime, anywhere, increasing test coverage. It also has test data management features for full-cycle traceability and visibility across your project.

Website: Tricentis

Pricing: Contact Sales

7. Leapwork

Leapwork offers a streamlined solution for automating functional UI tests with a smart recorder that simplifies the process to just clicking on a UI element. This intuitive approach allows users to easily capture and define elements, turning test cases into automated flows effortlessly. The platform enhances efficiency by enabling the reuse of common steps as sub-flows, reducing maintenance and development bottlenecks, and ultimately leading to more satisfied teams.

Leapwork also provides robust tools for diagnosing test failures, offering video recordings, data-level insights, and activity logs to quickly identify and understand issues. There is scalable testing across multiple environments, eliminating the need for physical devices. Tests can be executed via cloud providers, local machines, or remote computers.

Website: Leapwork

Documentation: Leapwork Documentation

8. Apache JMeter

Apache JMeter, a project under the Apache Software Foundation, is a versatile tool designed for performance testing, with an emphasis on web applications. It's a great addition to your regression testing tool arsenal.

Highlight Features:

• Ideal for both static and dynamic resources, including dynamic web applications.
• Capable of simulating heavy server loads to evaluate performance
• Supports testing for a range of applications, servers, and protocols, such as HTTP, HTTPS, SOAP/REST web services, FTP, JDBC databases, LDAP, JMS message-oriented middleware, email services, native commands, shell scripts, TCP, and Java objects.
• Offers a robust Test IDE for recording, building, and debugging test plans.
• Enables testing from any Java-compatible operating system via a command-line interface.
• Provides dynamic HTML reports for easy interpretation of results.
• Extracts and correlates data from various response formats, including HTML, JSON, XML, and plain text.
• Fully portable and 100% compatible with Java.
• Supports concurrent sampling by multiple threads and allows separate thread groups for different functions.

Website: Apache JMeter

9. Rainforest QA

Rainforest offers a web-based platform enabling users to quickly generate automated test scripts with simple, plain-English prompts such as: “Create a new user account” or “Fill out the demo form with dummy data”. Rainforest's AI can also update tests automatically to reflect changes in the application, eliminating the need for time-consuming manual updates after minor app modifications. There is even a Test Manager that verifies test results to prevent errors and ensure accuracy.

Key Features:

• No-code test automation: Users can create, maintain, and execute automated tests through a proprietary no-code framework. Tests can be organized into groups, scheduled, and assigned priorities.
• Manual testing: Rainforest QA employs a global community of experienced QA testers available 24/7 to perform scripted testing of applications.
• Test writing and maintenance: A dedicated QA Concierge manages the writing and maintenance of both automated and manual tests.
• Testing infrastructure: Tests are run on Rainforest's cloud-based virtual machines, which support multiple versions of macOS, Windows, and popular browsers.
• Parallel execution: Rainforest QA delivers rapid test results, with automated test suites averaging a 4-minute turnaround and manual test suites around 20 minutes.
• Detailed test results: Each test run provides comprehensive debugging insights, including repro steps, video recordings, HTTP logs, and browser logs.
• Exploratory testing: A specialized group of testers conducts unscripted testing to identify bugs and offer usability feedback.
• Integrations: Rainforest QA integrates with tools like JIRA and can be incorporated into any CI/CD pipeline via their API, CLI, or direct integrations.

Website: Rainforest QA

Changelog: Rainforest QA Changelog
 

10. Postman

Postman is a popular collaboration platform for API development, used by millions of developers and companies worldwide. It is a good regression testing tool specifically built for APIs. Postman allows users to create and send HTTP requests with various methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc.). It supports a wide range of formats such as JSON, XML, and HTML. You can also create mock servers to simulate API responses without needing the actual API implementation.

Key Features:

• Support API development, documentation, and testing
• Mock servers to simulate API responses
• Environments and Variables to easily switch between settings
• Postman integrates with various CI/CD tools like Jenkins, Travis CI, and GitHub Actions. This integration allows for continuous testing and deployment workflows.
• Postman itself also provides an API to programmatically access its features, which can be used for automation and integration with other tools.

Read More: Top 15 Postman Alternatives You Should Know