What is Codeless Automation Testing Silver Bullet? A Detailed Strategy to Speed Up QA

We answer the question what is the advantage of codeless automation testing tools and give a detailed strategy on their use to speed up QA.

What is Codeless Automation Testing Silver Bullet? A Detailed Strategy to Speed Up QA

Codeless automation tools are capturing the QA market like a shot: each year, the list of these solutions providers is only growing, and so does their popularity. But what is codeless automation testing tools’ advantage? And which tool better fits what testing case? Let’s consider these questions one by one in our new detailed article.

Codeless Automated Testing Advantages

The prior goal of any codeless automated testing tool is to make any non-technical specialist like business analyst, project manager, DevOps specialist, and even junior QA engineer able to create and run any test scenarios they need. But what are the other advantages of codeless automation testing tools? We can enlist as many as 12 of them:

1. Time-saving: this is one of the core advantages of codeless automation testing tools, as they do all the monotonous repetitive tasks, allowing QA engineers to concentrate on the results analysis and testing strategy. Moreover, many tools support parallel testing and multiple scenarios execution, which speed up the whole process even more;

2. Quick start: in most cases, it will take you about 1-2 hours to get to know how to use the whole functionality of any codeless testing tool. In other words, the learning curve is small and usually doesn’t exceed 1 day, which is great for optimizing the company’s time and budget resources;

3. High testing quality: with codeless automation tools, you get the feedback faster, more frequently, and in a highly controlled environment, which means that you have fewer bugs and issues in the final stage;

4. CI/CD integrations: these integrations ensure that all the necessary software updates are made regularly, and also help to identify bugs at the very early stages. Thus, you can launch your product faster;

5. High scalability: It can be quite difficult and time-consuming to update or change a traditional automation testing tool because they lack scalability. Codeless testing tools are different: most of them are cloud-based and can be easily tuned to your current testing needs;

6. Better testing coverage: codeless solutions can cover testing on multiple platforms, browsers, and device types, such as iOS, Android, native apps, desktop apps, web apps, and, what’s important, it simultaneously in parallel;

7. Regression testing performed easier: this is a very time-consuming type of testing, and codeless tools allow to automate it, reducing the fatigue of QA engineers and allowing them to focus on other aspects of testing, for example, exploratory or acceptance types.

8. Use of AI: most of the codeless automation testing tools have AI and ML integrations like computer vision or NLP, which allows greatly accelerate the testing process, finding valuable insights, and reducing bugs;

9. Real-time analytics: automated reports and dashboard upon the testing results is another handy advantage of codeless tools. They help to track the performance of your test scripts, monitor team progress, see the overall testing progress of the project, find strong and weak sides in it, and tune the testing strategy;  

10. Third-party integrations: most codeless automation testing tools have built-in integrations like project communication tools, test management tools, test-case libraries, templates, object repositories, etc., that make the testing process even faster, easier, and more productive;

11. Test reusability: codeless tools have a feature of test recording and reuse, which allows QA engineers to structure the scripts, greatly speed up and ease the testing process, and make it more cost-effective. Plus, these tools can also automatically prioritize test case reusability, automatically manage them, and remind about necessary updates to reduce manual efforts;

12. Cloud-based architecture: going cloud is one of the core test automation trends. Most of the codeless automation testing tools are cloud-based, which means that they are available 24/7, highly flexible, scalable, 100% secure, and have cost-effective maintenance and pricing plans.

Of course, we could go deeper into the QA automation benefits that the codeless testing market offers its users, but let’s concentrate on the certain types of testing tools, and figure out when it’s better to use this or that tool to get a better result.

UI-Friendly Codeless Testing Tools

We put this category first because quite often even if the tool is powerful, flexible, and covers all users’ needs, it can be cumbersome and difficult to use because it’s built for testing professionals or those with some background in writing tests.

But the concept of codeless testing means that any person with no background in QA could run tests with no additional instructions simply using these tools. And even QA professionals feel more comfortable with a UI-friendly codeless automated testing tool. That’s why the level of user-friendliness of the tool is one of the most important factors of its success on the market.

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Still, today we speak not about what makes the codeless automated testing tool successful, but when it’s better to use this or that tool. As we mentioned before, a UI-friendly app is a universal solution, but it can be especially handy if not all members of your QA team have a strong background in testing, or if you need to perform a group app testing with all the project members.

Let’s consider some examples of UI-friendly solutions available on the codeless testing market right now:

  • DogQ

DogQ is the easiest-to-use codeless test automation tool, which can perform regression, e2e, functional, and other types of application testing with no coding. Its intuitive interface allows multiple scenarios and test case creation, as well as their simultaneous or scheduled running.

Being cloud-based, DogQ works ideally with modern front-end frameworks like React and Angular. Plus, it uses AI-powered computer vision with OCR technology, which allows for building automated tests with specified keywords, emulating real user actions. DogQ can significantly speed up QA when it’s needed to create a test scenario to check the app’s UI for user-friendliness and tune it to get better results.

Moreover, DogQ even provides customers with real-time analytics to track the number of passed and failed test runs, identify problematic aspects, and find the app’s strong and weak sides. And all these features are possible with no coding, which is quite handy for QA beginners, marketing and sales managers, business analysts, and any other non-technical specialists.

  • Preflight

PreFlight is a codeless automated testing tool aimed at preventing flaky tests and speeding up the development process. It allows cross-browser and multiple device testing together with accurate test recording, and a high level of their randomization. It’s handy when you need to test your product or website at different screen sizes and make sure all your users see the app’s UI as it’s supposed to be.

It also has a bunch of  third-party integrations like GitLab, TravisCI, CircleCI, Slack, and Bitbucket, which  broadens the functionality of this codeless test automation tool. This solution suits well if you need to get perfect SEO results and create an intuitive interface for your app.

At the same time, if your project has complex databases, or if you need to perform specialized testing, this tool can be not a good choice.

All-in-One Codeless Testing Tools

These are ultimate solutions fitting a greater part of test cases like codeless e2e testing, web app testing, multiple browser testing, testing of small and medium-sized applications, etc. They have rich functionality and powerful testing capabilities enough to cover 90% of QA specialist needs.

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The only problem that can arise with edge testing cases or advanced codeless test automation – then QA engineers should try other solutions. Let’s consider the most popular examples of all-in-one testing solutions:

  • Katalon

Katalon Studio is an all-in-one codeless testing solutions, named a top customer choice in 2020 by Gartner Peer Insights. It is  suited for web, API, mobile, and desktop app testing. Despite the tool has a variety of built-in keywords, several dual-scripting interfaces, and numerous external libraries, it’s quite intuitive and easy to start even for beginners.

Plus to the main functionality, it has a web recorder utility, that can register all movements in the application and record them as runnable code in the back-end. There is also an insightful analytics and reporting feature, which allows users to identify the project’s weak sides and fix them.

At the same time, if you want to use it for testing complex large projects, Katalon may be not a good choice, as multiple test editing here is complicated.

  • Perfecto

This is another trusted name in the codeless testing market. Fitting mobile, web, and IoT testing, Perfecto focuses on providing stable work of applications in various environments and market changes (new iOS, Android, or browser version updates, multiple device types, etc.).

Perfecto supports parallel testing on various Android devices and is also able to switch to a microservices framework, supporting the latest changes in OS. It also aggregates data from numerous AWS services, like DynamoDB, EC2, ECS, Lambda, S3, etc.

At the same time, it’s slow when you need to use any third-party integrations like Appium, Selenium, Espresso, and also has poor location availability.

Specialized Tools for Codeless Testing

In some cases, all-in-one solutions can be not enough to cover advanced codeless test automation needs. The common situation is testing big, complex projects with thousands of regression tests - this can be difficult for an all-in-one tool. The other common functionality they usually lack is testing of desktop applications or legacy systems with complex architecture – these are only a few examples of edge testing cases that need a specialized codeless tool.

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In most cases, such tools have all the common functionality, but plus to it have a narrow specialization, which allows them to solve advanced codeless test automation tasks, just like in the examples below:

  • Ranorex

Ranorex is another all-in-one testing solution, but it also supports desktop and legacy app testing. This is rare and robust functionality, which makes Ranorex suitable for edge testing cases. Giants like Cisco, Dell, and IBM also choose Ranorex for testing desktop apps.

Plus to desktop testing, it supports web, Windows, and mobile testing. It’s also a good choice when it comes to complex GUI testing, as Ranorex has an AI-powered object recognition feature. Together with a flexible test automation interface, record, and playback functionality, it allows for automation and speeds up QA.

To make the testing process smoother, Ranorex uses robust third-party integrations like Selenium WebDriver, Jira, Jenkins, Bamboo, and TeamCity, which allows for the creation of an all-in-one testing environment with advanced testing features.

  • Micro Focus Unified Functional Testing (UFT)

UFT is suitable when it comes to visual AI-driven testing. It has an image-based object recognition functionality, which allows accelerating the testing process, simplifies multilayer testing, and eliminates all bugs in the GUI.

UFT works ideally for desktop, web, mobile, composite, and packaged enterprise-grade app testing. Its visual test-driven design together with user-defined object identification reduces functional test creation time and maintenance.

Plus to the main functionality, this solution has real-time reports and analytics features, which make it possible to convert reports into the chosen format.

Free Codeless Testing Tools

They are best suited for small companies and startups, as well as for specialists, who never used codeless automated testing tools, and want to get a picture of their functionality and use. Some of the free codeless automation testing tools are rather powerful, others have a limited number of features, so everything depends on a certain solution.

Let’s consider here the 2 most popular free codeless automation testing tools:

  • Test Project

This is a popular free codeless automation testing platform which specializes in codeless end-to-end testing. Test Project automates Selenium and Appium testing, allowing to run of web, mobile, and API testing scripts.

Test Project has a handy tests storage and page object repository, third-party integrations like BrowserStack, Jenkins, Slack, and Sauce Labs, as well as more than 200 addons from the testing community.

At the same time, in spite of the limited functionality, the quality of testing can be sometimes lower than if using more powerful tools. For example, here you can get different test results with different browsers. QA engineers should take this into account while using Test Project.

  • Testerum

Testerum is a free codeless testing solution that is focused on creating a testing environment without technical limitations. It uses behavior-driven development (BDD) to express test scenarios and has a bunch of robust third-party integrations like Relational Databases, Selenium, REST API, Mock 3rd Party API, etc., which help to accelerate the testing automation.

Although it has limited functionality, it still offers multiple scenarios testing and support of several browser types. But still, we would not recommend it for the testing of complex projects.

Our Advice on Choosing a Codeless Automated Testing Tool

Choosing the right codeless test automation tool for the current project or for permanent use is not a simple task. Of course, the choice depends on multiple factors, such as the project type and complexity, the QA team size and professional level, the wanted functionality, and the price range.

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Of course, the tool should cover all your testing needs according to this testing checklist. But, as was already mentioned, some tools are suited mainly for testing simple companies’ websites. They are perfect for UI test automation, and can precisely identify all the UI bugs on numerous browsers and device types. However, when testing more complex web apps or searching for fitting internal software for huge enterprise teams, the choice should be different.

Plus, there is always a problem that numerous services call themselves codeless test automation tools, and state that anyone with no background in coding can use them, but in fact, it may be not like this, as every tool is codeless differently.

To help you out in this daunting task, we prepared an ultimate list of features your future codeless testing tool better possesses:

  • The tool should be intuitive so that any non-technical specialist can use it to run scripts;
  • It should be able to easily automate even complex, time-consuming tests;
  • It should have options for test recording, scheduling, and multiple automation scenarios;
  • It’s good if your solution can work with several browsers and devices types;
  • It should better have third-party integrations like GitHub, Slack, and a CI solution;
  • The pricing structure of your tool should be transparent and flexible.

We hope that this checklist as well as the other above-mentioned info on codeless automation testing tools will be really helpful in choosing the right codeless tool. But if you have any questions, our team of professional QA specialists is always here to help you out. We can analyze all your project, business, and solution requirements, and advise you on the best fitting codeless automated testing tool.

Remember that DogQ is the easiest-to-use codeless tool with an intuitive interface, which can perform regression, e2e, functional, and other types of testing with no coding, so feel free to try it. Plus, you can always ask us any testing-related questions and follow us on our social media profiles to get even more valuable insights, infographics, and thoughts on testing!