Six automated software testing services to boost your QA strategy

Modern engineering and product teams feel the pressure to accelerate the feedback loop to developers, shorten release cycles, and deliver high-quality results quickly. For many, fusing manual strategies with automated software testing services is part of the solution to ensure consistency and immediate test execution. 

We agree! But instead of singularly relying on one platform to handle automated test creation, execution, feedback, and test runs, spend some time building a kickass tech stack to maximize your investment in automated testing capabilities.

Let’s start by outlining some of our partners in the automated testing space. But different software solutions cater to a niché segment of every market, so what if you still haven’t found the right tool? We’ll also give you a blueprint to approach your independent evaluations of automation platforms and their capabilities.

Fuse manual and automated testing with these integrations

If you’re using Testlio’s platform, we have a selection of partners that integrate into our platform to maximize automation where needed. While they all provide the traditional benefits of software testing (releasing with confidence, coverage across devices and O/S combinations), they also have unique features that squeeze out every last inch of ROI from your automated testing journey.

Applitools

Founded by software developers, Applitools is a visual-UI regression testing automation platform. Their platform also includes access to software development kits (SDKs) that streamline the process of checking frameworks and programming languages.

Since Applitools is hosted on the cloud, they offer large backend servers that can store a mountain of screenshots, test results, and additional integrations.

BrowserStack

More than just bringing together the right people and processes, fusing manual and automated testing strategies requires you to manage a diverse tech stack to maximize results.

If you don’t already have a mobile testing lab, in-house testing team, or software testing partner: BrowserStack is an immediate on-demand software testing platform. If you want to integrate the tool into part of a larger strategy, use BrowserStack’s cloud web and mobile testing platform to analyze test automation, test results, and session artifacts. BrowserStack can run automated test cases by specifying various browsers in automation scripts.

HeadSpin

HeadSpin provides a complex, data science-driven platform that accelerates dev cycles with AI test automation. With data collected in test runs, this platform can run automatic and proactive error detection, measure end-to-end app, network, and device KPIs, and give AI-powered insights and alerts (that you can implement quickly). By integrating HeadSpin into your tech stack, your devs can harness practical, context-aware AI and analytics. 

Mabl

Manual testing has long been the cornerstone of QA, leveraging human expertise to ensure a high-quality and consistent end-user experience. But, without a full-time in-house team (or with an already overworked QA team), you need a third-party partner to scale testing and meet increasing demands on coverage and capacity. 

Mabl’s intelligent test automation provides a low-code solution to that sometimes-critical talent shortage. Implementing Mabl in your tech stack:

  • Speeds up test creation
  • Requires less technical acumen
  • Reduces maintenance effort
  • Standardizes information from tests

Sauce Labs 

Regardless of coding language or framework preferred by your dev team, Sauce Labs has an automated test creation and deployment solution for it. Run tests from your CI system or straight from the command line. If you’re especially concerned about security, firewall, and privacy, Sauce Connects has tunneling technology that ensures the security of your tests.

Check out some of SauceLabs’ automation framework options:

  • Selenium
  • Espresso
  • Appium
  • Appium
  • XCUITest
  • TestCafe
  • Cypress

Suitest 

In the living room devices market? Suitest focuses on delivering automated testing for SmartTV platforms. Appealing to low-code and no-code testing teams, Suitetest offers a codeless visual test editor for test automation. 

Suitest can run your tests in parallel on 100+ devices with nearly immediate pass/fail, bug reports, and performance results.

How to analyze other automated software testing services

While these automated tools are a great place to start, you’ll need to evaluate offerings independently. Yes, the software test automation market is flooded with choices and saturated with sales pitches jammed with jargon and buzzwords. When selecting automation software, you must choose a tool that your testers can use effectively. While this may seem obvious, it’s an element that can be quickly forgotten when caught up in the whirlwind of options and the promise of AI technology.

When evaluating adding an additional software, be readily available to cover these topics:

  • User base. Is your testing team using devs who are more interested in being able to engage with application programming interfaces (API)? Technical testers who are already experts? Third-party testers focused on functionality? Find the right product for the right end-users.
  • Pricing. While there are open source options with their communities online, you need to consider what you’ll be saving on licensing fees and how much it will cost to employ a dedicated person to maintain this software. As a rule of thumb for most sized companies, going with a software testing partner is substantially more valuable than employing additional staff. When selecting a commercial option, you will need to review all the features included with automated testing tools and ensure that your package consists of the ones you need. 
  • Integration compatibility. If your product or service is online, it must be compatible with in-house platforms, client platforms, etc., especially if you plan to fuse manual and automated strategies.
  • Capabilities. Simple. What can the product actually do?
  • Coverage. While you can minimize errors by defining your target demographic, it’s never good to isolate clients due to blind spots in testing. A crucial offering of automated testing is the option for multiple integrations to maximize end-user coverage.