Need of Cloud Services for Web & Mobile application testing.

In the process of testing we should always test our web application on all supported browsers on different os like windows , mac to make sure application is working on all real browsers properly and user will not face any problem while using it on any machine. Here we also make sure that application will work not only on latest version of browser but also on the older versions up to some extent of browser where user does not want to update browser version due to technical limitation.

In such cases it is difficult to manage targeted infrastructure. We need multiple machines of different OS and also need to track of browser versions time to time. Also Setting up (install and uninstall) different browser versions of same browser every time before testing is time consuming process. This will be even worse when we think of creating automation framework.

Now when it comes to mobile application, I have written an article to address different aspects we must consider before mobile application testing. You can read it here

Things you should know before you start with Mobile application Testing

Major challenge in mobile application testing is to conduct testing of an application which cover devices which are largely in use which could be of different API level (platform versions), different screen size, different resolution types, different brands, different os (android & iOS) and so on. This list goes on increasing if we start including other categories of the devices .

In case of Mobile application testing it is not at all feasible financially and majorly from maintains point of view to create this infrastructure of devices with different os, platform versions, brands, screen size, resolution etc. This will huge investment for not only startups but very well established organisations.

Another reason I am calling this as dead investment because now a days technology is evolving day by day. So we need to update these devices also need to create infrastructure with new technology in the market.

Now If you have Web as well as Mobile application like Flipkart or Amazon, then cost need to setup test environment will increase exponentially

What is solution ?

We need certain platform which will solve most of above problems. Here comes Cloud platforms which will provides you all the infrastructure you need to test your application.

Advantages of using these cloud services for Web application testing:

1. Allows user to perform manual testing on target platforms
2. Allows user to Perform automation testing on target platforms
3. Perform live testing
4. All the real browsers with all platforms with wide range of browser version to test.
5. Very well documented to perform manual as well as automation testing
6. Best support from community
7. Smart reporting to analyse test reports
8. Setup account for any requisite for testing
9. Integration with famous automation tools like cypress, appium to enhance your developed automation framework
10. Integration with Support tools
11. They provide integration with CI/CD pipelines. You can integrate your automation framework to these integrations and get continuous feedback without any manual intervention. The time you logged in the morning you have your test reports. These vendors do have integration CI/CD tools like Jenkins, TeamCity and many more.
12. These are affordable platforms as compare to buying devices or software.
13. No maintenance: You do not have to worry about maintenance of available devices. All upgrades are been taken care by Cloud service provider.
14. Get updated Device: Service provider keeps updating their devices to latest versions of software.
15. These platforms provides monthly or yearly subscription plans as per your requirements. So you can plan your finance while purchasing these plan and can predict overall cost for that financial year.
16. Ensure Security: They take security measures very seriously as they have customer artifacts maintain in their databases. One good example is you need to upload your mobile application package file (.apk, .ipa, .app) to their cloud storage

By considering all the above pointers just think How much it will be helpful to use their services. You can take your application testing to next level.

And guess what you can start using these platforms for absolutely free. yes you read it right. These cloud platforms allows you to use trial accounts for few days and have some free minutes testing for free.

I will list down some of services I am aware of

1. Sauce Labs
2. Perfecto
3. BrowserStack
4. TestObject (Now merged to Sauce Labs only)
5. pCloudy
6. AWS Device farm
7. LambdaTest
8. Experitest (Now known as Digital.ai)
9. Ranorex
10. kobiton: Dedicated to Mobile testing only
11. HeadSpin: Dedicated to Mobile testing only

You can visit their websites to check documentation, its subscriptions plans or testing guide. In next articles we will be covering how to perform manual as well as automation testing using some of the above cloud platforms.

Happy reading!