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Appium vs Katalon Studio comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on May 21, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Appium
Ranking in Regression Testing Tools
6th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
Mobile Development Platforms (7th)
Katalon Studio
Ranking in Regression Testing Tools
3rd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
47
Ranking in other categories
API Testing Tools (4th), Test Automation Tools (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Regression Testing Tools category, the mindshare of Appium is 3.8%, down from 5.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Katalon Studio is 16.7%, up from 16.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Regression Testing Tools
 

Featured Reviews

Luis Gerardo Meneses Hernandez - PeerSpot reviewer
Allows for direct interaction with an application's DOM but complex configuration
What I like about Appium right now is that it's like Cypress in the sense that I can get to the new DOM of the application and select the components and create the functions to test the components in the way I want them to be tested. That's why I like it right now.
Appu Ashok - PeerSpot reviewer
Expansive integrations boost automation potential across devices
I am in the field of product research and am familiar with Katalon Studio for product comparisons and test automation. Even though I am not an active tester, I have created a few tests using Katalon Studio Some of our customers use Katalon Studio, however, our own product, Tangene, is a…

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The library is extensive so the driver interacts with most functions or actions on mobile devices."
"The latest versions of the solution are stable."
"The solution helps with test automation. We focus mostly on Java."
"Appium provides a record-and-play option, and the commands are the same as those that Selenium uses. So a person who has some exposure to Selenium will be able to write a piece of code in Appium."
"Obviously because of automation, it reduces manual testing efforts."
"The most valuable feature of Appium is it supports iOS and AOS and is open-source."
"The solution is stable."
"Appium has easy interaction with mobile."
"The automation is very fast and you don't need to be overly proficient in coding."
"The product provides ease of automation for the cloud."
"It is a good tool and provides all the essential features for our business requirements."
"Whenever I speak to the support team of Katalon Studio, I learn that some new features will be included in the product. It is a scalable product."
"User-friendly and a good solution."
"It has been good so far for API testing on Mac. It is not that hard to learn and use. There is so much support out there, so if anyone wants to start using it, there is enough help."
"The ability to build all libraries with codes and use them in many situations has been most valuable."
"The most important feature is the Jenkins integration; it is pretty straight forward and allows us to run nightly builds."
 

Cons

"What needs improvement in Appium is its documentation. It needs to give more context on the libraries that Appium is using under the hood. For example, my team is using Appium for Android automation, and a lot of times, I feel that there's functionality that's available through the Appium interface, that exists within the UIAutomator, but there aren't a lot of useful or helpful resources on the internet to find that information, so it would be good to have some linkage with the underlying platform itself. Another room for improvement in Appium is that it's buggy sometimes. For example, at times, there's a bug in the inspector application that doesn't allow me to save my desired capability set, so it would be nice to get that bug fixed, but overall, Appium is a good tool. The Touch Actions functionality in Appium also needs improvement. For example, if I want to initiate a scroll on the device that I'm running Appium on, sometimes Swipe works, but in other situations, I have to explicitly use action chains, so I'm not too sure what's the better approach. What I'd like to see in the next version of Appium is a more intelligent and more intuitive AppiumLibrary, in terms of identifying menus and scroll bars, etc., because right now, I'm unsure if I have to do a lot of export reversals to get to the elements I'm looking for. It would be nice to have some functionality built in, which would allow me to easily get those exports."
"The challenging part with Appium is that installation can be a bit tricky. It can be challenging to set up in Android versus iOS environments."
"Image recognition could be improved. We have some images in our mobile applications. It should be able to run from the cloud, so we can automate the catcher."
"The deployment process and configuration are quite complex and require improvement."
"There is always a concern about the amount of code that is required to enhance the automation process. The idea of having less code or no code is what we would like to see in future updates."
"We need some bug fixes for nested elements."
"It needs to accommodate applications that use React.js and AngularJS."
"If it had more facility for configuration it would be a spectacular solution."
"Now we are having difficulties in using it and had to limit our automation experts to the features that Katalon allows us to use for free. It was free access and they claimed that it would be free for all time."
"There is not much support offered for the free version, which is something that could be improved."
"The pricing could be improved. Offering a discount on Katalon Studio licenses could encourage more users."
"The price of Katalon Studio is an area of concern where improvement is required."
"Its stability needs improvement."
"We have had some issues when it comes to stability, which is something that needs to be improved."
"The product’s regression testing time could be reduced."
"It is difficult to identify elements on websites that use Angular or ReactJS because they don't have an option to view source code."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing of Appium is fine."
"As far as I know, Appium is a free solution. It's not for commercial use."
"This is an open source solution so it does not cost anything for licensing or otherwise."
"There is no license for this solution because it is open-source."
"Appian is open-source, which is not licensed."
"The solution is open source so it is free."
"The price is good for people to be able to make a favorable decision for the value."
"We found out that we could explore features of the solution for 30 days trial. We can switch to a permanent license later if we want."
"The product’s pricing is very, very low."
"In terms of pricing, Katalon, Selenium, and Cypress all represent a similar level of investment. The software for these tools are either true open source or almost open source (because they charge a small fee), so pricing is a neutral point for me."
"The tool's pricing is cheap compared to other alternatives. I would rate the tool's pricing a three out of ten."
"Katalon Studio is a free tool."
"The price of Katalon Studio is reasonable. They recently had a price increase that might impact new subscribers. We are using a business license."
"This product is freeware, so there is no charge for using it."
"We were using the free version of this tool."
"The product is expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
20%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Retailer
6%
Educational Organization
22%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Do you recommend Appium?
I do recommend Appium. It is an open-source solution and completely free of charge. We use Appium and Appium Studio as our base for any type of mobile automation for testing. It has a great interfa...
What do you like most about Appium?
Appium helps me to do as much as much as I want to.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Appium?
My experience with Appium from a pricing perspective is favorable due to it being open source, making it a cost-effective option.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Katalon Studio?
Katalon Studio is on the expensive side. I rated it eight on a scale where ten is very expensive. I recommend optimizing the pricing, as a moderate value around five would be preferred.
What needs improvement with Katalon Studio?
The pricing could be improved. Offering a discount on Katalon Studio licenses could encourage more users. There is significant competition, so providing a good offer with extra features could be be...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Nuvizz, Coupa Software, Eventbrite, Evernote
Coca-Cola Tesla Black Board TaTa Consultancy Services Sony
Find out what your peers are saying about Appium vs. Katalon Studio and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
856,873 professionals have used our research since 2012.