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Appium vs Visual Studio Test Professional comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
Mobile Development Platforms (7th), Regression Testing Tools (6th)
Visual Studio Test Professi...
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
53
Ranking in other categories
Functional Testing Tools (10th), Test Management Tools (5th)
 

Featured Reviews

AS
Independent consultant, at OpenText
Efficient mobile testing with intuitive emulation capabilities and a user-friendly interface
Initial setup for Appium (especially for iOS) is not beginner-friendly.Consumes too much of your host machine's resources, potentially slowing down the machine.Appium Inspector often lacks deep insight or crashes with certain app builds. Improve test flakiness by intelligently selecting robust self-healing locators,simplified installers, better documentation, GUI-based config management,smart wait mechanisms and better failure logs.
Payel Saha - PeerSpot reviewer
Test Automation Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Integrated collaboration with automated test management has improved our agile workflows and continuously supports quality reporting
Visual Studio Test Professional could be improved as earlier we had flexibility in automation testing with TFS, which became a bit difficult moving to Azure DevOps. Additionally, in Visual Studio Code, we have an agent mode for GitHub Copilot, which is very helpful in testing or development phases, while Visual Studio's GitHub Copilot is a bit tricky and sometimes does not provide my desired output.For future improvements, I would like to see prompt fixing, as currently, if something goes wrong in Visual Studio, the fixing options are not always correct. If that intelligence is embedded, it would be very helpful.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Appium has easy interaction with mobile."
"I haven't explored other solutions in this particular area, but what I like best about Appium is the fact that it shares functions with Selenium. The extension of Selenium functions allows me to use all of the methods that exist in that domain, and it just makes it simpler for me. I've been using Selenium for some time as well, so using Appium just seems like a natural fit for me."
"It can be used with different programming languages."
"It's an open-source solution with a very large community and available documentation."
"What I like about Appium right now is that it's like Cypress in the sense that............. to test the components in the way I want them to be tested."
"The latest versions of the solution are stable."
"Appium's wide support of programming languages is valuable."
"Appium's best feature is that it supports multiple frameworks."
"You can easily write code, test, and deploy within the same environment. It is a mature tool. It regularly receives new updates and versions. In my opinion, it's one of the best products by Microsoft for developers."
"Visual Studio Test Professional is highly valuable because it provides extensive extensions and plugins that assist in measuring code quality."
"The debugging feature is valuable."
"The most valuable feature is the in-built support for C# and .NET projects."
"Visual Studio Test Professional is a scalable solution."
"The most valuable features are tools like IntelliSense and ReSharper."
"The most valuable features of Visual Studio Test Professional are the IntelliSense and the ease of adding the NuGet packages."
"The user interface is very friendly."
 

Cons

"The setup and installation were a problem for us at first."
"One area where I think Appium could improve is in addressing security concerns for our data. Currently, we're unable to use cloud solutions like CloudForm due to security restrictions on our servers. We also face challenges in updating packages for the same reason. It would be beneficial if the solution could provide better support for auto-reporting and easier connections to mobile device farms."
"The deployment process and configuration are quite complex and require improvement."
"Appium has problems with automated validations following iOS updates, causing us to have to validate manually."
"It needs to accommodate applications that use React.js and AngularJS."
"We need some bug fixes for nested elements."
"The tool needs to add a dependency manager."
"Appium can improve when the case fails, there should be a feature where you can generate the report from Appium. Once you're on a test case, automatically the screenshot should be captured which would avoid manual intervention. These features would be beneficial to migrate to Appium."
"Visual Studio Test Professional needs to improve its stability."
"In Visual Studio we still don't have anything which can pinpoint memory leaks on a certain code line."
"The documentation is limited."
"Visual Studio Test Professional could be improved as earlier we had flexibility in automation testing with TFS, which became a bit difficult moving to Azure DevOps."
"Visual Studio Test Professional should include more automation."
"The solution’s stability could be improved."
"The product must provide more automation."
"There are not any specific areas for improvement since there are so many libraries and frameworks already available."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is open-source."
"Appium is open source; we can use it for free."
"The solution is open source."
"The price is good for people to be able to make a favorable decision for the value."
"It's completely 100% free, and there are no hidden fees."
"The solution is free."
"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."
"As far as I know, Appium is a free solution. It's not for commercial use."
"We pay a yearly licensing fee for Visual Studio Test Professional, which is expensive."
"I positioned it at a mid-range level. It isn't an inexpensive solution, but considering its capabilities, it represents excellent value for the functionalities it offers."
"Our company pays a yearly licensing fee for Visual Studio Test Professional."
"We have licensing for Visual Studio Community edition."
"It is a price-effective solution"
"There are two versions of Visual Studio Test Professional: Community and Professional. We are currently using the Community version, but if we start working on a commercial product, we will consider upgrading to the Professional version. We need to identify how we will proceed with our projects, and based on that, we will decide on our licensing."
"The product is very expensive."
"The tool is affordable."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Computer Software Company
10%
Retailer
5%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Performing Arts
13%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Outsourcing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise19
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise24
 

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 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 needs improvement with Appium?
The deployment process and configuration are quite complex and require improvement. Additionally, the wait time functionality could be enhanced as I experienced failures with longer wait times.
What do you like most about Visual Studio Test Professional?
The most valuable features of the solution are its ease of use and availability.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Visual Studio Test Professional?
The tool is free, resulting in no costs associated with its use. The absence of price makes it cost-effective.
What needs improvement with Visual Studio Test Professional?
Visual Studio Test Professional could be improved as earlier we had flexibility in automation testing with TFS, which became a bit difficult moving to Azure DevOps. Additionally, in Visual Studio C...
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Nuvizz, Coupa Software, Eventbrite, Evernote
Transport for Greater Manchester, Ordina, Bluegarden A/S, CLEAResult, Jet.com, OSIsoft, Australian Taxation Office, BookedOut, Tracasa
Find out what your peers are saying about Appium vs. Visual Studio Test Professional and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.