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HeadSpin vs SmartBear TestComplete comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 2024

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

HeadSpin
Ranking in Functional Testing Tools
35th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
Mobile APM (7th), Mobile App Testing Tools (9th)
SmartBear TestComplete
Ranking in Functional Testing Tools
8th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
76
Ranking in other categories
Regression Testing Tools (5th), Test Automation Tools (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Functional Testing Tools category, the mindshare of HeadSpin is 1.2%, up from 0.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SmartBear TestComplete is 4.7%, down from 4.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Functional Testing Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
SmartBear TestComplete4.7%
HeadSpin1.2%
Other94.1%
Functional Testing Tools
 

Featured Reviews

Saorabh Singh - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager - QA at Games24x7
It fulfills everything from automation to manual performance
The most valuable features of the product are the performance parameters it gives us, as well as the seamless connectivity with our automation suites. I am also pleased with the continuous enhancements made to HeadSpin. There have been many features added since we started using the product, and all of them are useful.
Prakhar Goel - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr Test Lead at Emerson
Used for integration automation, user-based automation, and web automation
The solution's most valuable features are the drag-and-drop feature, keyword-driven approach, and reusability of the scripts. The solution has introduced a new feature that helps us identify objects we cannot normally identify. It gives you a fair idea of objects, resolving the object recognition issue. The solution can be used to perform different tests on different machines.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The initial setup of HeadSpin was very easy and user-friendly, and it was easy to configure and write a script to achieve the desired outcome."
"HeadSpin is highly advanced; it has got all the performance structures to provide visibility into how my app is performing in the real world and helps to identify the gaps."
"HeadSpin allowed us to manage remote work during Covid, enable continuous automation execution, and facilitate collaboration between various departments (product managers, developers, etc..)"
"The most valuable feature of HeadSpin it's the integration with other solutions; it is great, and I can search for an element or do a quick debugging on the application right on HeadSpin, which is very useful."
"The most valuable features of the product are the performance parameters it gives us."
"Large companies and enterprises are using this product."
"The technical support is really helpful because we can set up direct calls with them if we want to. We can use Zoom or Google Meet to interact with them directly, and if there is an issue in our system, they will help us by reproducing the issue in their machines and trying to figure out a solution. The support is really smooth, and we like that they're very supportive."
"The most valuable feature is that this is the first connected intelligence all-in-one platform."
"Possibility of the automated testing, installing plugins and extensions, data-driven testing and debugger."
"Complete works perfectly with CUTE. That includes all dialogues, right-click menus, or system dialogues, etc., which are handled well."
"This product is quite mature, able to compete with other products in the market, and I would highly recommend it."
"Customer service and technical support responsiveness are high. Everyone is very professional."
"The solution's most valuable aspect is how easy it is to create tests."
"The solution is great as a record and playback tool, and it also has valuable regression testing."
"If a company has an ecosystem and they need to automate the web, desktop, or mobile, then TestComplete is the right tool."
"The most valuable feature of SmartBear TestComplete for me is the image comparison functionality; it quickly detects any changes in the UI."
 

Cons

"There is a great scope to improve professional services; the time to deploy is quite long, and while they can set up automation through scripts at this stage, they are very expensive."
"If you want to do some testing or check the devices manually or check the application in a particular device manually, it is really laggy. That's a disappointment because sometimes we would like to do manual testing when our local devices are not available."
"They should automate their onboarding. A lot of things are still manual. They can create a video assistant or something like that to completely automate the entire process."
"Sometimes, devices go offline and some features are not functioning on some devices, specifically on iOS."
"HeadSpin needs to improve the hardware. With the mobile, the battery life reduces and must be continuously charged."
"HeadSpin could improve on the user interface because it is very poor. The checks that are done on the iOS devices are very difficult, but for Android, it runs great. For all iOS devices, the user interface and how it interacts with the device are very poor."
"HeadSpin could improve on the user interface because it is very poor."
"Support and pricing could be improved."
"Right now, in terms of recording and scripting the solution is not user-friendly."
"We were testing handheld barcode scanners running WindowsCE with many menus of warehouse functions, and our biggest problem was the timing between input and responses."
"Customer Service can be slow to respond to electronic forms of communication and they do not have a way for a customer to speak directly to customer support."
"The solution needs Mac OS support."
"The web testing framework of TestComplete is not very helpful for an Automation Engineer; it requires the same effort as Selenium, and in most cases, Selenium proves to be a better testing tool for web-based testing."
"I didn't use it very heavily. One issue that I found was that there wasn't a quick way or a button to move Visual Basic scripts to TestComplete. We have a lot of such scripts in our organization, and it would be very useful to have some option to easily move these scripts. It is currently possible to convert these scripts to TestComplete, but it is not easy. I have to write some code, but everything is not available immediately."
"One issue that I found was that there wasn't a quick way or a button to move Visual Basic scripts to TestComplete."
"TestComplete had problems during long hours runs. In some cases it could crash without leaving any logs."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I believe the licensing cost is cheap because it's a total solution, hardware, license and software."
"We have a yearly license for 16 devices."
"It's not cheap, but there are a few different packages and different prices for enterprises with different product versions."
"It has a yearly license. There is no other option. It is expensive. There are a lot of other cheaper players in the market, but it is like a Mercedes. You pay an extra premium for it, but you get the benefits. I would love to see them come up with project-based costing. Companies that are low on funds or new-age can do with pricing that is easily digestible. They can give them a pricing model for three months. They can provide a startup package."
"SmartBear TestComplete is an expensive tool."
"The solution's pricing is too high."
"The option we chose was around $2,000 USD."
"This is a pay-per-use service that is not expensive, and cost-efficient if you have a small team."
"It comes with a high cost."
"The solution's licensing cost has increased because it has moved to some new SLM-based licenses."
"The pricing is pretty reasonable."
"The licensing costs are in the range of $1,000 to $3,000."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Computer Software Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Construction Company
10%
Outsourcing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business23
Midsize Enterprise19
Large Enterprise32
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for HeadSpin?
HeadSpin definitely helps us cut costs because earlier, when we owned devices, our testing cost for each project was around thirteen thousand dollars per month. After starting to use HeadSpin, the ...
What needs improvement with HeadSpin?
There are several areas where HeadSpin can be improved. One major feature that is problematic for us is the iOS experience; we often receive complaints from our team that device interaction on iOS ...
What is your primary use case for HeadSpin?
HeadSpin is used for different kinds of testing including automated testing, manual testing, and performance testing. It can be used for different device brands; for example, testing on Samsung dev...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SmartBear TestComplete?
I am not involved in pricing or licensing; our management team handles these aspects.
What needs improvement with SmartBear TestComplete?
While using SmartBear TestComplete, we are fine with the current capabilities, however, it would be beneficial to improve some performance aspects, especially the image comparison feature. Occasion...
What is your primary use case for SmartBear TestComplete?
We are using SmartBear TestComplete ( /products/smartbear-testcomplete-reviews ) for automation over applications.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Zynga, Tinder, Pinterest, Akamai, Microsoft, Airbnb, Jam City, TMobile, Mozilla, CNN, Cognizant, Yahoo!, ebay, Quora, Walmart, Kohls, Telstra
Cisco, J.P. Morgan, Boeing, McAfee, EMC, Intuit, and Thomson Reuters.
Find out what your peers are saying about HeadSpin vs. SmartBear TestComplete and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
908,834 professionals have used our research since 2012.