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OpenText Silk Central vs SpecFlow comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 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

OpenText Silk Central
Ranking in Test Management Tools
12th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
2.3
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
Test Design Automation (1st)
SpecFlow
Ranking in Test Management Tools
21st
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Test Management Tools category, the mindshare of OpenText Silk Central is 2.8%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SpecFlow is 2.1%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Test Management Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
OpenText Silk Central2.8%
SpecFlow2.1%
Other95.1%
Test Management Tools
 

Featured Reviews

ChrisWilliams1 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Test Analyst at Kainga Ora
Reporting efficacy and collaboration improve despite outdated features
I do this for my own benefit, and it has nothing to do with any company views. I work as a permanent employee for a government department. OpenText Silk Central is coming to the end of its support, so we will have to move to something else, but I do not know what the other solution will be. Automation is quite immature at our place. It has only really started, so there is no integration with OpenText Silk Central. I would give it a rating of 7 out of 10; it could be 7.5. It just lacks certain features that would make it a higher grade if it had more modern features.
SD
Senior QA Automation Engineer at AMCS Group
Ensures efficient testing and validation of both business and technical requirements
In terms of improvement, SpecFlow's installation and configuration can be a bit challenging due to its flexibility as an open-source tool. While it offers a balanced flexibility, setting it up might require more effort compared to some licensed products that handle everything. However, SpecFlow is a framework, not an automation tool, so the actual automation is carried out through tools like Selenium. Despite setup complexities, the framework itself serves its purpose effectively. In future releases of SpecFlow, it would be beneficial to have some built-in methods for common actions like opening and closing browsers or implementing loops. Having predefined libraries for these functions would save automation engineers time and make the framework more user-friendly. While I'm not sure if such features already exist, they could be valuable, especially for those working on web applications. It would provide a generic and optimized solution that anyone can easily implement without worrying about performance issues.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"With SilkCentral, I can have a macro-view of all my tests."
"This solution adds value because we are able to get the right information at the right time, which helps us to make the right decisions."
"The reporting is probably the most valuable feature."
"Issues and Defect Management."
"With the ease of use that Silk Central provides, our teams have a smooth learning curve in test automation."
"It would certainly be worth the cost, but you need to be committed to using it long term."
"It helps us to manage the test cases efficiently, and it also supports integration with Jenkins."
"If you are an enterprise site that needs a real customizable test and defect management solution, one that is easy to use and with a good level of out-of-the-box functionality and integration options, Silk Central is a good choice."
"It helps us to write down the scenarios in Gherkin and write down the implementation of each step and scenario."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is unit testing...It is also an easy-to-use and user-friendly product that can easily adapt to any framework."
"SpecFlow's best feature is the ability to add additional layers to the programming."
"One of the most valuable features of SpecFlow for us is its risk identification capabilities."
"The initial setup is easy."
 

Cons

"Better management of mandatory fields."
"From a test automation perspective, the main feature missing is the ability to schedule executions with only failed tests."
"Although I once met an issue where I created a test case and deleted it immediately, this test case still existed in the database and was still being included in our execution runs, and I had no idea how to completely remove this unused test case."
"At this point, we feel that the customization is bad."
"Product does not respond well on virtual machines because of network and memory issues."
"I have used HPE Quality Center, HPE ALM, JIRA, and Rally. They are much better tools than Silk."
"We would also like to manage the integration testing end-to-end."
"Adding the test cases and assigning them to particular testers can be improved."
"SpecFlow's installation and configuration can be a bit challenging due to its flexibility as an open-source tool."
"There should be more integration with the application life cycle management tools, including integration with Jira and Azure DevOps."
"Regarding improvement, it would be good if SpecFlow could provide chain testing, which it currently doesn't allow."
"SpecFlow would be improved with the addition of functionality reporting, which would be really helpful for automation testing."
"I'd prefer in TFS if we could be writing test cases, not in the old classical version. We should be writing in Gherkin and then automatically have it convert that Gherkin test case into SpecFlow feature files."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The cost of this tool, in terms of licensing, is not large."
"SpecFlow is open-source and free of charge."
"SpecFlow is an open-source product."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Real Estate/Law Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Construction Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise8
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with OpenText Silk Central?
It can be a bit slow sometimes, and it has not got some of the modern features many of the other competitors have. I am talking about features such as traceability matrix; it is designed more for W...
What is your primary use case for OpenText Silk Central?
I could leave my opinion on some ALM that I have been working with lately. Recently, I have been working with Silk, Azure DevOps, but in the past, I have worked with ALM, QC, and all that kind of s...
What advice do you have for others considering OpenText Silk Central?
I do this for my own benefit, and it has nothing to do with any company views. I work as a permanent employee for a government department. OpenText Silk Central is coming to the end of its support,...
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Also Known As

Micro Focus Silk Central, Borland Silk Central, Silk Central
SpecFlow+
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

AmBank Group, Krung Thai Computer Services, Deakin University
Microsoft, Caterpillar, Siemens, Charles Schwab, IBM, Deloitte, Accenture, Philips, Dell, Deutsche Bank
Find out what your peers are saying about OpenText Silk Central vs. SpecFlow and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.