VinodKumar9 - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Analyst at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Top 5
Easy and fast to automate, saving lots of time
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of Selenium is how easy it is to automate."
  • "There are some tiny issues with SeleniumHQ. For example, with respect to the scraping tests. Sometimes, a website will have some hidden items or blockages that inhibit us from extracting data directly. It would be beneficial if Selenium could extract that information."

What is our primary use case?

SeleniumHQ is WebDriver-related. It is a package that we can use with any language such as Java or Python.

We use Selenium for automation purposes. For example, if we need data from a website, we write code that will extract the data automatically. If there are logins or pop-ups, the code will close them, so we can extract the data. 

When we are testing a website, we use SeleniumHQ automation testing to determine if there are any bugs.  

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of Selenium is how easy it is to automate. For example, often when data is needed, someone will sit and copy and paste it. What we can do with SeleniumHQ is automate it so that the data is directly extracted from the tools and libraries that we use. This saves time and is much better than copying and pasting.

What needs improvement?

There are some tiny issues with SeleniumHQ. For example, with respect to the scraping tests. Sometimes, a website will have some hidden items or blockages that inhibit us from extracting data directly. It would be beneficial if Selenium could extract that information.

The other issue is browser-related. There are small bugs causing it to break automatically. Sometimes it will close automatically. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using SeleniumHQ for a year and a half.

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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Stability depends on how you write the code. If you handle all conditions, there will be some surprises. Suddenly, you will have pop-ups and other conditions. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

SeleniumHQ is scalable. Anyone can use it. We have approximately 30 users of the solution. 

How are customer service and support?

Customer service and support with Selenium are good. If any bugs are found and brought to their attention, they will immediately help. They provide lots of documentation as well as answers on the internet. The technical support team, themselves, will answer questions within 24 hours.

How was the initial setup?

We use Python, so the initial setup of SeleniumHQ was quick and simple. You can use any browser or tools like, Chrome, Firefox, or Edge to run the automation testing. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We are using Selenium open-source, so there is no need to purchase anything.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated other options. 

For mobile scraping, non-mobile scraping, or to test anything mobile there are more applications available on the internet, like Appium for Android, which is like Selenium for browsers, or TestComplete for iOS drivers. 

However, Selenium is particularly the best for browsers or PC, operating systems.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution to anyone considering implementing it into their organization. Overall, I would rate SeleniumHQ an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Principal Consultant at Digital Web Advisors Pvt Ltd
Consultant
Without this tool, the software license required to accomplish our testing would have thrown us out of business
Pros and Cons
  • "Our platform runs into several thousand screens and a few thousand test cases, something which would typically take months to test manually. As of today, the entire process takes a little over two days to run."
  • "In the beginning, we had issues with several test cases failing during regression. Over a period of time, we built our own framework around Selenium which helped us overcome of these issues."
  • "Improvement in Selenium's ability to identify and wait for the page/element to load would be a big plus. This would ensure that our failed test cases will drop by 60%."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily have been using Selenium WebDriver for functional and regression testing of our business management platform. 

Our technology stack includes Apache HTTP, Tomcat, PostgreSQL, CentOS, Java, J2EE, JavaScript, and Eclipse. Plus, we are using Selenium WebDrivers and TestNG for testing with Firefox and Chrome. 

How has it helped my organization?

Our platform runs into several thousand screens and a few thousand test cases, something which would typically take months to test manually. However, we have been using Selenium to automate our testing process since day one. As of today, the entire process takes a little over two days to run. We plan to further optimize it and bring this duration down to about 12 hours.

We plan to integrate Selenium with JMeter for performance testing, too. 

What is most valuable?

WebDriver and Grid: Without these, we would have been nowhere so far. The shear size of team/software license required to accomplish this humongous task would have thrown us out of business. 

What needs improvement?

Improvement in Selenium's ability to identify and wait for the page/element to load would be a big plus. This would ensure that our failed test cases will drop by 60%. Introduction of FluentWait has improved things, but it does not work in all scenarios 

For how long have I used the solution?

Three to five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

In the beginning, we had issues with several test cases failing during regression. Over a period of time, we built our own framework around Selenium which helped us overcome of these issues. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have had experience with Rational tools in the past, but with DWA Commerce, we wanted to go the open source route. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We have had extensive experience in testing and have pretty much worked with most testing solutions. Therefore, we did not have to go in for a re-evaluation. Our choice was clear. 

What other advice do I have?

Just go for it. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Selenium HQ
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about Selenium HQ. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
768,740 professionals have used our research since 2012.
PeerSpot user
Integration Specialist at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
An open-source tool that's flexible and stable
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable aspect of Selenium is that it gives you the flexibility to customize or write your own code, your own features, etc. It's not restricted by licensing."
  • "The solution's UI path needs to be modernized."

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use the solution for browser compatibility testing and web-based applications.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable aspect of Selenium is that it gives you the flexibility to customize or write your own code, your own features, etc. It's not restricted by licensing.

What needs improvement?

The solution is an open-source tool. They should also build other features and tools to assist in further capabilities. 

A drawback of Selenium is that it only focuses on web applications. If it could be integrated into one application together with APM, it would be in peer competition with other players. Developers tend to bundle both in one, but Selenium is just in a silo.

The solution's UI path needs to be modernized.

The solution needs to offer a mobile platform.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for 1.5 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Considering that a lot of corporations are using it, it has obviously gained quite a lot of trust from a lot of Fortune 500 companies that use it. It's considered very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It depends on the server you place the solution on, but the application itself is quite scalable.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support is good in the sense that, although is more of an open-source community, there's quite a lot of resources online that are available for troubleshooting issues.

How was the initial setup?

The initial set up requires a bit of research because it's not straightforward. You need to be a developer to be aware of how to set it up. As an open-source tool, you do need to have some kind of background knowledge on how to implement it. Basic deployment takes about a week or two.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Selenium is open-source so it is free to use the solution. You only pay for whoever is implementing and/or the server that you are deploying on.

What other advice do I have?

We use the on-premises deployment model.

I'd recommend Selenium, but it depends on the client's use case. As it is a free solution, users are able to cut a lot of costs. They can bring in developers that are experienced with Selenium, and those developers can build it up, scale it up and then, later on, you just need a few people to maintain it. It's a great option that allows companies to refrain from paying all sorts of license subscriptions that are quite exorbitant.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Don Ingerson - PeerSpot reviewer
Don IngersonQA Automation Engineer at Global Fortune 500 Company
ExpertTop 5Real User

Good article. Did you learn Selenium through a training course or by hands-on (on the job) learning?

it_user373965 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Software Quality Assurance Engineer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Since it supports Java and other programming languages, it is easy to integrate with other systems.
Pros and Cons
  • "Language support - since it supports Java and other programming languages it is easy to integrate with other systems."
  • "There is no good tool to find the Xpath. They should provide a good tool to find Xpath for dynamic elements and integrate API (REST/ SOAP) testing support."

What is most valuable?

  • Support for UI Automation
  • Language support - since it supports Java and other programming languages it is easy to integrate with other systems
  • Multiple browser support
  • Selenium Grid supports the execution of test case in distributed way

How has it helped my organization?

  • It's open-source, so there's no need to pay for a license
  • Support different programming language hence DevOps and QA work together to built better test suite
  • Since it is a lightweight tool, hence it helps in running test cases fast

What needs improvement?

There is no good tool to find the Xpath. They should provide a good tool to find Xpath for dynamic elements and integrate API (REST/ SOAP) testing support.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using it for five years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

There were no issues with the deployment.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There have been no issues with the stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

There have been no issues with the scalability.

How are customer service and technical support?

I have used Silk Test and QTP before using Selenium. The reason for choosing the product can be found in answer 4 and 5.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I used SilkTest and QTP before using Selenium

How was the initial setup?

It was easy to set-up.

What about the implementation team?

We did it in-house one, you choose the solution which best suite your needs. Don’t spend to much time in building robust solution unless it is really required.

What was our ROI?

I have invested my time in learning the tool and got good recognition for creating automation framework. It can continue to run as open source tool.

What other advice do I have?

You just need to choose the solution which best suites for you.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Nandini Rao - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Engineer at Innominds
Real User
Top 5
Excellent stability, great for testing, and scalable
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features are the ability to test and debug."
  • "I would like to see automatic logs generated."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case is for testing projects. We are a small startup company and each project has been assigned to test the web applications, elements, and identify the locators.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features are the ability to test and debug.

What needs improvement?

The Appium screenshot is attached with a tool. If we could get a screenshot as soon as the test script is over that would let us know if the test has passed or failed that would be an improvement. I would like to see automatic logs generated. If it captures the log from the time we started the S-case until the driver is good. Whatever we are doing as manual intervention, should be avoided.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Selenium HQ for the past four months now.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is excellent.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Selenium HQ is scalable, with more than one hundred developers and engineers using the product. They are test automation engineers.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I was using Appium previously.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward and easy. The deployment time takes around two to three hours.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The setup cost is open source or free.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Selenium HQ an eight out of ten. Selenium HQ is good for a web testing application.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Quality Analyst at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
The primary benefit is its cost and the ability to use the cloud
Pros and Cons
  • "The primary benefit is its cost and the ability to use the cloud."
  • "It does require a programming skill set. I would like the product not to require a heavy programming skill set and be more user-friendly for someone without a programming background."

What is our primary use case?

We are using mobile application and functional testing. It performs pretty well. 

We are using Selenium for scripting. We use Sauce Labs for the hardware device coverage on the client side.

How has it helped my organization?

The primary benefit is its cost and the ability to use the cloud. 

We use it with Sauce Labs. So, we have a large base of real devices and emulators, as well as breadth of coverage.

What is most valuable?

  • Flexibility
  • Scalability

What needs improvement?

It does require a programming skill set. I would like the product not to require a heavy programming skill set and be more user-friendly for someone without a programming background.

For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

So far, I have not have any issues with its stability.

How is customer service and technical support?

Technical support is one of the downsides of it. When you are buying a commercial tool from a vendor, your technical support is readily available but you are paying for it. However, they're going to take care of you. When you're dealing with open source, your support is based on research that you can do on the Internet. You rely on somebody else having had the same experience or one of the developers of the code having put something out there on the subject.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

This product is open source and free. That was a huge deciding factor for us getting into it.

What other advice do I have?

I don’t see it as a company spending money on anything. I like to keep up with the market because I built my career around test automation.

Most important criteria when selecting a vendor: 

  • Ease of implementation
  • Ease of adaptability
  • How much skill set would be required to operate it. Can I take somebody with no programming background and get them up and running on it, or does it require a heavy-duty programming background?
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user542793 - PeerSpot reviewer
QA Test Lead at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Vendor
Provides Freedom To Choose The Tools Needed For Full-Fledged Automation Framework
Pros and Cons
  • "The ability to present your tests on a wiki page and hooking them up to the scripts/fixtures."
  • "Selenium could offer better ways to record and create scripts. IDE is available, however, it can be improved."

What is most valuable?

FitNesse: The ability to present your tests on a wiki page and hooking them up to the scripts/fixtures. This is an amazing feature as you could literally ask your product owner, business analysts/developers to go to wiki and see all tests that are written and running automatically. Using the Gherkin format this can be very user readable, and one can also run those tests from the wiki themselves. They can even write their own tests using the available functions. Can easily be connected to Jenkins as well.

Selenium: The part with Selenium I like the most is the ability to parse and select an element from DOM. The various selectors make the job easier! At the same time one has to be careful of the selectors one uses, as it can make performance inefficient. With Selenium, one has a lot of freedom to choose the rest of the tools needed to make a full-fledged automation framework. You can use Cucumber/testing/JUnit as your test engine. You can use something else for reporting, etc., etc. It's available in so many languages, so you can choose the one which is close to your application. It’s not like a separate tool with its own scripting framework lying and maintained on the side. If your application is in Java, you can also choose Java for Selenium. If its C#, you can choose C# for Selenium. So your developers can also contribute to your framework and code.

How has it helped my organization?

It has largely improved our efficiency in QA. So every regression we don’t have to run a lot of repeatable test cases for which the flow didn’t change. However they are important to execute, so automation helps us there. Daily Smoke runs and weekly regression runs ensure that Build is continuously tested, which helps in Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery. I must be cautious here: You cannot automate everything as you still need the exploratory and cognitive behavior of a human being. So a part of testing over releases will still be manual. Efficiency can be achieved on repeatable tasks, which is still quite a gain.

What needs improvement?

Selenium could offer better ways to record and create scripts. IDE is available, however, it can be improved.

For how long have I used the solution?

About four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No issues with stability. The Selenium community maintains it well.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Depends on the hardware we choose to host the automation scripts. No issues there.

How are customer service and technical support?

There is enough material on the internet and the community answers questions/problems pretty fast. So, very good!

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

In the past I have used HPE QuickTest Pro, now ALM. Also Coded UI. However, Selenium is better for web applications, although the others provide more versatility in terms of supporting more than just web applications! They come with their license fees as well.

How was the initial setup?

As Selenium is just a library, you have to build the whole framework around it yourself. There are enough templates available on internet to give you a head start, though.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

There is no pricing cost. License is Apache License 2.0.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Ours is a web application and, considering my experience with other tools, our choice was easier. We did try Protractor and Jasmine, however Protractor is also based on Selenium. It works better with angular pages. For us, Selenium was enough and we want to use FitNesse.

What other advice do I have?

If you have a web application, I would strongly recommend this, as it has a lot of benefits as described above.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user765783 - PeerSpot reviewer
it_user765783Test Manager at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
Vendor

The Firefox Selenium IDE is no longer supported so it might not make sense to adopt it.

Mark Smith.

Solution Architect at Coforge Growth Agency
Real User
Good interaction with web pages but could use better integration
Pros and Cons
  • "Selenium HQ's most valuable feature is picking up and entering values from web pages."
  • "An improvement to Selenium HQ would be the inclusion of a facility to work on Shadow DOM."

What is our primary use case?

The main use case of Selenium HQ is for end-to-end automation of UI applications.

What is most valuable?

Selenium HQ's most valuable feature is picking up and entering values from web pages.

What needs improvement?

An improvement to Selenium HQ would be the inclusion of a facility to work on Shadow DOM. I would also like better integration with applications like Salesforce.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've worked with Selenium HQ for eight to nine years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Selenium HQ is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Selenium HQ is scalable - you can execute on multiple browsers in parallel.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Previously, I used UFT but switched to Selenium HQ as it's an open-source product while UFT is licensed.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward, and deployment took five months.

What about the implementation team?

We used an in-house team.

What other advice do I have?

In order to use Selenium HQ comfortably, you need to be very strong on Java skills. I would give Selenium HQ a rating of seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Selenium HQ Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: March 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Selenium HQ Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.