- August 6, 2025
Web applications are the lifeline for modern businesses, driving lead generation, customer engagement and delivery of goods and services. As an example, consider a bank’s online portal. Consumers expect a flawless intuitive user interface, fast speeds and most of all, a feeling of security and data protection. Any bugs or delays in updates can be costly to the brand image of the bank and result in lost market share.
Similarly, eCommerce sites have often replaced physical retail locations for many well-known brands, sometimes eliminating the need for brick-and-mortar stores entirely. That’s why, regardless of your products or services, web application testing is critical, not just for first impressions but also for maintaining service reliability, data security and long-term customer retention. In this article we’d like to highlight all the available web testing tools and strategy’s available to software testing professionals on the market today.
Before exploring available tools, use this checklist to ensure your website testing solution meets essential coverage needs,
Functional Testing: Verify that your web app performs as expected across all features.
UI Testing: Ensure the user interface responds correctly to interactions with the design created.
Compatibility Testing/Cross-Browser Testing: Confirm the application works across browsers, operating systems, screen sizes, and devices.
Performance/Load Testing: Ensure that your web application functions and is fast even during peak performance periods.
Table of Contents
What are Your Options for Web Testing?
Let’s break down the testing approaches and tools available on the market for developers, engineers and QA’s
Manual Testing – Performed by humans executing test cases often written in a spreadsheet and integrated into agile tools like Jira.
Script Based Automation – Popular open-source frameworks like Selenium, Cypress, and Playwright that allow testers to write automated scripts in Java, Python, or C#.
Test Automation Platforms – Commercial and low-code/no-code solutions such as TestWheel, Mabl, Katalon, Leapwork, and Accelq.
The Manual Web Testing Process: Why it’s Cumbersome
Manual web testing involves writing test cases in a spreadsheet or template. These templates are often provided by popular test management tools such as TestRail and Zephyr, or they may be written in markdown (md.). There is very little benefit to relying exclusively on manual testing, which is why dev teams are adopting some form of automation.
However, manual testing is still feasible for exploratory testing or early-stage development, especially for smaller organizations. For example, automated tools can’t assess the emotional response to inconsistent branding in a web application.
But overall manual testing falls short for most Agile teams. It cannot provide the full coverage needed for web testing, especially as teams scale or conduct user acceptance testing in real-world scenarios. Overall manual testing doesn’t provide complete coverage for modern web applications being released to broader markets.
Where manual testing falls short:
- Repetitive tasks/regression testing: time consuming and error prone.
- Limited coverage: difficult to scale for Agile teams who are constantly releasing updates.
- Slower feedback loops: Delays in release cycles
- Inconsistent results: Increased risk of human error.
Script Based Open-Source Platforms for Automated Web Testing
Selenium
Developed by Thoughtworks in 2004, selenium is the most widely adopted open-source web testing framework. It’s free and supports users who want to write in multiple programming languages. The drawback is that it requires coding expertise. For instance, if a test is originally written in C# than everyone else on a team must be familiar with C# or else they can’t run or maintain tests. Additionally, Selenium comes with a steep learning curve and a huge requirement for technical knowledge. And when a UI changes on a web application, often a test will break resulting in someone manually correcting a test step locator. This is often the cause of bottlenecks in the web testing cycle.
Cypress
Released in 2014, Cypress focuses on developer friendly end-to-end web testing. It primarily works with java script and supports fewer browsers compared to selenium providing less coverage. It has limitations when it comes to browser behavior. For instance, testing scenarios where a user opens a new browser. Cypress struggles between navigating different domains and subdomains. While it has some benefits such as strong documentation and built-in API testing, it can’t handle the complex environments of real-world users.
Playwright
Created by Microsoft in 2019, Playwright offers Cross Browser test automation and works well with modern web apps and multipage scenarios. However, there is still a steep learning curve, and it requires JavaScript/typescript skills. Playwright requires external tools for visual reporting and there isn’t as strong of legacy documentation or support with tools such as Selenium.
Open Source Web Testing Features & Limitations
| Feature | Selenium | Cypress | Playwright |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary Language Support | Multiple (Java, C#, Python, etc.) | JavaScript only | JavaScript, TypeScript |
| Coding Requirement | High – requires programming expertise | Moderate – JavaScript only | High – JavaScript/TypeScript skills required |
| Cross-Browser Testing | Yes | Limited (Chrome, Edge, Firefox – no Safari) | Yes (Chromium, WebKit, Firefox) |
| Test Maintenance Burden | High – fragile locators break on UI changes | Medium – more stable than Selenium | Medium – better handling of modern apps but still code-dependent |
| Handling Multi-Tab / Cross-Origin | Weak – workarounds needed | Poor – cannot handle new tabs or domains | Strong – built to support complex workflows |
Test Automation Platforms: Adopting Low-code/No-code Web Testing
Open-source frameworks have provided coverage and improved the testing time compared to legacy manual processes. Today however, teams are moving towards test automation platforms with low code/no code options for test creation, automated reporting, and reduction in training time to reduce the human error and test maintenance. Test Automation Platforms drastically improve the ROI of organizations by saving test hours and improving software quality. They represent the natural evolution of testing after script-based automation. There is virtually no downside to adopting a test automation platform other than the time it takes to transition from your current process of either manual or script-based frameworks.
Reasons to adopt a test automation platform
- Cut web testing hours and accelerate release cycles with up to 90% faster execution.
- Eliminate coding and scripting with intuitive no-code test creation
- Simplify regression testing with reusable, repeatable test cases
- Lowers the technical barrier for testers. No programming skills required.
- Auto-generate visual reports for clear stakeholder communication.
- Easy to learn interface. Fast ramp up speeds and short learning curve.
- Most platforms integrate with CI/CD pipelines and tools like Jira and Azure DevOps.
Web Testing in the age of AI
Artificial intelligence is reshaping every industry, especially tech and software development. For many software testers and QA’s this shift raises important questions about what the future of their role will look like. AI will accelerate development and meet the consumer demand for better and faster releases, but it won’t replace testers or the need to conduct software testing. Human insight and testing experience will remain essential for guiding AI models, validating results and developing intelligent, context aware testing strategies. So, it will be crucial for AI tools to receive the input and feedback from your testing experience.
Instead think about AI as something that will change the role of testers and not replace them. Here are some of the AI tools on the market today that all web testing teams should consider adopting
AI Powered Test Automation: Automatically write tests using plain language prompts. Simply provide a URL and test steps to allow AI tools to author your test cases.
Self-Healing Tests: AI web testing tools detect and fix broken locators from UI changes without manual intervention, reducing flaky tests.
Transition from Your Previous Testing Process: Use AI to seamlessly convert manual test cases or your open-source scripts into plain English automated templates.
Chatbots for Support and Training: Get real-time, natural language help using in-app AI support — eliminating delayed responses from traditional customer service.
TestWheel: AI Enhanced Web Application Testing Providing No-Code Coverage
At TestWheel, we offer a complete no-code platform for end-to-end web application testing. Unlike traditional script-based tools like Selenium, TestWheel provides a faster, more accessible solution for users of all skill levels. Our platform supports complex testing scenarios, including cross-browser testing, multi-tab workflows, mobile testing, load testing, and built-in API validation, all in one unified environment.
By switching to TestWheel, development teams can eliminate the need to manage multiple tools or write code. AI-powered features like natural language test creation and self-healing for broken UI locators streamline both test creation and maintenance. What truly sets TestWheel apart is the short learning curve and our commitment to a 100% no-code experience. And for teams relying on open-source frameworks, we make the transition seamless. TestWheel can automatically convert your existing Selenium scripts into fully automated no-code web tests. TestWheel provides all the available AI tools for web testing on the market as well as customizable workflows and integrations for your current development stack. It is the perfect selenium, playwright or cypress alternative.
