How many devices does one use every day?

With the rising of the Internet of Things, they invaded all the areas of our lives, and it is hardly ever possible to fancy a living without them. A wide range of different devices caused the necessity to build the web and mobile applications that support a growing number of browsers and screen resolutions. Therefore software providers conduct more cross browser tests for ensuring the product’s quality. That is what browser compatibility testing stands for.

However, the task is not much simple. Its purpose is to ensure every user in every situation is receiving the same experience across all the devices, browsers, operating systems and screen resolutions used (the list of which one generates according to a certain project). Sure it is always possible to run checklists and search bugs manually, though with an enormous amount of different browsers/devices/OS and so on manual testing passes into madness. To approach the challenge testers usually use specific tools for manual and automated testing of performance, UI, and behavior. Let’s look at the most popular and useful testing tools so far.

BrowserStack

BrowserStack is one of the mainstream tools among web testers, providing an opportunity to access virtual machine with developer tools. This platform supports more than a thousand web and mobile browser versions with resolutions from 800×600 to 2948×1536. Also, it has a great user-friendly interface, so that it is unnecessary to have much skill to start testing. Its powerful features include:

• Cloud testing for mobile apps on real devices driven by iOS or Android (Samsung Galaxy, Nexus and more);
• Localhost testing support;
• Selenium automation testing support;
• Responsive design check;
• Screenshots.

BrowserStack is a paid tool, and its price line starts at $29/month for unlimited use. It is perfect for commercial testing.

TestingBot

Selenium-based TestingBot gives vast opportunities for automated testing with over 800 browsers, including the most popular Chrome, Firefox, IE, Safari, and Opera. Moreover, it provides locally hosted testing as well and supports all Windows systems, Linux, iOS, and their mobile versions. One does not need to install any TestingBot software for using it because it provides an interface to reach all necessary browser versions using your browser.

TestingBot is a paid tool, although it offers 100 minutes of free usage before you pay for it. For $30 a month one will get 400 minutes of automated unlimited manual tests, 200 screenshots, two virtual machines for concurrency testing.

BrowserShots

The first free tool on the list so far. BrowserShots captures screenshots of browsers to test the design. It supports 200+ browsers, which include Aurora, Chrome, Epiphany, Firefox, Safari, almost everything one can imagine except IE. That is the biggest drawback of the tool because this browser is among the most usable in the world. However, it can be very useful in case of a limited budget. Desktop resolutions supported range is from 640 to 1600 pixels, and there is also possible to disable scripts and flash while testing.

CrossBrowserTesting

A web-based testing tool providing an ability to test the site instantly on real devices and supports more than 1500 browser versions and 65 operating systems, which include both traditional Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, and Linux, and more rarely used ones. In addition to standard functionality like screenshots or automated testing, it is also due to the support of API, Selenium tests and JUnit testing.

The tool is a paid tool, and the fee starts at $29 a month. Nevertheless, there is also one-week trial period.

Litmus

Litmus gained its popularity due to its excellent email inbox testing tools. This unique feature made it a valuable instrument for both designers and testers. Additionally to a wide range of supported browsers and OS, Litmus allows testing email and spam filters. Easy-to-navigate UI, the support of the most browser/OS/device combinations, and useful share feature are designed primarily for adaptive web development and testing.

The Litmus is a paid tool, the price begins at $60/month, and that worth it.

Netrenderer

This tool is a great pair for BrowserShots. Make your guess why? It is also free and supports all the Internet Explorer versions. Furthermore, unlike BrowserShots, one does not need to wait for a queue for running tests. However, it does not support the real-time view. Usable display widths are between 800×600 and 1024×768.

Browser Sandbox

This tool is tightly connected to the turbo.net platform, which web-based container makes it possible to test the app in an entirely different way in comparison to other testing products. No installation is required, just click to run desktop and server apps on any Windows based computer.

The paid plans of the Browser Sandbox are also different, one can run a version of the app for free using 10 GB storage, but to run a legacy software costs minimum $9.95/month.

Browserling

One of the youngest in the list, launched in 2010, Browserling has already enough fans throughout the world. Unlike any other tool mentioned above, it supports SSH & SSL testing, API service, recording and making screenshots in various browsers. As for OS range, it supports Windows versions from XP to 8.1 and mobile Android, but unfortunately, that is all.

The Browserling is not free. Real machines running contributed to this popularity in a decent extent, so that a relatively low price – just $19 a month for unlimited access to its functions.