Top 10 Visual Testing Tools in 2024 

Visual Testing is the important part of Software Test Life Cycle.  Visual Testing performed to ensure that visual elements of Website of Website or Application like layout, images, buttons and functionalities are working as expected. With the Digital Disruption in Software Industries, each Software Development Company deploying code so frequently even on the Daily Basis. In this case, keeping the track record of UI changes is so difficult but fortunately some good Visual Automation Testing Tools make it so easy.

This article presents the comprehensive details of Top 10 Visual Automation Testing Tools Details includes features, drawbacks, pricing and supported platforms.

What is “Visual Testing”?

Did you know what “Visual Testing” means? It refers to the evaluation of an application’s visible output and compares it with the outcomes anticipated by design. In other words, it assists in identifying “visual flaws,” which are separate from strictly functional bugs and which affect the appearance of a page or screen. Applitools, an automated Visual Testing tool, can help to speed up this Visual Testing and reduce errors that may occur during manual verification.

It is also known as “visual UI testing,” which ensures that the software user interface (UI) is working as expected. Visual Testing helps to confirms that the color, design, theme, and each element of the web page looks accurate and give functional results. It apparently examines multiple areas like screen sizes, operating systems, and other factors.

What is Manual Visual Testing?

Companies utilize manual testers to detect visual problems because automated functional testing techniques are inefficient for doing so. Manual Visual Testing entails contrasting two screenshots, one from your app’s most recent version and the other from a known-good baseline image. You need to take your time with each pair of photographs to be sure you’ve caught every problem. particularly if the page is lengthy or contains numerous graphic components.

Can we automate Visual Testing?

There are plenty of Visual Automation Testing tools available in market. These tools work on very simplified steps. In visual Testing, we need to capture screenshot and compare with previous version. This comparison usually happened on image properties like pixel, size and color. This comparison can be done manually or via AI/ML based algorithm. Automated Visual Testing can save resources by detecting and fixing the  visual bugs in early stage of development which can save enormous cost.

What is the Process of Visual Testing?

In order to determine whether any pixels have changed, visual tests create, examine, and contrast browser snapshots. These pixel disparities are known as visual differences (also known as perceptual differences, diffs, CSS differences, and UI differences). It continues with the following steps:

• an examination of the test runner’s ability to write and run the test.
• A browser automation framework

An automatic report will be generated once the test code has been completed. The points that highlight the differences between the final and expected images will need to be sought out from this test execution.

Importance of Visual Testing

Did you know why Visual Testing is  so important? because visual errors happened every time you tried to create a website or a mobile application. There are numerous bugs that can occur while executing or operating any website. There are many examples of user-generated platforms like Instagram, Amazon, Google, Slack, Robin Hood, Poshmark, Yelp, Target, and many others that face bugs and errors. All you need to do is solve these errors by connecting with the best Visual Testing tools and techniques. All of these businesses have access to some of the most knowledgeable engineers in the world. If it happens at Google, Instagram, or Amazon, it will most likely happen to you as well.

1. Applitools:

Applitools is the most popular tool for visual testing that offers wide range of features and  integrations that help users to automate the testing process. This tool work on artificial intelligence based comparison which can find small deviations in UI.

Key Features of Applitools :

• Capable to find hard to catch bugs
• Reduce Code and efforts in Setup
• Reduce Manual Maintenance & False Positive

Pricing: Contact Sales teams    Platform: Windows, Mac and Linux                     Drawback: No free version available

2. Percy:

Percy is an All in One Visual Testing Tool and review platform. Using Percy, you can test Web Applications on Desktop and Mobile browsers.

Key Features of Percy :

• Visual Coverage across your whole web application
• Cross browser and platform support
• High Speed rendering
• Parallelization Capabilities

Pricing: Contact Sales teams  Platform: Web      Drawback: No support available for Desktop Applications

3. Wraith:

It is a screenshot comparison tool and created BBC News developers. Wraith uses a headless browser to create snapshots of web-pages on different environments and create two different  of the two images; the affected areas are highlighted in blue.

Key Features of Wraith:
Open-source tool and work in multiple modes
Captures screenshots of Webpages
Runs in multiple modes (Comparison of two domains or Comparison of same domain)
Pricing: Open Source Platform: Web Drawback: No support available for Desktop Applications

4. PhantonCSS:

PhantomCSS is an open-source Visual Testing Tool that allow users t  easily detect and fix regression visual issues in Web Applications. PhantomCSS takes screenshots captured by CasperJS and compares images using Resemble.js to test for rgb pixel differences, PhantomCSS  generates images diffs to help you to find cause.

Key Features of PhantomCSS:

• Open-source tool and easy integration with popular frameworks
• Test Management, report and analytics

 Pricing: Open Source

Platform: Web

Drawback: Bit complex setup as compared to other tools

5. VisualEyes: VisualEyes is a visual testing tool for Web Application which works on AI/ML technologies.

Key Features of VisualEyes:

• Attention on Heatmaps simulation.
• Test Management
• Reports and Analytics
• Easy to integrate with Popular Testing Framework

Pricing: Open Source

Platform: Web

Drawback: No support for non-web applications

 6. Chromatic: Chromatic is a visual testing and review tool that scans every possible UI state across browsers to catch visual and functional bugs.

Key Features of Chromatic:

• Coverage across Browser
• Run Test in Parallel by default.
• Responsive View port Testing
• No test flake
• Automated Testing with CI (Continuous Testing)

Pricing: Free for Basic Uses

 Platform: Web

Drawback: No support for non-web applications

7. AyeSpy : AyeSpy is a high performing visual Testing tool which is widely used to catch regression UI issues. AyeSpy is extended version of Wraith and BackstopJs.

Key Features of AyeSpy:

• End to End Tests
• Support Selenium Grid
• Run on Docker based Selenium Grid or Selenium Standalone
• Support CI/CD

 Pricing: Free for Basic Uses

Platform: Web

Drawback: No support for non-web applications

8. Katalon Studio: Katalon Studio is Web Automation tool which well support Visual Testing Automation.

Key Features of Katalon Studio:

• Alert critical UI Mismatches
• AI Comparison methods
• Run in Parallel with functional Tests.

Pricing: Paid

Drawback: Need to buy license for command line execution

9. Galen Framework: Galen Framework is the visual automation testing tool which take care of Look and feel for your responsive Web Application. Galen Framework provides details reports :

• Error Reporting: Galen Framework generates Html reports where you can see all your test objects on the page.
• Screenshots: Automatically highlights the misaligned elements so it is really easy to see what is wrong on the Page.
• Image Comparison: Galen Framework gives you the ability to perform visual check and shows you the mismatching area.

  Pricing: Open-Source Tool

Drawback: No support for non-web applications

10. BackstopJS: BackstopJS is a visual regression testing tool which is used to detect web application quickly.

Features of BackstopJS:

• Supports for Automated Visual Testing
• Test Management, Reports and Analytics
• Integrations with popular testing frameworks

Drawbacks:

Limited support for non-web applications

 Pricing: Open-source

Platform: Web

 Conclusion:

In conclusion, most of visual automation tools works in very similar ways. Selection of tool totally depends on your project technology stack. In above article  we have explained about various tools which may help you in Visual Automation Testing. Our consultant may help you by automating end to end visual testing which ensures that your application is pixel clear perfect across all the devices. But correct tool saves enough time and resources. Let’s start your Visual Testing journey with ThoughtCoders.

To know more about our Visual Testing services you may contact us on info@thoughtCoders.com or call us on +91-9555902032.