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Device farms are used to simulate the testing process of iOS and Android applications on multiple device platforms. Subsequently, you can cut labor costs and time required by using some of the best device farms for testing. Hence, it helps you achieve greater test coverage and eases your DevOps mobile pipeline.



In recent times, there has been a gradual increase in the range of mobile devices. We see devices with different features, OS, screen sizes, etc. Therefore, it&#8217;s natural that we need to put more effort into testing our applications on each of these devices. We want our applications to work flawlessly on every possible device the user might use.



With all these new versions of Android and iOS devices available, manual testing will take a toll on your budget and labor hours. Hence, there was a need for a platform that would allow you to perform simulated manual testing on a broad range of devices all in one place.



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<div id="toc_container" class="no_bullets">Table Of Contents<ul class="toc_list"><li><a href="#What_are_device_farms">1 What are device farms?</a></li><li><a href="#Benefits_of_mobile_app_testing_on_device_farms">2 Benefits of mobile app testing on device farms</a></li><li><a href="#Best_mobile_device_farms_for_testing">3 Best mobile device farms for testing</a><ul><li><a href="#Testsigma">3.1 Testsigma</a></li><li><a href="#AWS_Device_Farm">3.2 AWS Device Farm</a></li><li><a href="#Sauce_Labs">3.3 Sauce Labs</a></li><li><a href="#Firebase_Test_Lab">3.4 Firebase Test Lab</a></li><li><a href="#Samsung_Remote_Test_Lab">3.5 Samsung Remote Test Lab</a></li><li><a href="#Xamarin_Test_Cloud">3.6 Xamarin Test Cloud</a></li><li><a href="#Kobiton">3.7 Kobiton</a></li></ul></li><li><a href="#Conclusion">4 Conclusion</a></li></ul></div>
<h2 id="f6aan">What are device farms?</h2>



When the device fleet rose in earlier times, Nokia started an initiative to make the lives of testers somewhat easier. They would allow them to run their applications on rented devices in a remote-controlled mode. However, we could not scale it to the extent of mobile variations that we have now.



As a further development, now the OS itself could provide tools that would allow testers to simulate user actions on applications. Consequently, they can write scripts that can be executed on mobile phones running in developer modes. These scripts would easily imitate user actions on devices.



Subsequently, they built DevOps tools that automatically build and run these scripts on thousands of mobile devices. These devices would have the target applications on them and run in developer mode.



A fleet of such devices with different variations running on remote cloud labs is called a device farm.



<h2 id="bm1j6">Benefits of mobile app testing on device farms</h2>



If you are working at scale, <a href="https://testsigma.com/mobile-testing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">testing your mobile applications</a> on multiple devices becomes really expensive and time-consuming. On device farms, you have access to thousands of devices with different configurations.



You can leverage emulators and simulators to perform your testing. Cloud-based testing also allows you to capture performance issues. Here are some of the most important benefits of using device farms for mobile app testing.



<ul><li>You have lots of devices with different OS platforms, screen orientations, display sizes, memory, network, etc. It reduces the overall maintenance and infrastructure cost.</li><li>You can perform parallel testing which will save you tons of time.</li><li>Cloud-based environments are usually secure and they can be accessed from anywhere.</li><li>You can get detailed reports in the form of graphs, video recordings, screenshots, etc.</li><li>With the help of all the reports, it becomes easier to spot bugs and fix them.</li><li>You can easily integrate them with your CI/CD pipeline, making collaboration easier.</li></ul>



<h2 id="b5a22">Best mobile device farms for testing</h2>



On a lower level, all the device farms use some kind of special script. This script is launched by the OS to simulate actions like gestures, button presses, touch, etc.



The main difference is the subsystems used by these device farms for executing these scripts. Some of the popular ones are &#8211; Espresso, Appium, Calabash, UI Automator, Robotium, XCTest, etc.



In this article, let’s discuss a mix of free and professional device farms and test labs.



<h3 id="1e3u3"><a href="https://testsigma.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Testsigma</a></h3>



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Testsigma is not just a device farm but a cloud-based, no-code test automation platform. It allows you to perform parallel <a href="https://testsigma.com/automated-mobile-app-testing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">automated tests on real devices</a> hosted in the cloud. It helps you to create test cases using plain English, and there is no need to set up any infrastructure.



Here are the features of Testsigma that make it sit right on top of the deck.



<ul><li>Testsigma has zero learning curve, enabling everyone to test on the go with its simple English scripting feature</li><li>You can perform <a href="https://testsigma.com/automated-mobile-app-testing">automated mobile app test</a> scenarios on 3000+ iOS and Android devices remotely.</li><li>Parallel automated testing is supported, allowing for quick results.</li><li>Creating detailed test cases for UI/UX testing is easy with Testsigma.</li><li>Testsigma provides drill-down test reports with video recordings and screenshots.</li><li>Bug sharing, CI/CD integration, and other features make reporting results faster and easier.</li></ul>



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<h3 id="fqfak">AWS Device Farm</h3>



This is the most widely used and best mobile device farm for testing currently available. It lets you test concurrently on multiple devices to speed up the execution of your test suites. It also generates logs and videos for extensive debugging.



A large number of devices with options to choose memory, CPU usage, location, carriers, etc.



Videos and logs to reproduce the bugs faster. Fine-tune real-world environments by setting location, network, language, etc. Several plugins and APIs to integrate with your CI/CD, like Jenkins, Android Studio, etc.



Set up private device labs to avoid long waiting queues. For script executors, you can use Appium (iOS + Android), Espresso and Robotium for Android, and UIAutomation and XCTest for iOS.



<h3 id="at6t2">Sauce Labs</h3>



Sauce Labs allow you to expedite live and automated mobile app testing on public and private device clouds. You can use Android emulators and iOS simulators that are highly reliable, cost-effective, scalable, and optimized for your CI/CD pipeline.



You can easily achieve beta, live, automated, and API testing using high volumes of real device tests with minimum error rates.You will have access to features such as unlimited screenshots and videos, single-use VMs, secure local tunneling, REST API access, tons of debugging tools, etc. 



Similar to AWS device farms, Sauce Labs also allows you access to the best script executors including Appium, Espresso, and XCUITest.



<h3 id="2hgl3">Firebase Test Lab</h3>



This has been developed by Google and is specifically designed for testing Android applications, but you can also test iOS apps. It uses real production devices for app testing running in Google data centers.



They have customizable locale settings and updated APIs. You can easily road-test your app by configuring the hardware and software configurations. Some of its key capabilities are &#8211;



Firebase Test Lab is integrated with Android Studio, Firebase console, and gCloud CLI. You can even integrate it with your CI pipelines. To execute scripts, you can use Espresso, Robotium, UI Automator 2.0, and Robo tools.



It provides testing and cloud API quotas included in Blaze and Spark testing plans. The spark plan is free and can perform 15 daily test runs. The blaze plan determines the cost based on the time taken for test runs.



<h3 id="avd6v">Samsung Remote Test Lab</h3>



Needless to say, Samsung owns a big chunk of the world&#8217;s smartphone and Android market. Hence, it’s worth noting the remote testing lab provided by Samsung.



This device farm contains all the flagship Samsung smartphone devices. Additionally, testers will have access to innovations even before they have rolled them out to market. This will allow you to test the operations of your applications on devices that have not yet launched.



Not only this, you can even perform tests on Tizen-based devices like Galaxy smartwatches and Tizen mobiles.



There are more than 30 smartphone and tablet models to perform your tests on. It allows you to manually record all the events and steps you want to test in the same sequence. Besides, it enables you to perform remote debugging.



The Samsung device farms are completely free to use. However, the only constraint is that you can only test your application on Samsung smartphones.



<h3 id="53i5u">Xamarin Test Cloud</h3>



The Xamarin device farms are a part of Microsoft’s Visual Studio App Center. It allows you to run your tests on over 2500 mobile devices. You can upload your application and tests on the Xamarin Cloud using Visual Studio. This will automatically install the application on the environment and prepare your test runs.



Xamarin offers frameworks such as Appium, Calabash, Espresso, and Xamarin.UITest to execute your test scripts. When the test runs are completed, it will send out a notification with detailed test reports to all the registered users.



<h3 id="3gj89">Kobiton</h3>



With Kobiton, you can access hundreds of real devices in the cloud. Concerning performance, these devices mimic actual devices in hand. It has a slew of features without any complicated setup procedures.



Whether you run manual or automated tests, it captures detailed, rich test logs in formats like screenshots and videos, along with metrics like memory and battery performance. You can easily replay scenarios to perform root cause analysis.



You can perform parallel execution of all your test scripts. It allows you to integrate it into your CI/CD pipelines quickly. With the help of ADB debugging, you can easily get hold of cloud (or local) devices straight from your developer workstation. You can natively access mobile devices directly from your IDE.



You can <a href="https://www.vpnreactor.com/best-free-vpn/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">use VPN</a> from your private Kobiton cloud to ensure flexibility but not at the cost of security. Kobiton supports open standard frameworks, which means that your scripts are protected. Some of these are Appium, Espresso, Selenium, XCUI, etc.



<h2 id="73ec3">Conclusion</h2>



In this article, we have reviewed some of the best device farms you can use to test your iOS and Android mobile applications. There’s no doubt that, when used at scale, the benefits of using cloud-based device farms are immense.



It helps testers get out of the hassles of multi-device UI/UX testing, saves a lot of time, and cuts labor costs. If you are a single developer looking to test your app on a few devices, you can try out a free solution like Firebase Test Lab, Samsung Remote Test Lab, etc.



If you are working on an app with a potentially large target audience, it&#8217;s always better to test the application thoroughly on as many device configurations as possible. In that case, you can try out platforms like AWS Device Farm, Kobiton, etc.



But if you are looking for a completely hassle-free and automated solution, you should definitely give a test-automation platform like <a href="https://testsigma.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Testsigma</a> a shot.



Stay Tuned!

7 Top Device Farms to test your iOS and Android applications

Smartphones have revolutionized our lives, and you&#8217;re likely reading this on one. It&#8217;s hardly shocking to consider how pervasive mobile gadgets have become. Nearly half of people polled in a February 2021 survey conducted by L.Ceci via Statista spent five to six hours a day on their phones, not considering work-related smartphone use.&nbsp;



Mobile devices handle more than half of all searches worldwide. Additionally, page speed is becoming a factor in mobile search engine rankings. Companies and bloggers must opt for a website theme that has been developed and optimized for speed.



This means if your website is not mobile-friendly,&nbsp; you are missing more than half of your potential customers. It also implies that your website&#8217;s design and navigation must be consistent across all platforms and devices



This is where the ultimate responsive website design testing comes in. It ensures that your website displays correctly and functions smoothly on any computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone. The most accessible approach to ensure that you execute responsive design testing successfully is to follow a responsive design testing checklist, and in this article, we have done the hard work for you. 



<div id="toc_container" class="no_bullets">Table Of Contents<ul class="toc_list"><li><a href="#What_Is_Responsive_Web_Design">1 What Is Responsive Web Design? </a></li><li><a href="#Ultimate_Checklist_For_Responsive_Design_Testing">2 Ultimate Checklist For Responsive Design Testing</a><ul><li><a href="#1_Test_For_Navigation_On_Website">2.1 1. Test For Navigation On Website </a></li><li><a href="#2_Perform_Font_Device_Testing">2.2 2. Perform Font Device Testing </a></li><li><a href="#3_Third-Party_Browser_and_Device_Testing">2.3 3. Third-Party Browser and Device Testing </a></li><li><a href="#4_Conduct_a_Test_on_a_Small_Screen">2.4 4. Conduct a Test on a Small Screen </a></li><li><a href="#5_Test_How_Fast_Your_Website_Is">2.5 5. Test How Fast Your Website Is </a></li><li><a href="#6_Test_Element_Alignments">2.6 6. Test Element Alignments</a></li><li><a href="#7_Test_For_Content_Placement">2.7 7. Test For Content Placement</a></li><li><a href="#8_Perform_Compatibility_Testing_Across_Multiple_Browsers">2.8 8. Perform Compatibility Testing Across Multiple Browsers</a></li><li><a href="#9_Test_For_Interactive_Experience">2.9 9. Test For Interactive Experience </a></li><li><a href="#10_Test_the_Mobile_Compatibility_of_Website_Pop-ups">2.10 10. Test the Mobile Compatibility of Website Pop-ups </a></li><li><a href="#11_Test_for_Better_Functionality">2.11 11. Test for Better Functionality. </a></li></ul></li><li><a href="#Tools_For_Responsive_Design_Testing">3 Tools For Responsive Design Testing</a></li><li><a href="#Conclusion">4 Conclusion </a></li></ul></div>
<h2 id="h-what-is-responsive-web-design">What Is Responsive Web Design? </h2>



Nowadays, people use various gadgets to access the internet and interact with websites. You can find these high-tech gadgets in multiple form factors and display sizes. Your site&#8217;s design and functionality must adapt to the screen size of every visitor accessing it.&nbsp;



Responsive web design helps your site display correctly on all screen sizes and resolutions. This layout method adjusts the content&#8217;s visibility, size, and position in response to the viewing device, ensuring optimal readability and viewing experience across all devices.&nbsp;Later, you may use a<a href="https://venngage.com/features/poster-maker" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow"> free poster maker</a> to create banners if you&#8217;re getting into traditional ads, but you should still follow your brand guidelines.



Conversely, your rivals are rolling out the red carpet for potential clients. Currently, smartphones are widely available, with 80 percent of internet users having one. Users in this demographic often devote 69% of their media consumption habits to their mobile devices. Without a mobile-friendly website, a company runs the danger of losing sales. Furthermore, about  57% of consumers said they wouldn&#8217;t suggest a firm with poorly designed websites also <a href="https://taggbox.com/blog/embed-youtube-shorts-on-website/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">embed YouTube shorts</a>, TikTok videos, and Instagram reels to make it more responsive to increase retention time. 



This shows the value of responsive web design, and if you care about keeping your audience and your business alive, you should seriously consider investing in it.



<h2 id="h-ultimate-checklist-for-responsive-design-testing">Ultimate Checklist For Responsive Design Testing</h2>



A responsive design should already be live on your website if you&#8217;ve updated it or gotten a new one during the past several years. A website that adapts to different devices&#8217; screen sizes is now expected of users; hence most web design firms include responsive design in their primary offerings. However, optimizing your website for mobile devices isn&#8217;t a one-and-done deal.



Your website&#8217;s responsiveness should be tested with a responsive design checker and regularly updated per your responsive design testing checklist. 



<h3 id="1-test-for-navigation-on-website">1. Test For Navigation On Website </h3>



Use a navigation bar to direct visitors to certain parts of your site or specific pages. There are usually five or more buttons on a navigation bar. The menu bar must evolve with the device. No matter how much we tried to make the navigation bar smaller using the @media queries meta tag, it still wouldn&#8217;t be clickable on a mobile device. So, we&#8217;ve found that the &#8220;hamburger menu&#8221; works well on mobile devices. Because of its widespread use, users will actively seek it out if they have no choice.&nbsp;



It should be standard practice to confirm that the navigation layouts work correctly across devices to ensure a positive user experience.



<h3 id="2-perform-font-device-testing">2. Perform Font Device Testing </h3>



Developers will often employ a wide range of typefaces and design approaches while composing text for a website to make it more aesthetically pleasing to the users. Devices that do not support these fonts, or use a different encoding system, may display them as gibberish. It is, thus, vital to test the typefaces on various devices before releasing them for actual website <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/mobile-responsive-testing/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">mobile responsive testing</a>. 



<h3 id="3-third-party-browser-and-device-testing">3. Third-Party Browser and Device Testing </h3>



You should use Google Analytics data to examine online and mobile traffic, considering the browsers and devices used to access the sites. This should be done quarterly, with the latest OS and device and the old ones phased out. Consider including the beta versions to ensure your website is mobile-friendly.&nbsp;



<h3 id="4-conduct-a-test-on-a-small-screen">4. Conduct a Test on a Small Screen </h3>



With the constantly growing number of mobile users, having a website that doesn&#8217;t adjust to any screen size is no longer acceptable. That&#8217;s why keeping the <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/mobile-first-design/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">mobile-first design</a> strategy in mind when creating a responsive layout is crucial. Mobile phones and other small display devices should be a starting point for your design.



<h3 id="5-test-how-fast-your-website-is">5. Test How Fast Your Website Is </h3>



You can track how well your components adapt to different screen sizes with responsive design. However, when considering mobile devices, which often operate on lower bandwidth, it becomes clear that rich content, such as photos, videos, etc., poses the greatest threat to the site&#8217;s loading speed. The loading time will grow proportionally if we keep using the same graphics we were producing on larger devices like laptops, which will frustrate your users.&nbsp;



A mobile web page should only take four seconds to load. After two seconds, if your loader is still spinning, users will likely hit the back button.&nbsp;



Web page load times can negatively affect even the most well-known companies. To paraphrase current findings from Hubspot&#8217;s research:



<ul><li>Yahoo may see a boost of 9 percent in visitors if the company can shorten the time it takes pages to load by 0.4 seconds.&nbsp;</li><li>Amazon will lose $1.6 billion annually in sales should page load times increase by just one second.</li><li>A 2. the second delay in Bing&#8217;s search results would result in a 4.3% drop in revenue per visitor, a 3.75 % drop in clicks, and a 1.8% drop in queries.</li></ul>



If your website loads slower than you&#8217;d like on these smaller devices, you may need to employ different strategies to present the same graphics.



<h3 id="6-test-element-alignments">6. Test Element Alignments</h3>



When working with limited space, element alignment becomes especially crucial. Everyone can readily identify a shape that is out of proportion and breaks the limits. The tester must verify that the website&#8217;s many parts are spaced adequately across the screen. Responsive web design will not be effective if it is not rendered and aligned correctly.&nbsp;



<h3 id="7-test-for-content-placement">7. Test For Content Placement</h3>



The larger viewing area of a desktop or laptop computer makes it simple to zero in on a specific component. In addition, because of the viewer-to-screen distance, we can examine every detail. However, mobile devices are an exception to this rule. Because of the limited real estate screen on mobile devices, we must be mindful of condensing unnecessary information. See below for a representation of where your attention should be drawn on a mobile device&#8217;s display:



<ul><li>Edges, Corners (Least Precise)&nbsp;</li><li>Center (Most Precise)&nbsp;</li></ul>



Determine if the location of the critical elements is inside this area and if the elements are not overly crowded. You can use <a href="https://www.founderjar.com/web-based-project-management-software/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">web-based management software</a> to plan and manage your content placement.&nbsp;



<h3 id="8-perform-compatibility-testing-across-multiple-browsers">8. Perform <a href="https://testsigma.com/guides/compatibility-testing/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Compatibility Testing</a> Across Multiple Browsers</h3>



The first thing you should do when testing a website for responsive design is to use a different browser on the device to see if it displays correctly. When you perform <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/9-tips-to-avoid-cross-browser-compatibility-issues-from-the-start//" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cross-browser compatibility testing</a>, your website may be viewed and explored in any browser, operating system, or resolution. Manual and automated <a href="https://testsigma.com/cross-browser-testing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cross-browser testing</a> is under the broader umbrella, and both have several sub-paths. <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/remote-usability-testing/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Remote Testing</a> of Websites provides additional details on the same topic. 



Our knowledge tells us that <a href="https://testsigma.com/cross-browser-testing-tools" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cross-browser testing tools</a> hosted in the cloud are among the most effective of their kind. Cloud-based solutions don&#8217;t require the installation of any testing infrastructure, can be accessed from anywhere, and are easy to learn and use.&nbsp;



<h3 id="9-test-for-interactive-experience">9. Test For Interactive Experience </h3>



We&#8217;ve already established a wide range of screen sizes for mobile devices. There&#8217;s also the fact that the interactive experience has evolved since Steve Jobs unveiled the original iPhone. Some individuals today choose to use a stylus for a more consistent and accurate touch, while others prefer to use one hand exclusively for most interactions with the device. The primary goal of this responsive design testing checklist is to ensure a consistent user experience across devices and interaction types. 



You shouldn&#8217;t be able to press two buttons simultaneously with one hand on the same button. The user interface should attempt to consolidate the available choices by providing several different models, etc. The user&#8217;s impression of our site depends on this, so our responsive design testing checklist must remain a top priority.



<h3 id="10-test-the-mobile-compatibility-of-website-pop-ups">10. Test the Mobile Compatibility of Website Pop-ups </h3>



Everybody is utilizing pop-ups because they are so effective at getting visitors to sign up for newsletters and buy products. However, you should be aware that website pop-up windows can be helpful and annoying. It can be highly irritating to site users and harmful to your site&#8217;s reputation with search engines if it is not presented correctly.&nbsp;



You should also check if the website&#8217;s pop-ups are responsive—all pop-ups, whether online or in a new window, are included. Pop-ups should also be responsive to their purpose on any device and pass a responsive design test.&nbsp;



<h3 id="11-test-for-better-functionality">11. Test for Better Functionality. </h3>



Check that your menu bars don&#8217;t spill off the sides of the screen. On mobile devices, tap the hamburger menu icon to access the site&#8217;s hidden navigation. Verify that swiping is an option for the user.&nbsp;



<h2 id="h-tools-for-responsive-design-testing">Tools For Responsive Design Testing</h2>



It would help if you had a thorough <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/software-testing-strategy/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">testing strategy</a> to ensure that your website works consistently across all platforms, browsers, and operating systems. Checking for user engagement, page loading, typefaces, graphics, navigations, alignments, etc., across several mobile devices would be a huge undertaking. Use a <a href="https://slidemodel.com/templates/tag/funnel/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">funnel template</a> to monitor and group audience interaction with the website.&nbsp;



However, several solutions on the market make it easy to check off every item on the responsive design testing checklist. For example, <a href="https://testsigma.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Testsigma</a> is a responsive cloud-based automation tool that provides website and mobile app testing to increase speed and improve performance. The tool has many notable features, including automated maintenance, debugging, and instant reporting. If you want to test how responsive your website is, this is a great place to start. Some of it&#8217;s features are;



<ul><li><a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/test-plan/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Test planning</a>, development and execution for multiple projects </li><li>Multi-device testing of websites </li><li>Multiple <a href="https://testsigma.com/guides/use-case-testing/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">testing use cases </a></li><li>Reporting and analytics </li><li><a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/why-test-data-management-is-more-important-than-you-think/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Test data management</a> </li><li><a href="https://testsigma.com/ai-driven-test-automation" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">AI test automation  </a></li><li><a href="https://testsigma.com/guides/visual-testing/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Visual testing </a></li></ul>



Check Out &#8211; <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/cross-website-tracking/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cross Website Tracking</a>



Get here &#8211; the list of <a href="https://testsigma.com/tools/responsive-design-testing-tools/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Responsive Web Design Testing Tools</a>



<h2 id="h-conclusion">Conclusion </h2>



More than 8.5 billion mobile devices are currently in use worldwide; thus, your website must be optimized for mobile users. Every day, new gadgets, Operating systems, and browsers are released. However, testing a website&#8217;s responsive design is an ongoing process. Regular maintenance of the responsive design testing checklist is required.



To ensure your website is compatible with the latest devices and browsers, you should regularly update the list you test with. If you need inspiration for a new website and want to use responsive design, you can find examples of it all over the internet.&nbsp;



Remember, too, that testing for responsive design is a continuous effort, not a one-and-done task. Each day brings a slew of new gadgets, so we must keep at it.

The Ultimate Responsive Website Design Testing Checklist

Types of APIs & Protocols: Choose the Best for Your Project

V-Model In Software Development Life Cycle

V Model in Software Testing | What, Why, Advantages and Disadvantages

To understand the difference between the Selenium Standalone server and the Selenium server, we need to go back to the Selenium history. Released in 2002, Selenium is an open-source tool, shipped with Apache Open Source License 2.0. Since web technologies have undergone many changes, automation frameworks like Selenium also had to go through changes.&nbsp;



Interestingly Selenium is the most popular automation framework today as well. Selenium has survived because it is adopting the latest technology and architecture. Every time Selenium made a new release it ensured that the framework is aligned with the latest technology trends and architecture. 



Selenium framework is designed in such a way that programming language should not be a barrier to testers as it supports Java, JavaScript, Python, C#, etc.



Many are confused that WebDriver API is a Selenium, but WebDriver is one of its components. Selenium has multiple components such as Selenium IDE, Selenium Grid, Selenium WebDriver, etc. As Selenium is the most flexible automation framework, it provides support to local execution, remote execution, and recording of the scripts.



<div id="toc_container" class="no_bullets">Table Of Contents<ul class="toc_list"><li><a href="#Difference_between_Selenium_Standalone_server_and_Selenium_server">1 Difference between Selenium Standalone server and Selenium server</a></li><li><a href="#What_is_Selenium_Server">2 What is Selenium Server?</a></li><li><a href="#How_does_Selenium_RC_Selenium_Server_work">3 How does Selenium RC/ Selenium Server work?</a></li><li><a href="#Sample_Selenium_Server_RC_script">4 Sample Selenium Server RC script.</a></li><li><a href="#Why_is_Selenium_ServerSelenium_RC_deprecated">5 Why is Selenium Server/Selenium RC deprecated?</a></li><li><a href="#What_is_Selenium_Standalone_Server">6 What is Selenium Standalone Server?</a></li><li><a href="#When_to_Use_Selenium_Standalone_serverGrid">7 When to Use Selenium Standalone server/Grid</a></li><li><a href="#Challenges_with_Selenium">8 Challenges with Selenium</a><ul><li><a href="#Challenges_of_Selenium_and_other_Test_Automation_Framework">8.1 Challenges of Selenium and other Test Automation Framework</a></li></ul></li><li><a href="#Features_of_Testsigma">9 Features of Testsigma</a></li></ul></div>
<h2 id="h-difference-between-selenium-standalone-server-and-selenium-server">Difference between Selenium Standalone server and Selenium server</h2>



The current Selenium version is 4.x. As mentioned earlier, Selenium has undergone many changes whenever it is upgraded to a major version like 1.x, 2.x, etc. With Selenium 4.0, there is no such confusion between Selenium Server and Selenium Standalone server. The only executable server jar available is Selenium Grid.&nbsp;



This article provides concrete and definite answers to the question: Difference between the Selenium Standalone server and the Selenium server.



<h2 id="h-what-is-selenium-server">What is Selenium Server?</h2>



<a href="https://www.selenium.dev/documentation/legacy/selenium_1/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Selenium RC</a> was the initial and core Selenium project even before Selenium WebDriver started. The Selenium RC is deprecated and no longer supported. But to understand the difference and arrive at a definite conclusion, you need to explore the history of Selenium Versions.



Let&#8217;s understand the components of Selenium RC.



Selenium Server



The Selenium Server in Selenium RC was responsible for the below set of actions



<ul><li>Launch the browser</li><li>Interpret and run the Selenium command passed from the test program (code)</li><li>Act as an HTTP proxy by intercepting and verifying the HTTP message passed between the browsers and the Application Under Test</li></ul>



Client libraries



Client libraries in Selenium were used as the interface between each programming language and the Selenium RC Server.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" src="https://testsigma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/Selenium-RC-Architecture.jpg" alt="Selenium RCArchitecture" class="wp-image-21175" width="600" height="400"/><figcaption>Selenium RC Architecture</figcaption></figure></div>



<h2 id="h-how-does-selenium-rc-selenium-server-work">How does Selenium RC/ Selenium Server work?</h2>



The above Architecture&nbsp; diagram shows the working mechanism of the Selenium RC Server



<ul><li>Selenium Client Libraries communicate with the Server by passing the Selenium command for execution one by one</li><li>The server passes the Selenium command to the browser using Selenium Core</li><li>The browser executes the Selenium command</li></ul>



Since the Selenium Server is in context, it existed in Selenium RC, which was the initial version of Selenium. The Selenium Server was one of the key components in Selenium RC. It receives Selenium commands from the test program, interprets, and reports back to your program; the results of running those tests, and tests are then marked as pass or fail.



The Selenium Server was designed to receive the Selenese commands from your test script. The communication was done using the simple HTTP protocol, either GET or POST methods. This method enables support for multiple programming languages. Any programming language supporting HTTP calls can be used to communicate with the Selenium Server.



<h2 id="h-sample-selenium-server-rc-script">Sample Selenium Server RC script.</h2>



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;public class NewTest{



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; public void testNew() throws Exception {



Selenium Selenium = new DefaultSelenium(&#8220;localhost&#8221;, 4444, &#8220;firefox&#8221;, &#8220;https://google.com&#8221;)



Selenium.start



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Selenium.open(&#8220;/&#8221;);



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Selenium.type(&#8220;q&#8221;, &#8220;Testsigma&#8221;);



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Selenium.click(&#8220;btnG&#8221;);



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Selenium.waitForPageToLoad(&#8220;30000&#8221;);&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; }



&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;}



The Selenium RC Server architecture was different from the latest Selenium, so the above code is comparatively different from today&#8217;s Selenium Code.



The DefaultSelenium was part of package com.thoughtworks.Selenium in Selenium RC which was used for Initialising the Selenium.



Selenium 2.x introduced the Selenium <a href="https://www.selenium.dev/documentation/legacy/selenium_2/upgrading/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">WebDriver API</a>, which removed the complexity of the Selenium RC server. In Selenium RC, the Selenium Server was the mediator between the Selenese command and the browser. The WebDriver was built with new architecture, it does the job similar to Server (not the same); however, WebDriver is not a server. WebDriver makes use of native events to interact with a web page.



Before we explore about Selenium Standalone Server, let&#8217;s conclude the Selenium Server



<ul><li>The Selenium Server was part of the Selenium RC.</li><li>Selenium Server acts as the mediator between the Selenium commands and the browser.</li><li>Selenium Server communicates with the client using HTTP calls such as GET/POST.</li><li>The Selenium Server is deprecated; it is no longer available.</li><li>The Selenium WebDriver replaced the Selenium Server.</li></ul>



<h2 id="h-why-is-selenium-server-selenium-rc-deprecated">Why is Selenium Server/Selenium RC deprecated?</h2>



The Selenium Server/RC had limitations, so the Selenium team decided to introduce a WebDriver and bring the changes to the architectural level.&nbsp;



Some of the challenges with Selenium Server/RC:



<ol><li>Selenium RC architecture was complex.</li><li>Selenium Server needed to start before test execution.</li><li>Selenium RC doesn&#8217;t support headless mode.</li><li>Supporting multiple browsers for a long period was challenging.</li></ol>



Now, let&#8217;s learn about Selenium Standalone Server.



<h2 id="h-what-is-selenium-standalone-server">What is Selenium Standalone Server?</h2>



The Selenium Standalone Server is what you see as a Selenium Grid today. But you may be wondering: Why do we still need a Selenium Standalone Server when Selenium Server was replaced with WebDriver in Selenium 2?



Replacing Selenium Server with Selenium WebDriver solved the problem of local execution. Using WebDriver, you do not need to start the Selenium Server as WebDriver communicates to the browser directly without starting the <a href="https://www.redswitches.com/dedicated-server-hosting/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">dedicated server</a>. However, there are some use cases where you need to use the server. Some common scenarios are



<ol><li>If you want to Execute your test on the remote machine</li><li>If you want to distribute tests across the multiple machines</li></ol>



Earlier, the Selenium was shipped with a standalone server, though it was optional. The Selenium Standalone server had the format of <a href="https://selenium-release.storage.googleapis.com/index.html?path=2.39/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Selenium-server-standalone-{version}.jar</a>.&nbsp;



The Selenium 4.0 doesn&#8217;t follow the above format; it follows the format of Selenium-server-{version}.jar. The Selenium Standalone server is optional. You need to use the Selenium Standalone server or Selenium Grid only when you have the above use cases.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" src="https://testsigma.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/Selenium-Grid-Architecture-in-Selenium-4-Grid4.jpg" alt="Selenium Grid Architecture in Selenium" class="wp-image-21170" width="600" height="400"/><figcaption>Image: Selenium Grid Architecture in Selenium 4 (Grid4)</figcaption></figure></div>



Not to confuse other sources on the internet, the Selenium Grid has undergone many changes over the versions. For example, the Selenium Grid 2 and 3 had different architecture than the Selenium 4 Grid.



The Selenium Grid 3 had Hub and Node architecture, where the hub was a central system to communicate with the Nodes. The Node was the system where the actual browser runs.



The Selenium 4 Standalone Server or simply Selenium Server (in Selenium 4)&nbsp; has the above architecture.



Router: Entry point of Grid, receives all external requests and forwards to Node with the help of Session map and Session Queue.



Distributor: It keeps all the Node details,&nbsp; such as a list of browsers, available node slots, etc.



Node: Node is the place where the actual browser exists. Each grid can have multiple Nodes. The distributor will have every Node&#8217;s information along with its capabilities. The Node&#8217;s responsibility is just to execute the commands. It doesn’t make any judgments; it simply executes the command received.



<h2 id="h-when-to-use-selenium-standalone-server-grid">When to Use Selenium Standalone server/Grid</h2>



<ul><li>To run the cross-browser and/or cross-platform tests parallely</li><li>To execute the tests faster in distributed test execution environment</li></ul>



The confusion between the Selenium Server and Selenium Standalone server arises because of Selenium RC or an older version of Selenium 4. Considering Selenium 4, there is only one Selenium Server available which is Selenium Grid Server.



Example of Selenium Code using Selenium Grid:



ChromeOptions options = new ChromeOptions();



options.setCapability(CapabilityType.BROWSER_NAME,&#8221;chrome&#8221;)&nbsp;&nbsp;



RemoteWebDriver driver = new RemoteWebDriver(new URL(&#8220;http://localhost:4444&#8221;), options);



driver.get(&#8220;https://google.com&#8221;);



driver.close();



To Summarise 



<ul><li>Selenium Server and Selenium Standalone server are different; each is designed to serve a different purpose.</li><li>Selenium Server was part of Selenium RC, which is now deprecated.</li><li>Selenium WebDriver is a replacement for Selenium RC Server with better and faster execution of tests.</li><li>The primary purpose of Selenium Standalone Server / Selenium Grid is to execute the tests in a distributed environment parallelly.</li><li>The Selenium Grid/Selenium Standalone server is still available for use with the latest version of Selenium 4.</li><li>The Selenium Grid /Selenium Standalone server is optional and can be chosen based on the requirement and purpose.</li></ul>



<h2 id="h-challenges-with-selenium">Challenges with Selenium</h2>



Though Selenium is the most popular automation framework, it requires a deep level of technical expertise. Today, there are many test automation frameworks such as Playwright, Cypress, TestCafe, WebDriverIO, etc. One of the major challenges that you and your organization face is skillset. You&#8217;ll have to learn a new API and architecture whenever you switch to a new testing framework.



<h3 id="challenges-of-selenium-and-other-test-automation-framework">Challenges of Selenium and other Test Automation Framework</h3>



<ul><li>The learning curve for every framework is considerably high.</li><li>Complicated setup, requiring a good amount of technical expertise.</li><li>Setting up a framework from scratch is different.</li><li>Testing in a cross-browser and cross-platform environment requires robust infrastructure. Maintaining the infrastructure is complicated.</li><li>Not all frameworks support multi-level testing such as API Testing, UI Testing (Visual Testing), and end-to-end Testing.</li><li>Manual Testers need to put high effort into learning automation.</li><li>Reporting and DevOps integrations are additional complications.</li><li>Whenever there is an upgrade of your tool version you need to learn and upskill. Breaking changes in the latest version may cause false failures, which in turn requires high maintenance.</li></ul>



With all these difficulties, achieving a quality product is a nightmare. Well, Testsigma addresses all these pain points. Imagine writing the test case in plain English, which executes like a charm. Testsigma is an Gen AI-powered test platform that allows you to write tests in simple English. 



Unlike Selenium, Testsigma doesn&#8217;t require any complicated setup or infrastructure management. The tests can be recorded, or you can even write your own; same tests can be executed on 800+ browsers.



<h2 id="h-features-of-testsigma">Features of Testsigma</h2>



<ul><li>Ability to record the tests or write your tests.</li><li>No coding knowledge is required, and tests can be written in plain English language.</li><li>Manual testers can quickly learn and upgrade themselves to the automation world.</li><li>Feature to Test on Mobile devices without complicated setup.</li><li>No need to maintain infrastructure; Testsigma takes care of that.</li><li>Supports multiple types of tests such as API Tests, End to End tests, and Visual Tests.</li><li>Supports all major DevOps tools.</li><li>Faster execution and instant reports and analytics,</li></ul>



In addition, Testsigma has a community-driven plugin marketplace where you can easily hook any plugins to your test.&nbsp;



Comparing Selenium and Testsigma, Testsigma can save a lot of time and effort. Selenium testers mostly spend time setting up, configuring, and debugging issues by losing the main focus of writing the automation scripts. Testsigma, on the other hand, takes all those burdens and complications of configuration and setup, enabling testers to focus on their automation script and execution happily.

Selenium Standalone Server vs Selenium Server [Updated]

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