Lambdatest vs Cypress

A scaling web application brings its own challenges to the team. A lot of the elements start to break, a lot of them begin to raise compatibility issues, and some will become extremely hard to maintain. Among so many challenges, one type of challenge is inevitable no matter what type of application it is or how robust it has been built. This is the challenge of continuously increasing the number of test cases in each domain and maintaining them for long. When this challenge becomes serious, the Cypress Vs Lambdatest debate can pop up in the team discussion to settle on the best tool to reduce the testing cycles and bring features that help the tester accomplish testing goals in different domains.

What is LambdaTest?

LambdaTest is a cloud-based cross-browser testing platform that provides more than 3000 screens on their platform for testing. The main goal of LambdaTest is to provide a platform through which the testers can ensure that their application works consistently on all the target devices without ever purchasing one. For this, along with the devices, the platform provides support for third-party integrations such as Appium, Selenium, and CI/CD tools. 

LambdaTest also provides different types of testing support for testers including visual regression testing, responsive testing, and mobile app testing along with a touch of artificial intelligence with branched tools like KaneAI.

What is Cypress?

Cypress is a front-end test automation framework built for modern web applications using the latest technologies. Its capability to test the web application in real-time on installed browsers helps it expand its implementation area from testing (QA) to development.

Cypress provides rich debugging facilities that help point out the application’s errors quickly. The tool also runs inside the browser; therefore, the team can use the browser’s developer tools if they wish to debug through it. Other impressive features of Cypress include smooth integration, a completely visual debugging dashboard, and the ability to work with accessibility violations to deploy an app that is meant for all.

What is Testsigma?

Testsigma is a cloud-based online test automation tool providing a series of functionalities to testers working in almost any domain including API testing and data-driven testing which are hard to crack. The upselling point of using Testsigma is the artificial intelligence benefits it provides in all the functionalities. The platform uses natural language processing through which it can understand English language sentences and convert them to actions.

A tester can also assess the impact of artificial intelligence in creating the tests, executing them, and generating reports that collectively reduce the time of testing by up to 10 times. In addition, testers have the option to operate real devices, integrate various third-party tools to enhance their strengths, and manage everything from a single dashboard.

Explore the various features of Testsigma [Try for free]

LambdaTest vs Cypress – Similarities and Differences

To understand the comparison of LambdaTest vs. Cypress, it is important to be aware of their advantages and disadvantages. This knowledge will help compare both these tools on some common parameters, giving the team a clearer picture.

Pros and Cons of LambdaTest

Understanding both sides of LambdaTest helps an individual understand the tool beyond the world of “cross-browser testing”.

Pros of LambdaTest

• LambdaTest is cloud-based and therefore eliminates the need to set up an infrastructure on the premises. All it requires is a browser and an internet connection.

• LambdaTest provides real devices on their platform which are expensive to buy and maintain personally. In addition, since they are the actual devices similar to what an end-user will use, the testing metrics achieved are accurate and help shape the application according to the end-user.

• The platform comes integrated with artificial intelligence for a few of its features. Currently, AI-based functionalities are only available in basic test case generation, test orchestration through Hyperexecute, debugging, and visual UI testing.

• LambdaTest provides integration with automation frameworks such as Selenium and Appium to conduct automation testing using their platform over the cloud. Third-party integrations such as CI/CD tools and analytics tools are also available.

• LambdaTest also has other applications that can be accessed from the same account. These include Accessibility Devtools, an extension for managing accessibility issues, and LT Browser, a standalone browser developed specifically for responsive testing.

Using LambdaTest is a great way to get access to a lot of real devices (including the latest ones) and build your infrastructure over the cloud at very low costs with just a browser from a personal system.

Cons of LambdaTest

• LambdaTest is not an online automation tool, but it can be perceived as one due to Selenium and Appium integrations. It is most commonly used for accessing real devices, however, if integrations are applied, automation scripts written on the local platform can be run on it as well.

• LambdaTest releases too many products in a very short time, which can confuse testers in many domains, including responsive testing. For instance, whether to perform it using the web app or their dedicated browser, as both offer the same functionality.

• The platform provides a free trial to get a taste of it with limited features. However, the free trial is too restrictive and allows very little time to perform testing in which the tester cannot fully judge the tool and its functionalities.

• Documentation is often criticized as outdated or in other words, documentation of the product is not updated regularly. Due to this, the tester cannot follow the steps and understand the functionality completely which is not a good sign for any tool.

These cons can sometimes prevent a tester from understanding the tool’s actual nature and cause them to perceive it as something else. This can contribute to making the wrong selection when LambdaTest vs. Cypress is the topic of discussion.

Pros and Cons of Cypress

The benefits and demerits of using Cypress can help us understand this tool and how it has gained popularity in such a short time.

Pros of Cypress

• Cypress runs the tests directly in the browser which is the fastest way to execute browser tests as there are no lags. This also helps debug an issue as testers are already familiar with built-in browser developer tools (such as web inspector).

• Cypress comes with parallelization and load-balancing support to execute the tests most optimally.

• The tool provides rich reporting and analytics integration, making observing and analyzing test runs and gaining actionable insights easier.

• Testers can explore UI coverage and test visual bugs with Cypress to prevent regressions from the system bringing a bug-free UI to the end-users.

• Cypress can detect accessibility violations on each test execution providing feedback and screenshots for the same after the run. These issues can be triaged and fixed from within the same dashboard easily.

There are numerous other advantages of using Cypress as the primary front-end testing tool for a tester including orchestration and integration with many third-party tools for a streamlined flow. Testers can discover them once they start working with Cypress.

Cons of Cypress

As there are advantages of using Cypress, there are a few disadvantages (generic) that a tester might have to face which will help him decide to find a perfect match for the LambdaTest vs Cypress debate.

• Cypress is based out of Javascript and therefore, it is the only language it supports in its complete form. This means that other languages that are closely related to Javascript, such as Typescript, can be used but the code has to be transpiled to Javascript which is an added overhead and may not work as efficiently.

• Cypress primarily focuses on and is built for Google Chrome. It supports other browsers also but the efficiency is not as robust as it is with Google Chrome. This can prevent a tester from performing cross-browser testing on the browser efficiently.

• The Cypress team claims that “the tool will never be able to run on a native mobile app” which can be a concern for a lot of testers who look for a single tool for their web and mobile apps. However, applications that are developed in a browser such as by using the Ionic framework, mobile web apps, and shrinking the viewport to the mobile size can all be tested comfortably using Cypress.

• Cypress does not work on more than one browser at a time. Also, it supports only a single tab in a browser out of the box. However, by using the Puppeteer plugin, this functionality can be extended to multiple browsers.

• The front-end testing framework does not support file upload and download operations which are commonly used on many web applications. This can limit the functionalities a tester can test using Cypress forcing him to use multiple tools for the application testing.

These are some of the generic disadvantages of Cypress that every tester will have to tackle and get affected by. In addition to them, there are other cons of using Cypress in the project but that might be restricted to only those whose project demands that kind of functionality from the tool.

What sets Testsigma apart in the LambdaTest vs Cypress debate?

Testsigma is the third testing tool this post highlights due to its close resemblance with the tasks for which LambdaTest and Cypress are chosen. Fortunately, where LambdaTest and Cypress fail, Testsigma can compensate and accommodate cutting-edge features according to the latest testing trends and the tester’s comfort.

LambdaTest suffers from the issue of test automation and while it may seem that it is moving towards being a complete automation tool, it is currently far from that. To automate tests and execute scripts, it has to take help from the framework explicitly. In other words, the tester has to download the framework on their infrastructure, set up and create tests, and then use LambdaTest for execution. All this is an overhead that consumes a lot of time and extends the time to delivery.

Cypress, however, is good at conducting test cases on its own but restricts the user to a single programming language. Moreover, Cypress cannot perform test execution on mobile applications which can demotivate a lot of testers in choosing it for their testing projects. 

Testsigma eliminates both of these issues by providing a test automation platform over the cloud that contains more than 3000 real devices and uses the English language to write test scripts. It supports native mobile apps, web apps, and hybrid apps along with all the major testing domains to conduct tests as the tester wishes on whichever platform he wishes.

Some of the key highlighting features of Testsigma are:

• Induction of artificial intelligence: AI touches almost all the corners of Testsigma providing a helping hand in performing each task easily and in a short time. AI has helped Testsigma users bring down the testing time by up to 10x throughout the cycles. Its usage spans from generating tests, creating new tests, and designing powerful reports.

• English-based test writing: The test scripts in Testsigma are written in the English language which are then understood by natural language processing models and converted to actions. All a tester needs is to have a basic understanding of English.

• Wide testing types supported: Testsigma supports a large variety of testing types including data-driven testing, API testing, Salesforce testing, visual testing, and accessibility testing along with the commonly used functional and native app testing. It lets you automate end-to-end UI tests for your web, mobile, desktop applications as well as APIs.

• Integrations: More than 30 integrations ensure that the tester can accomplish multiple tasks, pre and post-testing, from the single screen from where tests are executed. This helps provide all the data in a single place through which the testers can gain more control over their cycles.

• Reporting: Testsigma comes with in-built reporting features that provide context-driven and dynamic reports imparting deeper insights and rich analytics to work on.

• Scalable and reliable: Since Testsigma is a cloud-based platform, the responsibility of scaling the infrastructure as the application scales is onto them. This is a huge time saver as scalability and maintenance are one of the most time-consuming tasks. Moreover, the user also gets dedicated team working 24×7 to sort out the queries.

Testsigma seems to blend in comfortably when LambdaTest vs Cypress is in question. It provides all the required features while also eliminating the anomalies of both of them hence presenting a perfect tool for the next test automation endeavor. 

Testsigma vs LambdaTest vs Cypress

The knowledge of Testsigma, LambdaTest, and Cypress discussed to this point is enough to compare these tools head-to-head on certain parameters that often serve as the team’s judging yardstick. The following table will help you understand them from a much deeper standpoint.

Parameter	Testsigma	LambdaTest	Cypress
Test automation domains	Supports all test automation domains including API testing and data-driven testing.	Support test automation but only executes the part through integration with third-party tools such as Selenium and Appum. In-house test automation is done through KaneAI but it is a recent development and not for enterprise.	Support test automation for cross-browser testing, end-to-end testing, and component testing.
Language used	English	Test scripts are written in third-party frameworks so the language depends on the framework in use.	Javascript. However, support for Typescript is also available partially.
Artificial Intelligence	Yes	Yes but limited to KaneAI and Hyperexecute which work on partial elements.	No.
Learning curve	A smooth learning curve as the tool uses the English language and works mostly through visual elements. For example, operating the application can create test cases automatically, etc.	Smooth if limited to real device operation. However, can be a little challenging if test cases are executed as it requires integration by generating and adding credentials to the test scripts.	Hard as the framework requires good knowledge of programming language and the only way it allows to write test cases is through test case scripting.
Test execution method	Codeless includes automatic test case generation and code generation when actions are performed on the application manually.	Depends on the tool used. If third-party tools like Appium are used then scripted test execution is followed. Codeless test execution can be done through KaneAI but it comes with limited capabilities.	A purely scripted test execution method is followed.
Free trial	Yes	Yes	Yes
Cloud services available	Yes	Yes	Yes
Scalability	Highly scalable.	Highly scalable.	Highly scalable but only if the cloud option is used. Else, the infrastructure has to be developed on-premise.
Test Maintenance	Highly maintainable tests as they are written in the English language which is easy to understand.	Hard to maintain if scripted tools are used. KaneAI also poses challenges as the script is written in vertical chunks using strict syntax which is hard to follow.	Since the tests are written in scripted language, they are a little hard to maintain.
In-built reporting	Yes	Yes	Yes
Integrations	Yes, 30+ integrations available.	Yes, 100+ integration available.	Yes but limited to CI tools.
Flexibility and control	Mediocre. Allows customization and flexibility over features but is restrictive in language use.	Minimum. Extremely restrictive with minimum customization control given to the end-user.	High. Since everything depends on the end-user and how they script the tests, they control everything in the process including “how” things will be done.

This explicit comparison gives a clear view of how all these three tools differ from their core working to their area of impact on the project. It will help the tester decide the most suitable tool for their testing project.

Testsigma vs LambdaTest vs Cypress: Which one should you choose?

Testsigma, LambdaTest, and Cypress, all come with unique advantages and downsides. Like anything else, there is no single answer about which tool one should choose when their requirements coincide with cross-browser testing and test automation.

LambdaTest is a great choice when one needs access to real devices over the cloud. However, it does not come as an ideal choice when test automation needs to be conducted. The tool provides its own interface for automation but it is very recent and limited in capabilities due to which the team cannot include it in mid to enterprise-level applications. 

Cypress is just the opposite of LambdaTest. It provides a test automation interface with laid-down features that enhance efficiency and output. However, there are two problems with the framework. First, the tool works on scripted automation on which a lot of testers are not comfortable in working. Secondly, it does not provide devices on which testing can be initiated. If the team chooses Cypress, they are confined in team selection and have to spend a lot of money just to maintain the devices.

Testsigma provides a cloud-based test automation framework that works in the English language (i.e. codeless framework) and includes all the recent real devices combined with operating systems and specifications. In addition, the platform provides artificial intelligence integration in all its features helping the tester complete all tasks with higher accuracy and in a very short time frame. So, if your requirements are fulfilled here, Testsigma is the perfect solution for you.

These are the advantages and disadvantages of all these three tools in a nutshell. As mentioned, there is no right or wrong tool here. If the tool’s features strike well with the team’s skills and capabilities, that tool should be considered the best tool for the project and the team should go ahead with it.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is LambdaTest used for?

LambdaTest is used for accessing real devices on the cloud infrastructure. It can also be used to execute scripted tests via third-party integrations and run codeless tests through KaneAI.

What are the drawbacks of Cypress?

Although Cypress comes with its own share of disadvantages as discussed in this post, the two main cons of Cypress are its primary focus on Google Chrome and not being able to support mobile applications. These two are big disadvantages that can stop a tester from selecting Cypress as their primary testing tool.