Leapwork vs Selenium | Comparison & Which is Better?

Test automation helps to speed up the development process by reducing the manual effort of testing. In recent years many organizations have shifted towards the Agile and DevOps frameworks. 

Agile focuses on short iterative delivery of the product, and DevOps focuses on automating the process as much as possible. Automation testing perfectly fits into both of these frameworks and in turn, helps to reduce the time to market. 

When it comes to automation tools, Selenium is the most popular and most used tool but Selenium requires sophisticated knowledge of programming, to overcome these challenges many companies are producing the no-code automation tool which helps to reduce the coding effort. Leapwork is one such no-code automation tool. Let’s compare Leapwork vs Selenium.

Leapwork vs Selenium: Overview

Selenium started the trend of open-source automation testing tools and it has a long history. Many tools are built with Selenium – WebdriverIO, Lampwork, etc. Leapwork is a no-code automation tool that uses the power of the Selenium tool in the background. It makes automation testing easy by eliminating many challenges involved in Selenium such as coding knowledge for scripting, setup, configuration, and integration with other tools.

What is Selenium?

Selenium is an open-source test automation framework, the initial release was made in 2004. Selenium quickly gained popularity as it was free to use and bundled with similar features to any commercial tool.  Selenium supports web application functional testing and supports many different languages such as Java, Python, Ruby, C#, JavaScript, Perl, and PHP.

 What is Leapwork?

Leapwork is a proprietary test automation tool, by Leapwork company headquartered in Denmark. Its no-code feature is the most popular. It also integrates many AI-based features like AI-based visual testing and an AI-based guide which makes it robust and unique. It supports many applications and technologies such as SAP, Office Dynamics 365, Salesforce, IBM, etc.

 Leapwork and Selenium: Similarities

Both Selenium and Leapwork are used for test automation; there are many similar features as they were built to serve a common purpose. Below are some of the similarities between Leapwork and Selenium

• Both Selenium and Leapwork’s primary goal is to automate the web application
• They both support CI/CD integration
• Both tools support integration with other software management tools.
• They both support test execution via cloud testing platforms like Saucelabs.
• Both tools support grouping test cases or creating test suites
• Both the tools fit into modern Agile and DevOps ecosystem

Why Compare Leapwork vs Selenium?

Return on investment (ROI) is a major factor for any organization. Automation testing can save a lot of cost during the execution phase, however, test creation may be time-consuming. 

Organizations are slowly understanding this, and they are shifting their focus from code-based automation tools to no-code-based automation tools to speed up the test creation phase. 

As you are aware, shifting from one tool to another tool is not easy. Comparing Selenium vs Leapwork helps to understand the pros, cons, and other features and helps to make the right decision.

Leapwork vs Selenium – Table Comparison

Limitations of Leapwork and Selenium

Selenium and Leapwork both are popular in their segment, but like any other tool, these tools also have many limitations.

Limitations of Selenium

• Selenium is a library, not a readymade framework, it requires sophisticated programming knowledge to build a robust and stable framework out of it.
• Apart from browser simulation, Selenium doesn’t provide anything built-in. Testers need to rely on third-party libraries to integrate all the required features to build the holistic framework.
• There is no built-reporter support, one needs to integrate them using their in-depth knowledge and configure the framework
• It doesn’t support no-code automation. Though it has Selenium IDE the tests produced by Selenium IDE are flaky and non-reliable
• No dedicated technical support, it has only community support. If you are stuck with any edge case or organization-specific issues it may take longer time to resolve
• Highly customizable, if you know coding, you can achieve more than just automation testing

Limitations of Leapwork

• Leapwork is a commercial tool, and you need to pay for a license
• Debugging is difficult, many developers felt that it doesn’t provide enough information to debug quickly
• Difficult to handle the edge case scenarios. The advanced feature provides scripting capability however the feature has many limitations.
• Due to the tool’s nature, it doesn’t support many customization features.
• Though the tool is no code test automation tool, you need to learn the tool and its usage. 
• Testing native mobile applications is difficult

Alternative Tool to Overcome Limitations of Selenium and Leapwork

As mentioned earlier, both Selenium and Leapwork have many advantages and disadvantages. Selenium requires sophisticated coding knowledge to build the framework. The time and effort required to build the framework is more. Leapwork reduces the many challenges in Selenium however there are many limitations related to debugging, customization, mobile automation, and the learning curve. When you look for the nearest and best alternative to Leapwork and Selenium then Testsigma stands at the top.

Testsigma is an AI-based no-code automation tool. The Testsigma team has built this tool after analyzing the needs and scope of modern test automation. It supports many features under a single umbrella. It can support the automation of functional testing, visual testing, and API testing. It also supports data-driven testing, AI-based testing, mobile app testing, customization of reports, dashboards, etc. 

Testsigma is a win-win tool for both organizations and testers. Organizations don’t need to spend much on upskilling their resources since it is a no-code testing tool anyone can learn and start automating. So manual resources can easily learn and start automating. On the other hand, it is a good tool for anyone who is enthused to learn automation. They can start automation with minimal learning and basic knowledge of test automation.

Testsigma vs Leapwork vs Selenium  – Which is better?

Testsigma, Leapwork, and Selenium all three tools are all very popular, and their customers like them. It may be difficult to conclude about the best tool. However, we can make a brief analysis of all these tools.

Many organizations have dedicated resources for test automation and they are ready to invest more in building a custom framework for their organization. Some applications, by nature, may require a lot of integration and customization achieving test automation for such applications may not be easy. As Selenium is highly customizable and configurable they can benefit from code-based tools like Selenium.

Leapwork is a no-code automation tool, it may be good for small and mid-scale enterprises where applications don’t have complex flows. It also helps to reduce the cost by aligning manual resources with automation. Leapwork supports many features, so an automation framework can be set up quickly and easily without having good technical knowledge.

Testsigma is another popular tool – a no-code automation tool. It provides many different features which don’t even exist in modern automation tools. If an organization is looking for a budget-friendly and tester-friendly tool then Testsigma is a good choice. 

The modern scope of test automation has changed. Organizations may be looking for tools more than just automation of functional testing. Companies are interested in different types of testing such as API testing, visual regression testing, feature testing, cross-platform testing, cross-browser testing, etc. Interestingly, Testsigma can support all different types of testing without much complexity. Additionally, it supports cloud execution out of the box. It also supports many other features like integration with other cloud-testing vendors, integration with CI/CD pipelines, integration with defect tracking tools, customization of dashboards, reports, and automatic scheduling, ad hoc runs are other key features of Testsigma.

Compared to the above tools, Testsigma can help the organization in many ways without compromising much on the quality of testing.  However, the right testing tool depends on many organization-specific factors such as budget, level of customization, skill set of resources, future roadmap, type of application, complexity of application, etc.

Conclusion

Selenium and Leapwork both are popular in their segment. Selenium is more extensible and customizable. It is free to use as it is open source. Organizations don’t need to spend on the license of tools. However, it requires a more advanced skill set and good programming knowledge expertise. Organizations may need to invest in costly resources or upskill the existing resources. At a time when they calculate ROI, it may not be budget-friendly considering investment made on infrastructure and other resources. 

Leapwork helps to solve some of these challenges by providing no code automation features and making it more organization and tester-friendly, but it lacks many features. Testsigma comes in handy when you are looking for a single tool for all of your automation testing needs as it supports many different types of testing under a single platform. However, only you can choose the best-fit tool for your organization. The right tool can be chosen only after evaluating the organization’s requirements and future scope.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Leapwork use Selenium?

Leapwork is no code automation tool. It uses Selenium in the backend however, while working with Leapwork, you don’t feel the flavor of Selenium as all the complexity of Selenium is completely abstracted.

Does Selenium support no code automation?

Selenium has Selenium IDE, it supports record and playback features but tests produced by the Selenium IDE are flaky. It may not produce good tests if your application has many dynamic contents. Considering the stability and reliability it is suggested to use Selenium with a programming-based version.

Does Selenium support native mobile application testing?

Selenium is a tool to test web applications, It doesn’t support mobile application testing features. Appium is built by the same community to support mobile test automation. Appium can be integrated with the Selenium framework to achieve native mobile app automation.