Top 4 Reasons to Choose an Open Source Tool for Test Automation

Open source software development has become increasingly popular over the last two decades, allowing testers to roll out high-quality software rapidly. Startups and large organizations are leveraging open-source testing tools that are reliable, secure, and free to use. Even organizations that build proprietary software are consumers of open source, recognizing the importance of contributing back to open source.

Open-source test automation tools have revolutionized the way teams test software. Open source test automation tools have enabled testers to accelerate the speed of releases and deliver value to their customers faster. Additionally, they have allowed organizations to gain a competitive advantage by reducing the time to market.

The testing community has embraced open source test automation tools making them the de facto way to automate tests. This article will discuss everything open-source and the benefits of choosing an open source tool for test automation.

Wait, before we proceed, there is a huge announcement to make!?

Experience a Better Testing Life with Testsigma Now being Open Source!

Testsigma, the foremost AI-powered, low-code, cloud-based test automation platform for modern QA teams, is now open source and available under the Apache 2.0 license. To get started, visit their GitHub repository.

Check GitHub repo

Testsigma understands the value of giving back to the testing community, which has helped them succeed. They hope to benefit the greater community by being open-source and empowering any tester, regardless of coding skills, to automate and better serve you.

Testsigma will be available as an open-source project and distributed under the Apache 2.0 license.

The CEO of Testsigma feels that by using the power of the community, open-sourcing the platform reinforces their objective of creating a powerful, safe, and free test automation solution. With this step, Testsigma hopes to enable every tester to automate, even those with little coding experience. It welcomes you to collaborate with them to improve the product by solving complex challenges.

Check how Testsigma compares to Selenium.

Community plays a crucial role in the success of open-source software. Testsigma is committed to building a passionate, strong, diverse open-source community to work on the shared challenges in test automation. Joining the Testsigma community will allow you to collaborate with others passionate about solving common difficulties in test automation. They are dedicated to developing a diverse and robust open-source community and invite you to participate by joining their Discord group.

What is Open Source?

A proprietary software(closed source) is where a person, team, or organization has complete control over the source code. Unlike proprietary software, open-source software is available in a public repository for the developer community to collaborate and contribute. 

Open source means that the software’s source code is accessible to the community. Developers can learn, modify, improve, maintain, or redistribute depending on the license terms. Open-source software projects aim to provide solutions to a specific set of problems for the larger community’s benefit. Open-source development fosters transparency, collaboration, and innovation. Open-source initiatives do not start with monetization in mind. Furthermore, they offer greater freedom, control, and flexibility for a free or nominal price. 

What are the Differences Between Open Source and Closed Source Software?

Open source software is freely available to the public, and anyone can view, modify, and redistribute the source code. This means that anyone can contribute to the development of the software by fixing bugs, adding features, or enhancing its functionality. It also encourages innovation and fosters a sense of community among users. On the other hand, closed source software is developed by a company or an individual and uses proprietary tools such as Selenium or Appium.

What are the Pros and Cons of Open Source Software?

Open source software offers several benefits, such as cost-effectiveness and customizability, but also has drawbacks, such as lack of support, compatibility issues, security risks, complexity, and difficulty of use. Additionally, its source code is publicly available, making it easier for attackers to identify and exploit vulnerabilities. It is important to weigh the pros and cons of open-source software and assess whether it is the best choice for their specific needs.

How can you Ensure Open Source Software Security?

To ensure open-source software security, you should keep it up-to-date with the latest patches, and use reputable sources. You can verify the integrity of the software you download by checking its digital signature or hash. Before deploying open source software, conduct a thorough security review to identify any potential vulnerabilities or weaknesses. If you’re developing open source software, follow secure coding practices; monitor for security events such as unauthorized access and suspicious activity.

Top Reasons to Choose an Open Source Automation Tool

Below are the top reasons to choose open source test automation tool for your team –

• Cost-Effectiveness

The significant reason that comes to our mind for using an open-source tool is the cost. Open-source software is more cost-effective than its proprietary counterparts. With the increasing software testing costs, testing leaders look to put their budget to good use and maximize the value. Open source test automation tools allow leaders to save costs without compromising on quality. With open-source automation tools, you need not worry about any recurring license or maintenance fees.

• Quality

Open source is no longer just a cheap alternative for proprietary software. Open source communities have grown quality conscious over the years. Today’s open-source software is more robust and offers better quality than its proprietary counterparts.

Open-source software results from the collaboration of hundreds of developers worldwide with diverse levels of experience and expertise. Good practices like TDD, code reviews, code refactoring, multiple testing, and feedback stages. Continuous integration, alerting and monitoring, and initiatives like test days and bug bounties have helped improve the quality of Open-source software.

• Flexibility

Open-source software provides automation testers the flexibility to customize the software and build solutions to their business needs without any hassles. Furthermore, even develop their own tweaks, tools, innovations, and enhancements. 

With an open-source automation tool, testing leaders can prevent the risks of vendor lock-in. Testing teams will have the freedom and flexibility to switch to another tool at their disposal. Moreover, with open-source tools, automation testers can scale quickly to meet the ever-changing demands of their organizations.

• Transparency

Some organizations are hesitant to use open source software as they feel it can compromise security. In reality, both Open source and proprietary software can be vulnerable to security threats. With the increasing concerns about privacy and data security, the open-source software promotes trust as anyone can inspect the code anytime. This transparency ensures open-sourced products do not misuse users’ data deliberately. 

The advantage of open source is that many contributors review and test the code. Their efforts help in preventing, finding, and fixing security flaws regularly.

Along with the code, open-source communities also give you the complete visibility of feature roadmaps, Open bugs and their status, community discussion forums, etc.

If you are a tester, here is a great blog that talks about the What, Where, Who, Why, When, and How of ‘Open Source for Testers’.

What makes Testsigma Stand Out from the Rest of the Open Source Automation Tools?

• Enterprise-Grade Features for Free

Choosing the right tool is crucial to succeeding in test automation.

Testsigma is an enterprise-ready tool with powerful test automation capabilities. Testsigma is more than just an automation tool and replaces multiple tools in your agile delivery pipeline. It is a complete platform with all the essential elements for continuous testing and easily integrates with your existing tools.

Additionally, Testsigma’s AI capabilities help you reduce maintenance and improve the team’s efficiency. By open-sourcing Testsigma, the testing community can access most enterprise-grade features for free.

It comes with a wide experience of serving enterprise customers like Freshworks, HPE, Sage, APA, SignEasy, IEEE to name a few.

• Intuitive User Experience

You may have observed that several open-source projects are poorly designed and do not offer a good user experience. Poor UX makes them harder to adopt and frustrating to use. Testsigma provides an intuitive UI that makes it easy to speed up your test automation game and onboard without any hiccups to get sprinting.

• Minimal Learning Curve

One of the significant limitations of getting started with most open-source test automation tools is the steep learning curve of their usage. Testers new to test automation may not have the necessary skill sets (like programming) to benefit from an open-source test automation tool.

Even though open-source test automation tools are free, there is still a cost associated with setting them and creating frameworks from scratch. The technical entry barrier can discourage the automation beginners from adopting the tools or getting the maximum benefit from the tool. 

On the contrary, Testsigma has one of the fastest learning curves in the market. Testsigma eliminates complex initial steps to ensure that teams learn and adapt the tool faster without prior knowledge of test automation. Testsigma enables teams to achieve ROI on test investment earlier than other tools.

Tester’s can use the natural language-like syntax (NLP based test authoring) to write automation tests. This innovative approach helps to cultivate the whole team approach quality. Every team member, expert, and beginner can easily automate complex scenarios. You can train your non-technical team members to contribute to the automation test suite.

• Comprehensive Documentation and Support

Documentation is an afterthought in many open source projects. Though several open-source projects claim to be well documented, their documentation quality is poor and is often criticized. Documentation is the entry point for most users and decides the success of an open-source project. People choose to continue with the tool or move on based on their initial impressions about the documentation. Good documentation empowers the community to be self-sufficient and learn about the project.

Testsigma offers a comprehensive knowledge base for the community to easily consume information. The robust documentation lets users get accustomed to the tool quickly. People who hate going through documentation can also use the video tutorials on YouTube. 

Check out Documentation

Testsigma’s community forum is highly active and makes your life easier by resolving any challenges you face. Testsigma is also planning to provide community users with  24*5  expert technical support.

Conclusion

Both Open-Source and  Proprietary software have their benefits and drawbacks. However, a software license (whether Proprietary or open-source) does not decide the quality and robustness of the product. Rather the organizations, teams, or the community who build them and the maturity of their development process does.

Don’t choose a tool only because everyone is using it. Every testing team has its own set of challenges. Avoid the bandwagon effect while choosing your test automation tool. It would be best to choose the right tools to solve your problems on a use-case basis.

Identify your testing needs and make an informed decision that benefits your team and organization. Keep an open mind while evaluating and comparing available open-source and commercial testing tools. Sometimes you can have the best of both worlds, avail the benefits of what both commercial and open-source tools have to offer.

Open source fosters collaboration, transparency, and knowledge sharing towards a shared goal by developing a sense of community among contributors. People love open source projects for a reason; they want to be a part of something bigger and give back to the community. It’s your opportunity to influence and shape the future of test automation technology.

Join the Testsigma community today! 

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a free open-source tool?

A free open source tool is a software application that is distributed with its source code, allowing users to view, modify, and distribute it for free. It is often created and maintained by a community of developers who collaborate to improve the tool.

Is Python an open source?

Yes, Python is an open source programming language that is freely available for users to modify and distribute.

What are open-source tools in automation testing?

Open-source tools in automation testing are software applications that are freely available to users to view, modify, and distribute. They are used to automate repetitive tasks and improve the efficiency and accuracy of testing processes. Popular open-source tools include Selenium, Appium, JMeter, Apache Maven, and many others.

What is Selenium open source testing tool?

Selenium is an open-source testing tool used to automate web application testing across different platforms and browsers. It was originally developed by Jason Huggins in 2004 and has become a widely used tool in the software testing industry.

Suggested Readings

How to Choose the Right Open Source Test Automation Tool

10 Best Open Source Test Management Tools For Jira

10 Best Open Source ETL Tools for Data Integration

Why & How to Contribute to Open Source Projects?

Guide to start contributing to Open Source.