Sauce Labs vs Selenium – Which One You Should Choose?

Automation testing has evolved significantly in the past decade with new and modern options now taking charge and accomplishing the same process quickly and efficiently. In this assemblage, it is easier to get confused about whether one should use an automation testing tool based on the cloud (a fairly new option) with exciting features or an on-premise automation testing tool (which is conventional and has wide adoption). This is a fair question and the best choice among them cannot be generalized as each tool comes with its own strengths and weak points. However, we can dig deep into the two most popular (one from each) tools and analyze how they behave and what we get from them as a tester. A detailed comparison of Sauce Labs vs Selenium is what we need to answer this question.

An Overview of Sauce Labs vs Selenium

To understand Sauce Labs vs. Selenium side by side, the tester must understand them individually first. It helps compare the tools logically for each project the tester will work on.

What is Sauce Labs?

Sauce Labs is a cloud-based test automation system that provides infrastructure and tools to conduct automation testing on web and mobile apps. It is used by around 1170 companies and holds a market share of 0.84%.

Sauce Lab’s range of testing domains expands in multiple directions including visual testing and performance testing.

Its key features are a more vocal representation of its strengths:

• ML integrated: Sauce Labs integrates machine learning into their insights and analytics modules to provide features such as failure analysis for testers.

• Real devices: Sauce Labs provides real devices on their infrastructure to run web or mobile applications from the browser.

• Vast testing domains: Many types of testing are supported on Sauce Labs helping testers satiate most of the automation testing needs. This includes mobile app testing, cross-browser testing, web app testing, etc.

• Integrations: Sauce Labs can be integrated with multiple softwares to organize a singular flow from tests to that integration without redirecting out of the platform.

• Analytics and reporting: The testers can analyze app insights using machine learning and observe performance metrics on the front end of the web app in Sauce Labs. 

• Low-code enabled: Non-technical testers can also use Sauce Labs due to its low-code features like auto-maintenance and auto-discovery.

Sauce Labs is a fast and powerful software that keeps the testers on a single platform for most of their needs. This helps save time and cut costs from the project.

What is Selenium?

Selenium is one of the most popular web application automation testing tools holding a whopping market share of 28%. This is an open-source tool and needs to be downloaded with binaries specific to the language a tester will script the tests in. Selenium uses a web driver to launch browser driver instances on which the actions are executed as written in the scripts.

Selenium provides a lot of powerful features that contribute to its immense popularity among web app testers:

• Vast language support: Selenium supports many diverse programming languages to write scripts including Ruby and Perl. A tester need not learn another programming language just to use the tool.

• Record-and-replay: Selenium IDE comes with a record-and-replay feature with which the tester can record the action on the application and those actions can be repeated later in the future on the same or different application.

• Wide browser support: Selenium is supported on all major browsers through their drivers such as Safari and Chrome.

• Parallelism: Selenium supports parallel testing through Selenium Grid across multiple remote machines hence increasing the infrastructure efficiency and reducing time to release.

• Open-source and free: The tool is open-source and free to use for everyone. All a tester needs to do is download libraries corresponding to the scripting language and include it in the IDE.

• Integrations: Selenium supports integration with other testing frameworks such as TestNG and PyTest. This provides flexibility to the tester to manage and write tests in a more structured way.

• Active community: The help from the community is one of the most valuable things in testing and Selenium tops the chart in this parameter. It has a widely active community all across the globe ready to resolve queries on any channel and platform.

Selenium is a standalone tool that needs downloading and integrating into the IDE. This way it is different from Sauce Labs in its most basic working. However, some testers are comfortable with more flexibility and a code base that can be managed as per their wish. Still, we can find a few similarities in this long list of differences shared later.

Selenium and Sauce Labs – Similarities Between Them

Selenium and Sauce Labs have many differences in their working method and how they are structured at the core for testing applications. But, they both work towards the same goal of testing web applications and ultimately enhancing their quality for the end-users. Apart from this common goal for which they exist, they both:

• Support automation testing for web applications.
• Support multiple testing and other frameworks that are involved in web app testing.
• Are highly scalable i.e. both can support a scalable application without flaky tests or breakage.
• Support multiple browsers and platforms to help increase the target matrix in testing.
• Support a long list of integrations to streamline the flow of testing.

Similarities between these two popular frameworks are of less important discussion than the topic of Sauce Labs vs Selenium. The differences between them are more crucial in making the final decision by a tester. Therefore, it is important to explore the area where these two frameworks come face to face on various parameters exposing each other’s weaknesses.

Sauce Labs vs Selenium – Differences

Selenium and Sauce Labs compare to each other on various diverse parameters as follows:

Parameter	Sauce Labs	Selenium
Market Share	0.84%	28.07%
Access and Management	Over the cloud	On-premise
Development paradigm	In-house development	Open source
Pricing	Starts from $39/month with a free trial available.	Free to use
Artificial Intelligence	Integrated into some modules like reporting	Not integrated
Real device support	In-built real devices are provided for testing on the infrastructure.	Depends on physical real devices plugged into the host system.
Help outreach	Help can be provided by an in-house support team.	Help is provided by the active community over the channels.
Company Adoption	Walmart, Verizon, PepsiCo, JP Morgan Chase	Google, Microsoft, LinkedIn, Accenture
Integrations	Jenkins, GitLab, CircleCI, Travis CI, Testsigma	JUnit, PyTest, TestNG, NUnit, Robot Framework, CI/CD Pipeline (require support from CI/CD framework and manual setup)
Supported testing domains	Web app automation, mobile app automation	Web app automation
User experience	Intuitive and based on user interface through Sauce Lab’s website.	No UI for taking action. All actions require code.
Learning curve	Easier because of UI availability.	Comparatively difficult as it requires scripting knowledge in a programming language.
Low-code support	Supports low-code test automation with a recorder and NLP-based test creation using the English language.	Supports low-code test automation only through the record-and-replay feature (recording the actions in Selenium IDE).

These differences between Sauce Labs vs Selenium help provide a more lucid image of both frameworks and choose the best one according to our requirements and needs. But these are not the only two options we have in hand when it comes to test automation (web or mobile) based on the cloud. A third option is equally intriguing and competitive working in the same space.

An Alternative to Sauce Labs and Selenium

An alternative to powerful tools like Sauce Labs and Selenium should be equally competent and efficient in making test automation a success along with similar or less financial strain and learning curve. Testsigma, being one of the top test automation tools, fits these criteria perfectly.

What is Testsigma?

Testsigma is a cloud-based tool that focuses on low-maintenance and low-investment test automation. It helps speed up the test automation speed by up to 10 times no matter what type of testing domains you are working on. Testsigma is open-source and comes with a free plan for testers who wish to try their hands before jumping in the waters. Its key features are a good overview to be put inside the shell of Sauce Labs vs Selenium discussion.

Key features of Testsigma:

• AI-enabled: Testsigma has integrated artificial intelligence into its system to allow the self-healing of test cases automatically.

• Low-code: The platform comes with natural language processing abilities to ensure testers focus only on testing rather than writing complex test cases. In Testsigma, therefore, testers can script test cases in plain English language.

• Mobile app recorder: Testsigma can record the actions of the tester performed on the mobile app (in-built mobile app launcher) and repeat them to execute on the application later. The platform also converts these actions into test cases that can be saved and used as per will.

• Vast testing domains: Testsigma supports all types of testing domains ranging from API testing, data-driven testing, mobile app testing, web app testing, cross-platform testing, visual testing, regression testing, etc.

• Real devices: The platform provides real devices for testers on their infrastructure accessible through a cloud connection with a few clicks.

• Integration: Testsigma can integrate with multiple third-party technologies such as Jenkins (CI/CD), JIRA (Bug tracking), slack (collaboration), and many more.

With this introduction, Testsigma does seem like a healthy contender in this comparison of Sauce Labs vs. Selenium. Let’s analyze a few points measuring all three on different yardsticks.

Automate your tests for web, mobile, desktop applications and APIs, 10x faster, from the same place with Testsigma

Sauce Labs vs Selenium vs Testsigma – Which is Better?

Selenium is a standalone test automation framework that needs to be downloaded and linked in the IDE. It is easier to learn but not as easy as Testsigma and Sauce Labs which provide low-code solutions. The tester still needs to learn programming and requires physical devices for testing. Not only this, a tester will be required to download drivers for browsers each time a new version is launched with a new Selenium version. This is a pain and no tester would want to experience it. We can therefore settle that Testsigma is a better web app automation contender in the question of Selenium vs Testsigma. 

Sauce Labs and Testsigma both support tests written in Selenium. Therefore, if the tester wishes to migrate existing tests written in Selenium, they can easily do so. Sauce Labs and Testsigma both support low-code test scripting with artificial intelligence on certain modules and offer real devices over the cloud. However, Sauce Labs limits itself in the types of testing it provides on its platform. Its major focus is on mobile and web app testing leaving out major testing domains like API testing, data-driven testing, etc.

Testsigma fills the gaps seen in Selenium and Sauce Labs. It comes with all the things Sauce Labs provides and offers a complete testing solution for each type of test in the organization. Moreover, it supports integration with Sauce Labs to leverage all its qualities and add its own on top of it. With respect to each parameter valuable to the tester, Testsigma checks all the boxes in ease, efficiency, quality, and productivity and can be considered a top alternative for Selenium and Sauce Labs.

Automate your tests for web, mobile, desktop applications and APIs, 10x faster, from the same place with Testsigma

Conclusion

Web app testing is an important part of SDLC. It ensures the features are working as expected and the application is of superior quality without any bugs. However, a tester is always struggling to finalize a tool to use for testing before the start of the project. They need to consider the project’s requirements, the team’s skills, their experience, and future prospects as well. Should he go for conventional tools that have stood for 15 years in the market like Selenium? Or try the “new” thing in testing that does not even let you use a programming language like Testsigma or Sauce Labs?

A wrong decision in this “Sauce Labs vs Selenium” question can raise multiple issues later often forcing the team to retrace back and start from scratch. This eventually wastes valuable time and money that could have been invested in other fruitful activities. This post provides a clear view of this question and lays down these two tools in their most honest and true form. It ensures that the tester knows the pros and cons of both tools and makes wise decisions when it comes to not only web app testing but mobile app testing or cross-browser testing as well. 

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the different markets in which Selenium and Sauce Labs compete against each other?

Selenium and Sauce Labs compete against each other in test automation, QA, cross-browser testing, low-code test automation, and cross-platform test automation.

How does the market share of Selenium and Sauce Labs compare in the testing and QA market?

Selenium is extremely popular in testing and QA as it has existed for a long time and provides a lot of comprehensive data on the internet for learning and practicing. Due to this, it is used by more than 39000 companies as of 2024 covering 28% of the market. On the other side, Sauce Labs is used by 1170 companies that constitute 0.87% of the market.

How many customers are acquired by Selenium and Sauce Labs in the testing and QA segment?

Selenium currently holds 39000 companies as its customers compared to 1170 companies that have adopted Sauce Labs for their testing requirements.

What are the countries in which Selenium and Sauce Labs have more customers?

The top five countries where Sauce Labs and Selenium are used are the United States, India, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Germany. In the order of number of customers, Sauce Labs is used in the United Kingdom more than it is used in India. Except for this small swap, the list remains same for both.

Can we migrate test data from Sauce Labs and Selenium to Testsigma?

Yes, test data can be easily migrated from Sauce Labs and Selenium to Testsigma. Post-migration, the tests can be run using Testsigma’s infrastructure or the testers can leverage Sauce Labs integration directly from their Testsigma account.