Top 3 Cross Browser Testing Challenges & How to Tackle Them

Browser testing is critical for any business looking to provide a positive and exceptional user experience for every user. However, it has its own set of challenges and ways to overcome them. In this blog, we will discuss the top cross-browser testing challenges and how you can overcome them in detail.

Cross Browser Testing Challenges

Cross-browser testing might sound like an easy process of running your website on different browsers. Maybe just changing the code according to browsers and operating systems. But it is a lot more complex than that. This testing is prone to some complex situations. These kinds of situations become a challenge in the field which are very hard to overcome. Ample knowledge is required for the domain to tackle issues appropriately. In this section, we shall throw some light on the same.

Too Many Browser/OS Combinations to Test on

This testing involves testing your website on multiple browsers along with their versions to ensure they work as expected in every combination. And yes, the mobile operating systems, resolutions and mobile web browsers would also come into the picture. 

There are roughly 200 different web browsers globally, including the most popular ones, such as Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Edge. I don’t even want to calculate such a huge combination of things, let alone sit down and test it.

The good news is that even though there are 80+ Chrome versions and 75+ Firefox versions, and many organizations still use Internet Explorer in their systems, you just need to extract the upper layer of this messy mousse cake and tackle this issue in a very simple way.

Manually testing your web application across all these browsers and their different versions is nearly impossible and is not something every business can afford in terms of time, cost, effort, and resources. So, automation is the best option to perform. 

However, an automated cloud-based cross-browser testing platform like Testsigma allows you to test your application across 3000+ real devices/browser/OS combinations on the cloud.

You can also use parallel testing to run your browser tests across multiple environments simultaneously to reduce test execution time and improve productivity.

How To Perform Cross-Browser Testing on Every Combination?

The simple answer to the question stated above is, you don’t have to. The first thing to remember here is, people keep their browsers updated. Therefore, testing on older versions will not prove anything except wasting your time and efforts. Today, you will hardly find anyone using Google Chrome 60. Therefore, you can just eliminate a lot of the versions like that for every browser.

Now comes the testing part. Installing dedicated systems or going for virtual environments is a hectic job and will dig deep into your pockets. To tackle the issue, the best choice is to go for the cloud-based online cross-browser testing tools that have everything set up for the users beforehand. The user is required to just select the system specification and execute the tests. These tests could be run manually or could be automated.

There are certain tools that allow these test cases to be automated without any hassles and then can be easily executed on multiple browsers. Using such systems also gives you the advantage of being integrated with various tools for other functionalities such as bug tracking, raising issues and a lot of other workflow integrations. All the user needs to do is select the browser and the type of tests he wishes to run. There are a lot of tools online for the same purpose, one such tool is Testsigma. Testsigma is used by a lot of wealthy customers, has a very easy learning curve and is feasible to all. Testsigma also comes with a free trial period ensuring the users enrol only after they trust the tool.

Finding visual bugs on different screen resolutions

It is crucial to check your application on different screen sizes and resolutions to ensure it works as expected for every user. Manually testing your web application for visual bugs can consume ample time, and it is not feasible to test your app on thousands of devices, OS, and platform combinations. However, automation can help save your time, effort, resources, and cost.

Regular Browser Updates

Another challenge in cross-browser testing is the regular browser updates. Although our operating systems and resolutions remain standards for a long time, browsers get updates regularly in 6 to 8 weeks. This has been due to their working methodology of Agile development. This means that in every six to eight weeks, the tester is required to run the tests again. These tests should consist of all the combinations in this version. Running the tests on newer versions helps analyze the newer features and what all has been incorporated from web development languages etc.

This creates an issue as some elements are deprecated in the newer versions and some are incorporated. The website elements are required to change accordingly since most of the users like me, do not even realise that our browsers get updated automatically behind the scene. It is therefore important to deal with such challenges.

How To Deal With Regular Browser Updates?

The answer to this question is similar to the answer to the previous one. Using an online cross-browser testing tool sheds off this load off your shoulder. The installation and maintenance part becomes a responsibility of the tool provider to keep the browser versions updated. So whenever a new browser version comes into the market and we get updated automatically, so do these tools.

Such an approach also saves your time installing a newer version and memory space. With updated browser versions, it is just a matter of a few clicks to run your tests again. When your tests are automated, it is really just a matter of starting the test case execution and waiting for the reports to know what needs to be fixed.

Maintaining the infrastructure

Infrastructure maintenance is a very time-consuming job. There is a lot of infrastructure maintenance required for this testing. For example, a selenium grid infrastructure, device infrastructure, browser maintenance, integrated tools etc. The manual maintenance of such an infrastructure is very tough and running the automated tests through a series of scripts, even tougher. Then comes the tools through which a tester intimates his team members about the issues raised during the testing. This may include Slack or JIRA for quick on-the-go collaboration and communication between the teams. Even thinking about the magnitude of such a thing it makes us wonder, is it a challenge that can’t be tackled?

How To Maintain Cross-Browser Testing Infrastructure?

Maintaining the infrastructure for this testing becomes a problem or a challenge only when you are testing through the manual process. Manual processes include setting your own lab or virtual systems etc. When you opt for an online cloud-based tool, you get the benefit of a well maintained and efficient infrastructure on the cloud. For example, creating and maintaining the selenium grid, you can leverage the servers of this tool online and just focus on writing the tests. 

This kind of approach is although a victim of latency and delayed execution. No matter what kind of cloud-based tool you are using, the latency is bound to happen since there are too many requests involved in between. The latency problem can sometimes be tackled by providing a clear metric by the online tool but definite numbers are hard to achieve. Although these kinds of issues are nothing in front of infrastructure maintenance. Therefore, a recommended path is to go for an online tool such as Testsigma for an easy and hassle-free automated testing.

How does Testsigma help Overcome Cross Browser Testing Challenges?

Testsigma is a robust cloud-based GenAI-powered test automation platform that allows QAs to automate testing across different applications without requiring any coding expertise. Here’s how you can overcome the challenges in cross browser testing with Testsigma,

Unified platform: You can automate testing across web, mobile, desktop, API, and Salesforce applications in the same platform.

GenAI-powered: Use prompts to interact with Copilot, a GenAI test assistant for QA teams, to get automated test cases and test scenario suggestions.

Simple test creation: Create test cases in plain English using NLP-driven testing or Recorder without requiring any coding knowledge.

Real device cloud: You can test your apps across 3000+ real devices/tablets and OS/platform combinations on the cloud or locally.

Parallel testing: Run multiple tests across different environments simultaneously to reduce test execution time.

Visual testing: Perform visual testing and UI testing on the same platform. You don’t have to create different tests or use different tools.

Simple interface: Provides a simple and intuitive user interface that is simple and easy to use for anyone.

Minimal learning curve: You don’t have to learn any new programming language or spend time setting up a test infrastructure. Start your test automation in minutes with a one-click sign-in to the platform.

Conclusion

As browsers have evolved in recent times, so has the cross-browser testing processes. Starting from manually installing all the browsers or maintaining multiple devices for the same, we have come a long way with online tools that work on the cloud. But still, a few challenges do remain such as a long list of browsers to test with their operating systems mixed with all those resolutions and responsive behaviours.

Although, there are a few turn arounds available but most of them ultimately intersect at using a cloud-based tool for the same purpose. The first thing in an online tool is that computer power is superb in such a tool. I mean, they are made just to perform these tests quickly and efficiently. Installing such powerful computers cost a fortune on an individual level.

Secondly, these tools are equipped with all the browsers and their combinations pre-installed. This leaves the developer and tester with just selecting and analyzing the website on these browsers.

A cloud-based automated cross-browser testing tool such as Testsigma is a good choice. Testsigma has 2000+ browsers, will help generate precise reports, provide infrastructure, powerful systems and a whole bunch of integrations for your team members to communicate. All this will cost you less than the price of systems alone. Hence, it is always recommended to go for a cloud-based tool and fight with those challenges as if they never existed in the first place.

Frequently Asked Questions

What cross browser testing challenges/issues are still common?

Functional cross-browser issues are still common. It is important to ensure the application not only appears perfectly but also works as expected across different browsers. You can overcome this challenge using a test automation tool like Testsigma that allows you to automate functional and cross-browser testing in the same place. Run both tests in one run, improving testing efficiency, ROI, and productivity.