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html2canvas VS Selenium

Compare html2canvas VS Selenium and see what are their differences

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html2canvas logo html2canvas

JavaScript library to take "screenshots" of webpages or parts of it, directly on the...

Selenium logo Selenium

Selenium automates browsers. That's it! What you do with that power is entirely up to you. Primarily, it is for automating web applications for testing purposes, but is certainly not limited to just that.
  • html2canvas Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-09-15
  • Selenium Landing page
    Landing page //
    2024-08-22

html2canvas features and specs

  • Client-Side Rendering
    html2canvas is a client-side library that can capture screenshots of web pages without requiring server-side processing, making it easy to integrate into web applications.
  • Open-Source
    Being open-source, developers have access to the source code, allowing them to modify and contribute to the project, ensuring transparency and community-driven improvements.
  • Ease of Use
    It provides a straightforward API, making it accessible for developers to quickly implement and use the library to capture screenshots.
  • Cross-Browser Support
    The library aims to support multiple browsers, enhancing its usability across different user platforms.

Possible disadvantages of html2canvas

  • Rendering Limitations
    html2canvas may not fully support all CSS properties or web elements, leading to inaccurate or incomplete screenshots in some cases.
  • Performance Overheads
    As a JavaScript library running in the browser, it may lead to increased CPU and memory usage, especially for large or complex web pages.
  • Security Concerns
    Rendering content on the client side may expose sensitive information within the page during the rendering process, posing security risks if not handled carefully.
  • Lack of Dynamic Content Handling
    Dynamic content like videos, animations, or elements with JavaScript-based changes during rendering might not be accurately captured.

Selenium features and specs

  • Open Source
    Selenium is an open-source tool, which means it is freely available for anyone to use, modify, and distribute. This makes it a cost-effective choice for companies of all sizes.
  • Cross-Browser Compatibility
    Selenium supports multiple browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. This allows testers to ensure that web applications work seamlessly across different browsers.
  • Cross-Platform Support
    Selenium can run on various operating systems including Windows, macOS, and Linux. This provides flexibility to test on multiple platforms to ensure consistent user experience.
  • Supports Multiple Programming Languages
    Selenium supports multiple programming languages such as Java, C#, Python, and JavaScript. This allows testers to write their scripts in the language they are most comfortable with.
  • Rich Community and Documentation
    Being a widely-used tool, Selenium has extensive community support and a wealth of documentation and tutorials available. This makes it easier for new users to get started and find solutions to problems.
  • Integration with Other Tools
    Selenium integrates well with various testing frameworks and tools like TestNG, JUnit, and Maven, as well as CI/CD tools like Jenkins and Docker. This makes it a versatile and comprehensive automation solution.

Possible disadvantages of Selenium

  • Steep Learning Curve
    Selenium requires knowledge of programming to create and maintain test scripts. For those new to automation or coding, the learning curve can be quite steep.
  • No Built-in Reporting
    Selenium does not come with built-in reporting features. Testers must rely on third-party tools or build custom reporting solutions to generate test reports.
  • Limited Support for Desktop Applications
    Selenium is designed primarily for web application testing and offers limited support for desktop applications. This limits its use in scenarios where desktop application testing is needed.
  • Manual Effort for Maintenance
    Test scripts require regular maintenance to accommodate changes in the web application, such as updates to the UI or changes in element identifiers. This can lead to significant manual effort.
  • Performance Issues
    Selenium can be slower compared to other automation tools, especially when running extensive test suites. This can affect the speed of the overall testing process.
  • Browser Compatibility Issues
    Although Selenium supports multiple browsers, each browser's implementation of WebDriver may have unique quirks and bugs. This occasionally leads to test script compatibility issues across different browsers.

Analysis of Selenium

Overall verdict

  • Selenium is a valuable tool for automated testing of web applications, providing flexibility, broad compatibility, and extensive support. It is particularly beneficial for teams looking for an open-source solution with a wide range of capabilities.

Why this product is good

  • Selenium is a highly popular open-source framework for automating web browsers. It supports multiple programming languages such as Java, C#, Python, and JavaScript, providing flexibility for testers with different coding skills. Selenium WebDriver, a core component, allows for creative and sophisticated testing through direct interaction with web pages. Its broad browser compatibility, community support, and extensive documentation make it a valuable tool for automated testing. It also integrates well with other tools and frameworks like Selenium Grid for parallel testing, and it can be used with CI/CD pipelines to facilitate continuous testing.

Recommended for

  • Software testers and QA engineers
  • Development teams implementing continuous integration and continuous testing
  • Organizations needing cross-browser testing solutions
  • Testers with programming skills in languages like Java, Python, or C#

html2canvas videos

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Selenium videos

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What is Selenium | Selenium Explained in 2-minutes | Introduction to Selenium | Intellipaat

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to html2canvas and Selenium)

html2canvas

Selenium

Browser Testing
10 10%
Browser Testing
90% 90
Automated Testing
6 6%
Automated Testing
94% 94
Development
100 100%
Development
0% 0
Website Testing
0 0%
Website Testing
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare html2canvas and Selenium

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Selenium Reviews

Top Selenium Alternatives
Nightwatch.js simplifies the setup and use of Selenium WebDriver, providing an abstraction layer that is easier to work with for JavaScript developers. While it offers the broad compatibility and standardization of Selenium WebDriver, it aims to improve the development experience with its simplified syntax and support for the Page Object pattern, making it a middle ground...
Source: bugbug.io
Top 5 Selenium Alternatives for Less Maintenance
And that’s why code-free test automation is important. Implementing codeless Selenium alternatives can address the challenges posed by traditional Selenium testing. They help testers with various skill sets to contribute to the testing process, enhancing collaboration and accelerating the testing lifecycle. For an in-depth discussion on the significance of codeless Selenium,...
Source: www.leapwork.com
Best Automation Testing Tools (Free and Paid) | July 2022
Automation testing is the process of testing the software using an automation tool to find the defects. In this process, executing the test scripts and generating the results are performed automatically by automation tools. Some most popular tools to do automation testing are HP QTP/UFT, Selenium WebDriver, etc.,
Source: www.softwaretestingmaterial.com
20 BEST Selenium Alternatives in 2021
Selenium is an open-source automated testing tool. It can perform functional, regression, load testing on web applications across different browsers and platforms. Selenium is one of the finest tools, but it does have some drawbacks.
Source: www.guru99.com
Top 10 Best Selenium Alternatives You Should Try
Selenium is a convenient and portable software testing tool specifically used for testing web applications. It acts as an API (Application Program Interface) for browser automation. Selenium is the widely used free and open-source tool used for automation testing of web applications through various browsers and platforms.
Source: www.softwaretestinghelp.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, html2canvas should be more popular than Selenium. It has been mentiond 17 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

html2canvas mentions (17)

  • Gist Share
    So I went to trusty html2canvas It works really well with some caveats; which I hit. It does not render SVG backgrounds well, or complicated CSS3 gradients. To hack this I basically append a png background if screenshot is occurring, this happens only if the og:image hasn't been created/uploaded before. - Source: dev.to / 7 days ago
  • Build a Finance Tracker with Next.js, Strapi, and Chartjs: Part 3
    We'll use three libraries - html-to-pdfmake, pdfmake and html2canvas for the printing functionality. - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
  • Build a Finance Tracker with Next.js, Strapi, and Chartjs: Part 1
    Html2canvas to take screenshots of the webpage directly on the browser. - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
  • This weird IFRAME thing wasted my 2 days (and counting...)
    My new approach: Whenever user will open the preview and it would load completely, I will take a screenshot programatically using html2canvas library and later store in the db. I wrote code and it worked as I thought except for one part. Everything was fine in the screenshot, except the preview part. IT WAS BLANK, LIKE COMPLETELY BLANK. Oh my god! How is this possible? What on earth is wrong that every solution I... - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
  • A Firefox-Only Minimap
    That's slightly harder, but still possible by first rendering the HTML onto a canvas. Example here: http://html2canvas.hertzen.com/. - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
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Selenium mentions (8)

  • How to write tests in Django for JavaScript fetch
    You won't be able to test the javascript function itself from within python, but you can exercise the front-end code using something like cypress (https://cypress.io) or the older but still respectable selenium (https://selenium.dev). Source: about 2 years ago
  • Having Issues with selenium
    In addition, .find_element_by_class_name is deprecated since selenium 4.3.0 and the replacement is .find_element(By.CLASS_NAME, "class"). Check selenium's site for more info. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Issues with Selenium 4.8.0
    This is the code again after checking selenium's official site :. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Having Issues with selenium
    I also tried the following code seen on the selenium.dev website. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Document Object Model Specification
    The following functions are defined within the Selenium project, at revision 1721e627e3b5ab90a06e82df1b088a33a8d11c20. - Source: dev.to / about 3 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing html2canvas and Selenium, you can also consider the following products

Cypress.io - Slow, difficult and unreliable testing for anything that runs in a browser. Install Cypress in seconds and take the pain out of front-end testing.

Html Screen Capture JS - Html Screen Capture JS is an open-source, lightweight, and fully customizable javascript/typescript library that captures a complete layout or a few areas of a layout and saves it in a mini HTML file for the user.

Katalon - Built on the top of Selenium and Appium, Katalon Studio is a free and powerful automated testing tool for web testing, mobile testing, and API testing.

DOM to Image - JavaScript library to generate an image from a DOM node using HTML5 canvas.

BrowserStack - BrowserStack is a software testing platform for developers to comprehensively test websites and mobile applications for quality.

BackstopJS - BackstopJS is an open-source tool that allows the user to capture screenshots of a complete webpage or only specific areas of the webpage.

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