Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Ionic VS Ghost Inspector

Compare Ionic VS Ghost Inspector and see what are their differences

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Ionic logo Ionic

Ionic is a cross-platform mobile development stack for building performant apps on all platforms with open web technologies.

Ghost Inspector logo Ghost Inspector

Easily create automated browser tests for your websites and web apps. Ensure everything works and looks the way it should. No coding required. 14 day free trial!
  • Ionic Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-12
  • Ghost Inspector Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-06

Ghost Inspector

$ Details
paid Free Trial $99.0 / Monthly (10,000 test runs per month; 5 member seats)
Platforms
Browser Google Chrome Firefox REST API Wordpress JavaScript Web Slack Docker AWS

Ionic features and specs

  • Cross-Platform Development
    Ionic allows developers to build applications for multiple platforms such as iOS, Android, and the web using a single codebase. This significantly reduces development time and costs.
  • Rich UI Components
    Ionic provides a wide range of pre-built UI components that are customizable and designed to look and feel native on all devices. This makes it easier to create visually appealing and consistent interfaces.
  • Integration with Angular
    Ionic is tightly integrated with Angular, a popular and widely-used front-end framework. This integration provides a robust architecture for building complex applications.
  • Active Community and Extensive Documentation
    Ionic has an active community and extensive documentation, tutorials, and resources. This makes it easier for developers to find support and resolve issues.
  • Cordova and Capacitor Plugins
    Ionic apps can leverage Cordova and Capacitor plugins to access native device features like the camera, GPS, and file system, providing near-native functionality.

Possible disadvantages of Ionic

  • Performance Issues
    Because Ionic uses WebView for rendering, performance can sometimes be inferior to native applications, particularly for highly interactive or graphically intensive applications.
  • Dependency on Third-Party Plugins
    Ionic heavily relies on third-party plugins for accessing native features. If these plugins are not well-maintained or lack support for certain functionalities, it can lead to challenges.
  • Learning Curve
    While Ionic simplifies cross-platform development, it still requires familiarity with web technologies like JavaScript, CSS, and HTML, as well as frameworks like Angular. This could be a steep learning curve for developers not versed in these technologies.
  • File Size
    Ionic applications tend to have a larger file size compared to native applications, mainly due to the inclusion of WebView and other dependencies. This can impact download times and initial load performance.
  • Rendering Delays
    There can be noticeable delays in UI rendering, especially on older devices, due to the abstraction layer that Ionic provides over native components.

Ghost Inspector features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    Ghost Inspector provides a user-friendly interface that simplifies the process of creating and managing automated tests. Non-technical users can also easily create tests using the browser extension.
  • No Coding Required
    Tests can be created without writing any code, making it accessible to a broader range of users, including those without a technical background.
  • Browser Extension
    The browser extension allows users to record actions directly in their browser, which is convenient for quickly setting up tests.
  • Integration
    Ghost Inspector integrates with various CI/CD tools and platforms, such as Jenkins, CircleCI, and Slack, allowing for seamless integration into existing workflows.
  • Visual Testing
    The platform supports visual testing to catch layout issues by comparing screenshots of expected and actual states of web pages.
  • Scheduling
    Tests can be scheduled to run at specific intervals, which helps in continuous monitoring of web applications.
  • Team Collaboration
    Collaborative features such as team management and shared test suites make it easier for multiple team members to work together.

Possible disadvantages of Ghost Inspector

  • Cost
    Ghost Inspector is a paid service, and while there is a free tier, the premium plans can become costly, particularly for small teams or startups.
  • Limited Advanced Customization
    For highly complex testing scenarios, the lack of coding may be restrictive. Users might find it challenging to implement advanced custom logic compared to code-based testing frameworks.
  • Performance Testing
    The platform is not designed for performance testing, so it is not a suitable solution if you need detailed performance metrics.
  • Learning Curve for Complex Tests
    Although the interface is user-friendly, creating complex tests can still require a learning curve, particularly for users with no prior experience in automated testing.
  • Environment Dependency
    Tests created using the browser extension can sometimes behave differently on different environments, requiring additional tuning and maintenance.

Analysis of Ionic

Overall verdict

  • Ionic is a good choice for startups, small to medium-sized businesses, and developers who are looking to rapidly build and deploy mobile apps with a consistent look and feel across devices. It is particularly useful when the apps don't require intensive use of native capabilities and where development speed is more important than the performance of strictly native apps.

Why this product is good

  • Ionic is a popular open-source framework used for developing cross-platform mobile applications. It combines HTML, CSS, and JavaScript with front-end frameworks like Angular, React, or Vue to create hybrid applications. Its main advantages are ease of use, a rich component library, and the ability to write once and deploy across multiple platforms, saving time and resources.

Recommended for

  • Developers looking for a single codebase for multiple platforms.
  • Teams that are already proficient in web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
  • Projects that have simple or moderate use of device hardware and native capabilities.
  • Businesses prioritizing rapid development and deployment over maximizing native performance.

Analysis of Ghost Inspector

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Ghost Inspector is a good tool for many automation testing needs.

Why this product is good

  • It offers a user-friendly interface that allows for easy creation and management of automated browser tests.
  • The tool supports integration with a variety of CI/CD platforms, making it suitable for DevOps environments.
  • Ghost Inspector provides robust reporting and notifications to keep teams informed about test outcomes.
  • It is cloud-based, which means there's no need for local infrastructure setup or maintenance.
  • The tool supports visual testing by capturing screenshots at each step of the test, helping to identify UI regressions.

Recommended for

  • QA engineers and testers looking for a straightforward, codeless solution to automate browser testing.
  • Development teams seeking to integrate end-to-end testing into their CI/CD pipeline easily.
  • Organizations that require reliable, scalable browser testing solutions without the overhead of maintaining testing infrastructure.
  • Product teams looking for non-technical team members to participate in creating and maintaining automated tests.

Ionic videos

Fitbit Ionic smartwatch review

More videos:

  • Review - Fitbit Ionic Review (IN-DEPTH)
  • Review - Fitbit Versa 2 vs Ionic | Fitness Smartwatch Review (NEW)

Ghost Inspector videos

Ghost Inspector - Automated UI Testing and Monitoring

More videos:

  • Review - Data-driven Testing with Selenium using Ghost Inspector
  • Review - Automated Testing with Ghost Inspector

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Ionic and Ghost Inspector)
Development Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Website Testing
0 0%
100% 100
Developer Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Automated Testing
0 0%
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 Ionic and Ghost Inspector

Ionic Reviews

Top 10 Flutter Alternatives for Cross-Platform App Development
Ionic is mainly known for its simplicity and, thus, is an appropriate choice for those who have a small team or own startups. The framework is popular for its predesigned UI components, which catalyze the overall development process.
Exploring 15 Powerful Flutter Alternatives
Ionic is an open-source UI framework that uses web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to build progressive web and mobile apps. Ionic shines for apps centered around forms, lists, and data. The extensive UI components and flexible layout options facilitate quickly scaffolding up CRM-style interfaces for managing records and inventory without needing to style every...
Should I use Moxly to create Ionic apps faster? Ionic vs Moxly
It’s always important that an app is responsive and especially important with Ionic, which is designed to reach multiple platforms with one codebase. This is not supported by Moxly, which is not good in the realm of Ionic. That’s where things look different again with Ionic. There you can create Responsive Apps and websites.
THE BEST 34 APP DEVELOPMENT SOFTWARE IN 2022 LIST
One codebase. Any platform. Now in React and Angular. Ionic Framework is an open-source mobile UI toolkit for building high-quality, cross-platform native and web app experiences. Move faster with a single codebase, running everywhere. Free and open-source, Ionic offers a library of mobile-optimized UI components, gestures, and tools for building fast highly interactive apps.
Android Studio Alternative
Ionic framework is an open-source UI toolkit that allows web technologies to be used to create high-quality mobile and desktop applications. Ionic architecture is based on the user interface or user experience of the application. It’s simple to understand, integrate, or utilize without a front frame using a simple script that incorporates other libraries or frameworks like...
Source: www.educba.com

Ghost Inspector Reviews

Top 10 Best Selenium Alternatives You Should Try
The new feature of Ghost Inspector is that the users can export their tests to other tools and can also import them back into Ghost Inspector.
Best Selenium Alternatives (Free and Paid) in 2021
Using Ghost Inspector you can build or record automated tests for your application right in your browser. It is used for website testing, browser testing, visual testing, UI testing, E2E testing. No coding is required to use Ghost Inspector. Ghost Inspector is a Selenium IDE alternative. It works through the Chrome plugin.

Social recommendations and mentions

Ionic might be a bit more popular than Ghost Inspector. We know about 10 links to it since March 2021 and only 8 links to Ghost Inspector. 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.

Ionic mentions (10)

  • Hello from Team OutSystems!
    As you may remember, Ionic, the company where I’ve worked as a Developer Advocate for the past year and a half, was acquired in late 2022 by OutSystems. As part of that acquisition, I’m excited to announce that I transitioned to a Lead Developer Advocate position on the OutSystems side of the house this past November. In my new role, I will continue doing what I love – making it easier for developers to build... - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Best Programming language to create Mobile Application ?
    You're looking for a framework to build a progressive web app. Such as Ionic: https://ionic.io/. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • What is this type of styling called?
    Some website's that I've collected that use the styling I'm on about; Ionic.io, spline.design, wickedbackgrounds.com, coolbackgrounds.io,. Source: about 3 years ago
  • Android Games with Capacitor and JavaScript
    In the past I would have used something like Cordova, but this new thing from the folks at Ionic has TypeScript support out of the box for their native APIs and support for using any Cordova plugins you might miss. - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
  • 10 Reasons to Choose Ionic for Mobile Development
    Ionic is the only cross-platform development stack that has Enterprise support and integrations for teams building employee and customer-facing apps. Ionic offers dedicated support, security features like Biometrics and Single Sign-on, and cloud services for remote app updates, app builds, and app store distribution. - Source: dev.to / almost 4 years ago
View more

Ghost Inspector mentions (8)

  • 25 Best SaaS Testing Tools [2024]
    Ghost Inspector is an excellent choice for teams looking to automate browser testing without writing code. As one of the best SaaS testing tools, it enables users to effortlessly create automated tests, allowing them to quickly identify and fix issues on their websites and web applications. This approach enhances overall efficiency and helps maintain a seamless user experience. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • Cheap tests with Ghost Inspector
    Ghost Inspector is a testing service for monitoring key site functionality. All tests are stored in the cloud and running continuously and notify you on error or variance is detected. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • How do you full functional/regression tests in Svelte/Sveltekit?
    Playwright is good but there is also other kind of tools like https://reflect.run/ and https://ghostinspector.com/ that are perfect for end user testing. Hope it helps. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Ask HN: Which E2E tool to pick? Need reliability and speed
    It depends on your stack and app type, but I had great experience with Ghost Inspector https://ghostinspector.com/. - Source: Hacker News / about 2 years ago
  • Is Codeless Automation Testing Revolutionizing the Testing Industry?
    Ghost Inspector provides codeless automation testing for web apps and websites. Its intuitive editor allows easy maintenance, continuous testing, requiring no coding skills. It has extensive features suitable for both novice QA testers and seasoned test engineers. Source: over 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Ionic and Ghost Inspector, you can also consider the following products

React Native - A framework for building native apps with React

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.

Apache Cordova - Platform for building native mobile applications using HTML, CSS and JavaScript

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

NativeScript - Build truly native apps with JavaScript

LambdaTest - Perform Web Testing on 2000+ Browsers & OS