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Karate VS Robot framework

Compare Karate VS Robot framework and see what are their differences

Karate logo Karate

Web-services testing made simple 🥋

Robot framework logo Robot framework

Robot Framework is a generic test automation framework for acceptance testing and acceptance...
  • Karate Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-11-01
  • Robot framework Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-20

Karate features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    Karate is designed to be user-friendly with a simple syntax, making it easy for testers with minimal programming knowledge to write and execute tests efficiently.
  • Integration of API and UI Testing
    Karate offers the ability to perform both API and UI testing within the same framework, providing a unified approach to comprehensive application testing.
  • Built-in Assertions
    Karate has powerful built-in assertions, which allow testers to easily verify API responses and integrate validations without requiring additional libraries.
  • Support for Data-Driven Testing
    Karate supports data-driven testing, enabling testers to execute test cases with varying data sets easily, enhancing coverage and testing efficiency.
  • Parallel Execution
    The framework supports parallel test execution out of the box, which enhances performance by reducing the time taken to run large test suites.

Possible disadvantages of Karate

  • Limited Customization
    While Karate is user-friendly, its syntax and structure can be restrictive when trying to implement complex custom logic or intricate test scenarios.
  • Java Dependency
    Karate is built on Java, which means users must have a Java environment set up, potentially adding complexity for teams not familiar with Java.
  • UI Testing Limitations
    Although Karate supports UI testing, it's not as feature-rich or robust as specialized UI testing frameworks like Selenium.
  • Learning Curve
    There's a learning curve for new users due to its unique syntax and approach, which might be challenging for individuals used to other testing frameworks.
  • Community and Ecosystem
    Karate has a smaller community compared to other established frameworks, which may limit the availability of plugins, extensions, and community support resources.

Robot framework features and specs

  • Open Source
    Robot Framework is open-source, which means it is free to use and has a large community of users and contributors who continuously improve the tool and provide support.
  • Extensible
    Its extensible nature allows easy integration with various libraries and tools. Custom libraries can also be added to extend its functionality further.
  • Keyword-Driven Testing
    Utilizes a keyword-driven testing approach, making tests readable and simple to create even for non-programmers. This encourages collaboration between developers and non-technical stakeholders.
  • Platform Independent
    Robot Framework is platform-independent and can be run on different operating systems like Windows, macOS, and Linux.
  • Selenium Integration
    Offers seamless integration with Selenium, empowering it to be used for a wide range of web application testing tasks, from simple UI checks to complex automated workflows.
  • Rich Reporting
    Generates comprehensive logs and reports that help in the easy identification of test results and issues. The reports are user-friendly and provide detailed execution flow.
  • Data-Driven Testing
    Supports data-driven test cases, allowing tests to be executed with multiple sets of input data, enhancing test coverage.

Possible disadvantages of Robot framework

  • Learning Curve
    For those unfamiliar with keyword-driven testing or the framework itself, there can be a learning curve, particularly in understanding how to best structure test cases and use the available libraries.
  • Performance Overhead
    The high level of abstraction can introduce some performance overhead, making it less suitable for extremely performance-sensitive or low-level testing scenarios.
  • Limited Mobile Testing
    While it supports mobile testing through Appium, the support and community resources for mobile testing are not as robust as for web application testing.
  • Python Dependency
    It primarily relies on Python, which means that some organizations that use different programming languages might find it less straightforward to integrate and utilize effectively.
  • Debugging Complexity
    Debugging can be less intuitive compared to traditional code-based frameworks. Errors can sometimes be harder to trace due to the abstraction layer provided by keyword-driven scripting.

Karate videos

Karate Kid movie review 2010

More videos:

  • Review - Next Karate Kid - Nostalgia Critic

Robot framework videos

Robot Framework Tutorial | Robot Framework With Python | Python Robot Framework | Edureka

More videos:

  • Review - The Robot Framework – Top 7 Things You Need to Know
  • Review - Robot Class vs Robot Framework Vs Robotic Process Automation

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Karate and Robot framework)
Website Testing
18 18%
82% 82
Automated Testing
9 9%
91% 91
Browser Testing
11 11%
89% 89
API Tools
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Karate and Robot framework

Karate Reviews

Postman Alternatives for API Testing and Monitoring
Karate Labs is a tool known for its versatility in test automation, particularly for APIs, web services, and UI testing. It stands out for its simplicity in writing tests, even for non-programmers, due to its Gherkin-based DSL. For API testing, Karate Labs allows users to test both SOAP and REST APIs. It can send requests, receive responses, and validate the response data.
15 BEST SoapUI Alternatives (2022 Update)
Karate is a new API testing framework base on cucumber library. Karate DSL allows testers to write meaningful tests for web service using a domain-specific language.
Source: www.guru99.com

Robot framework Reviews

Top 5 Selenium Alternatives for Less Maintenance
Robot Framework is an open-source automation framework that uses a keyword-driven approach, making it easy to create and maintain test cases. It supports both codeless and script-based automation, making it versatile for various testing needs.
Best Automation Testing Tools (Free and Paid) | July 2022
Selenium is an open-source test automation framework that automates web browsers. It becomes a favorite automation tool of choice for automation testers. It acts as a core framework for open-source test automation software such as Watir, Robot Framework, Katalon Studio, and Protractor.
Top 10 Best Selenium Alternatives You Should Try
Robot Framework is an open-source test automation framework used for acceptance test-driven development (ATDD) and acceptance testing. Robot Framework is standard and uses a keyword-driven testing approach and behavior-driven.
Best Selenium Alternatives (Free and Paid) in 2021
Robot Framework is an open-source automation framework that implements the keyword-driven approach for acceptance testing and acceptance test-driven development (ATDD). Robot Framework provides frameworks for different test automation needs. But its test capability can be further extended by implementing additional test libraries using Python and Java. Selenium WebDriver is...
5 Selenium Alternatives to Fill in Your Top Testing Gaps
Robot Framework is an open-source Selenium alternative primarily for acceptance test-driven development (ATDD) and acceptance testing. Using the keyword-driven methodology, testers and developers can use Robot Framework as an automation system for web and mobile test automation.
Source: www.perfecto.io

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Robot framework should be more popular than Karate. It has been mentiond 32 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.

Karate mentions (11)

  • Level up your Karate Testing with Spring Boot DI
    For a few years I've used Cucumber for higher level testing, and only more recently started using Karate. While Cucumber is a great tool, I think Karate really shines in reducing the boilerplate that comes along with step definitions and making it easy to write meaningful tests quickly, especially when it comes to API testing. - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
  • Cucumber Maintainer out of Job and future of the project is uncertain
    This is why we need better tools which will give benefits for the added complexity. If you need to create both the feature files AND the code, it's just complexity with little benefits. But frameworks like https://github.com/karatelabs/karate are hiding this complexity and remove the code layer entirely. Which, in my view, this is where you need to be in 2023, particularly for API testing. - Source: Hacker News / about 2 years ago
  • Lama2: Plain-Text Powered REST API Client for Teams
    Congrats on the launch ! I'm the lead dev of [Karate](https://github.com/karatelabs/karate) and the IDE and traditional solutions fall short. I hope Karate's syntax passes your "memory friendly" test :) We get regular feedback is that it is easy to read and even non-programmers can pick it up. One thing I feel we do really well is chaining of HTTP requests. And we have plugins for... - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • Hurl, run and test HTTP requests with plain text
    I recently found a BDD style tool that has native HTTP comprehension, which seems like it hits a similar area in the testing concept space: https://github.com/karatelabs/karate. - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • Hurl 1.8.0, text based integration tests for REST APIs and web sites
    I'm doing something similar but taking the approach of karate framework making it a kitchen sink of e2e testing tools. Love to see another rust based solution! I might open source mine at some point, I've implemented curl + webdriver, I will expand to support other things in my stack like desktop automation. Source: over 2 years ago
View more

Robot framework mentions (32)

  • Most Effective Approaches for Debugging Applications
    Fixing a bug is incomplete without preventing its recurrence. Root cause analysis (RCA), coupled with regression testing and documentation, ensures long-term reliability. Antony Marceles, Founder of Pumex Computing, emphasizes, “Fixing a bug is only part of the solution, preventing it from happening again is the real goal.” Marceles’ team uses regression tests via Robot Framework and code reviews with Gerrit to... - Source: dev.to / 16 days ago
  • Robot Framework Using the Browser Library: Advantages, Disadvantages, and Practical Tips
    Documentation is your best friend. It provides comprehensive guides, examples, and API references to help you navigate the library effectively. Here you can access it, as well as the Robot Framework documentation. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • Automated Acceptance Testing with Robot Framework and Testkube
    The Robot Framework is an acceptance testing tool that is easy to write and manage due to its key-driven approach. Let us learn more about the Robot Framework to enable acceptance testing. - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
  • Beautiful is better than ugly, but my beginner code is horrible
    Well, I work with software quality and despite not having a strong foundation in automation, one fine day I decided to make a change. I have been working with Robot Framework for a few months - and that's when I got a taste of the power of python. Some time later, I dabbled a little with Cypress and Playwright, always using javascript. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Embedded professionals, what kind of 'github' projects would make you hire a developer?
    I've used Lua/Busted in a data-heavy environment (telemetry from hospital ventilators). I've also used robot: https://robotframework.org/. Source: almost 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Karate and Robot framework, you can also consider the following products

Insomnia REST - Design, debug, test, and mock APIs locally, on Git, or cloud. Build better APIs collaboratively for the most popular protocols with a dev‑friendly UI, built-in automation, and an extensible plugin ecosystem.

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.

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.

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.

soapUI - SoapUI Pro is one of the most prominent API testing platforms around, allowing developers to quickly prototype the functions of their apps and get them to market with little hassle.

Cucumber - Cucumber is a BDD tool for specification of application features and user scenarios in plain text.