Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

puppeteer VS IBM Rational Functional Tester

Compare puppeteer VS IBM Rational Functional Tester and see what are their differences

puppeteer logo puppeteer

Puppeteer is a Node library which provides a high-level API to control headless Chrome or Chromium...

IBM Rational Functional Tester logo IBM Rational Functional Tester

IBM Rational Functional Tester provides automated testing capabilities for functional, regression, GUI and data-driven testing.
  • puppeteer Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-02
  • IBM Rational Functional Tester Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-25

puppeteer features and specs

  • Headless Browsing
    Puppeteer allows headless browsing, which means you can automate and test web applications without opening a browser user interface, resulting in faster execution and lower resource usage.
  • Full Browser Control
    Enables full control over Chrome or Chromium browsers, allowing for comprehensive browser testing and automation, including taking screenshots, generating PDFs, and capturing web pages.
  • Rich API
    Offers a rich set of APIs that can control browsers, manage cookies, intercept network requests, and handle various browser events, making it versatile for different use cases.
  • Active Community
    Highly active open-source community with regular updates and a plethora of plugins and extensions, providing robust support and continuous improvements.
  • Compatibility
    Supports the latest JavaScript features and works seamlessly with popular libraries and frameworks, providing a modern development experience.

Possible disadvantages of puppeteer

  • Restricted to Chrome/Chromium
    Puppeteer is primarily designed to work with Chrome and Chromium browsers, limiting cross-browser testing capabilities compared to other tools that support multiple browsers.
  • Resource Intensive
    Running multiple instances of headless browsers can be resource-intensive in terms of CPU and memory usage, potentially affecting performance on limited hardware.
  • Learning Curve
    Requires some learning curve for developers unfamiliar with browser automation or the Puppeteer API, making initial setup and usage potentially time-consuming.
  • Lacks JavaScript Redaction
    Unlike some other tools, Puppeteer does not natively support JavaScript error redaction, which means developers must manage error handling and debugging themselves.
  • Not Ideal for GUI Tests
    Since Puppeteer is headless by default, it might not be ideal for GUI end-to-end tests that require visual validation, requiring additional tools or configurations to enable full browser displays.

IBM Rational Functional Tester features and specs

  • Comprehensive Test Automation
    IBM Rational Functional Tester supports a wide range of applications and technologies, allowing for automated testing across various environments and platforms. This ensures extensive test coverage and helps in the consistent and reliable execution of test cases.
  • Integration Capabilities
    It offers smooth integration with other IBM tools, such as IBM Rational Quality Manager and IBM Rational Team Concert, enabling seamless test management and collaboration within the IBM ecosystem. This improves workflow efficiency and aids in traceability.
  • Data-Driven Testing
    The tool supports data-driven testing, allowing testers to execute tests using multiple data sets, which enhances test coverage and makes it easier to identify defects in various scenarios.
  • User-Friendly Interface
    Rational Functional Tester provides an intuitive and user-friendly interface with features like script assist and natural language editing, making it accessible to testers with varying levels of technical expertise.
  • Robust Reporting and Logging
    The tool offers detailed reporting and logging features which help in the analysis of test outcomes. This enables users to quickly diagnose issues and understand test performance.

Possible disadvantages of IBM Rational Functional Tester

  • Cost
    The licensing cost of IBM Rational Functional Tester can be high, which might not be suitable for small to medium-sized enterprises or teams with limited budgets.
  • Complexity
    For new users, particularly those who are unfamiliar with IBM products, the complexity of the tool can represent a steep learning curve, which may require additional time and training to overcome.
  • Performance Overheads
    The tool can be resource-intensive, leading to slower performance on systems with limited processing capabilities, which can affect productivity during test execution.
  • Limited Community Support
    Compared to other open-source or widely-used commercial testing tools, IBM Rational Functional Tester has a smaller online community. This may limit the availability of shared resources and peer support.
  • Customization Limits
    While it offers a variety of built-in features, users might find limitations in customizing the tool to suit specific testing requirements, which could necessitate additional workaround solutions.

Analysis of puppeteer

Overall verdict

  • Puppeteer is considered a strong choice for developers seeking a robust and efficient way to automate browser tasks. It is particularly favored in situations where headless browser actions are required due to its rich feature set and its solid support from both the community and its active development team. However, it may not be the best choice for those looking for cross-browser testing since it focuses specifically on Chrome or Chromium.

Why this product is good

  • Puppeteer is a Node.js library that provides a high-level API to control headless Chrome or Chromium browsers. It is widely appreciated for its speed, reliability, and comprehensive feature set that makes it easy to automate tasks like web scraping, automated testing, and taking screenshots. Users benefit from the ability to programmatically control browser actions, which can be useful for testing user interactions and rendering dynamic content.

Recommended for

  • Web scraping projects that need to render dynamic web pages or deal with JavaScript-heavy sites.
  • Automated testing scenarios that involve simulating user interactions and verifying UI changes.
  • Performance analysis and monitoring of JavaScript execution in a controlled environment.
  • Developers who need to generate PDFs or capture screenshots from web pages programmatically.

puppeteer videos

Puppeteer - Video Review

More videos:

  • Review - GameSpot Reviews - Puppeteer
  • Review - CGR Undertow - PUPPETEER review for PlayStation 3

IBM Rational Functional Tester videos

IBM Rational Functional Tester Explained

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to puppeteer and IBM Rational Functional Tester)
Automated Testing
90 90%
10% 10
Browser Testing
90 90%
10% 10
Browser Automation
100 100%
0% 0
Website 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 puppeteer and IBM Rational Functional Tester

puppeteer Reviews

Top Selenium Alternatives
Puppeteer offers more direct and tighter integration with Chrome or Chromium through the DevTools Protocol, unlike Selenium which abstracts the browser interaction through WebDriver, making it more versatile across different browsers but potentially less optimized for specific browser internals like those Puppeteer accesses in Chrome.
Source: bugbug.io
Best Data Scraping Tools
It is completely free. Puppeteer is well backed and supported by Google Chrome and hence replacing Selenium and PhantomJS. It automatically installs an efficient, compatible Chromium binary in its setup, therefore reducing the burden of keeping track on your browser.
Puppeteer vs Selenium
If you're looking for a better alternative, try Endtest. It has Puppeteer's speed, it supports Selenium's browsers AND it has all the features that they're missing.
Source: dev.to
Introduction to Headless Browser Testing
The Puppeteer API can be used to take screenshots, create PDFs, navigate pages, and fetch information from pages. We’ll write some example code to see Puppeteer in action.

IBM Rational Functional Tester Reviews

20 BEST Selenium Alternatives in 2021
IBM Rational Functional Tester is an automated functional and regression testing tool. It is one of the best selenium alternatives software which offers automated testing features for functional, regression, GUI and data-driven testing. It supports a range of applications like Java, Siebel, SAP, Net, PowerBuilder, Ajax, etc.
Source: www.guru99.com
Top 10 Best Selenium Alternatives You Should Try
IBM RFT (Rational Functional Tester) is an automated testing tool used for regression and functional testing, data-driven testing, and GUI. It develops scripts using Java and .Net which require programming experience. Powerful features of RFT are Storyboard Testing, data-driven testing, dynamic scripting, etc.
Best Automation Testing Tools for 2018 (Top 10 reviews)
IBM Rational Functional Tester is a test automation tool designed for testing applications that are developed using different languages and technologies such as Web, .Net, Java, Visual Basic, Siebel, SAP, PowerBuilder, Adobe Flex, and Dojo Toolkit. It is also a data-driven testing platform for functional and regression testing.
Source: medium.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, puppeteer seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 106 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.

puppeteer mentions (106)

  • Top React Testing Libraries in 2025
    Puppeteer is a headless browser automation tool built on Chromium. It allows developers to simulate user interactions, capture screenshots, and perform UI tests with a high degree of accuracy. Puppeteer is particularly useful for testing cross-browser compatibility and visual elements in React applications. Its robust API enables precise control over browser actions, making it a valuable tool for UI testing and... - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • End-to-End SEO Testing with Playwright and Lighthouse
    Vitest is a next-generation JavaScript testing framework powered by Vite. It’s an excellent alternative to Jest, offering native TypeScript support, a fast setup, and solid performance. However, while it has an experimental headless browser, it’s not ideal for advanced scenarios like running SEO audits in CI/CD pipelines. Instead, we can pair Vitest with Pupetter, a more mature tool for headless browser automation. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • The Puppeteer Language Experiment
    This project tests how the browser language can be changed with Puppeteer. It implements multiple options to set the language of Chrome and checks each option against BrowserLeaks to see how it affected the JavaScript proeprties and HTTP headers available by the browser. For more information, see my article The Puppeteer Language Experiment on DEV.to. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Scrapy Vs. Crawlee
    In Crawlee, you can scrape JavaScript rendered websites using the built-in headless Puppeteer and Playwright browsers. It is important to note that, by default, Crawlee scrapes in headless mode. If you don't want headless, then just set headless: false. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Sometimes things simply don't work
    I am not in any way associated with the developers at puppeteer, but if you are looking for a way to contribute, they are open source. - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
View more

IBM Rational Functional Tester mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of IBM Rational Functional Tester yet. Tracking of IBM Rational Functional Tester recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing puppeteer and IBM Rational Functional Tester, you can also consider the following products

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.

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.

Playwright - Playwright is automation software for Chromium, Firefox, Webkit using the Node.js library having a single API in place.

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.

Apify - Apify is a web scraping and automation platform that can turn any website into an API.

UFT - United Federation of Teachers: A Union of Professionals