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Selenium VS Testcontainers

Compare Selenium VS Testcontainers and see what are their differences

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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.

Testcontainers logo Testcontainers

Testcontainers is a modern Java library that comes with the exclusive support of Junit tests.
  • Selenium Landing page
    Landing page //
    2024-08-22
  • Testcontainers Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-07

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.

Testcontainers features and specs

  • Isolation
    Testcontainers provides a high level of isolation for tests by using Docker containers, ensuring that each test runs in a clean environment without interference from the previous tests.
  • Realistic Testing
    By using actual instances of services like databases or message brokers, Testcontainers allow for more realistic integration and end-to-end testing scenarios.
  • Ease of Use
    Testcontainers simplifies the setup of complex environments, allowing developers to quickly specify the containers they need without extensive configuration.
  • Cross-Platform
    As Testcontainers rely on Docker, they are inherently cross-platform and can be used on any system that supports Docker, such as Windows, Mac, and Linux.
  • Compatibility with CI/CD
    Testcontainers can be seamlessly integrated into CI/CD pipelines, enabling automated testing with consistent environments on every build.

Possible disadvantages of Testcontainers

  • Docker Dependency
    Testcontainers requires Docker to be installed and running on the host machine, which may be an additional dependency that some environments do not support.
  • Performance Overhead
    Running tests in Docker containers can introduce additional resource overhead, which may slow down test execution compared to running tests natively.
  • Complex Debugging
    Debugging issues in a containerized environment can be more complex due to the additional layer of abstraction, requiring familiarity with Docker commands and tools.
  • Limited UI Testing
    Testcontainers are more suited to backend and integration testing rather than UI testing, as graphical applications can be challenging to run in a headless container.

Selenium videos

+ Add

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

Testcontainers videos

+ Add

Testcontainers – From Zero to Hero

More videos:

  • Review - Testcontainers: a Year-in-review (Kevin Wittek)
  • Review - Testcontainers: a Year-in-review (Kevin Wittek)

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Selenium and Testcontainers)

Selenium

Testcontainers

Automated Testing
96 96%
Automated Testing
4% 4
Online Services
0 0%
Online Services
100% 100
Browser Testing
96 96%
Browser Testing
4% 4
Website Testing
100 100%
Website Testing
0% 0

User comments

Share your experience with using Selenium and Testcontainers. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

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

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

Testcontainers Reviews

We have no reviews of Testcontainers yet.
Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Testcontainers should be more popular than Selenium. It has been mentiond 40 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.

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

Testcontainers mentions (40)

  • Testing MongoDB Atlas Search Java Apps Using TestContainers
    Even though we’re going to be using the Java TestContainers project here, TestContainers is available for lots of languages and platforms. You can check it out on their website. - Source: dev.to / 19 days ago
  • Spring Boot AI Evaluation Testing
    Start Docker Compose with both Ollama and PGVector using Testcontainers. - Source: dev.to / 26 days ago
  • How to test Umbraco against a real database
    In my last post about Test Driven Development, I briefly touched on testing with a real database and how I used TestContainers to do it. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Ask HN: Go libraries for managing Docker container pools and executing commands
    Our use case is to execute test scripts in a sandbox mode. This is multi host and multi region setup. We might run millions of test scripts per day. One of our engineers found https://testcontainers.com. We find it interesting and it seems like it won’t maintain container live. Instead, it start and remove the container for each test. We might need to implement lock mechanism to run only maximum number of... - Source: Hacker News / about 1 month ago
  • Learning TDD by doing: Umbraco & EF Core
    Use a real database. TestContainers works very well. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Selenium and Testcontainers, 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.

Arquillian - Arquillian is an open-source testing platform that offers no more container lifecycle, deployment hassles, and mocks.

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.

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

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

JUnit - JUnit is a simple framework to write repeatable tests.

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