Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

TestComplete VS puppeteer

Compare TestComplete VS puppeteer and see what are their differences

TestComplete logo TestComplete

TestComplete Desktop, Web, and Mobile helps you create repeatable and accurate automated tests across multiple devices, platforms, and environments easily and quickly.

puppeteer logo puppeteer

Puppeteer is a Node library which provides a high-level API to control headless Chrome or Chromium...
  • TestComplete Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-20
  • puppeteer Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-02

TestComplete features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    TestComplete has a user-friendly interface that allows both technical and non-technical users to create automated tests with ease.
  • Scriptless Testing
    The tool supports keyword-driven testing, enabling users to create automated tests without any scripting knowledge.
  • Multi-Technology Support
    TestComplete supports testing for a wide range of technologies, including desktop, web, and mobile applications, making it a versatile tool.
  • Integration Capabilities
    It easily integrates with other SmartBear tools and third-party tools like JIRA, Jenkins, and Azure DevOps, facilitating a smooth CI/CD process.
  • Parallel Test Execution
    TestComplete allows for parallel test executions, which can significantly reduce the total testing time and speed up the development cycle.
  • Object Recognition
    The tool includes advanced object recognition methods that ensure automated tests are stable and resilient to changes in the application's UI.
  • Comprehensive Reporting
    TestComplete provides detailed test reports and logs, helping teams quickly diagnose and address any issues that arise during testing.

Possible disadvantages of TestComplete

  • Cost
    TestComplete is relatively expensive compared to other automated testing tools, which can be a significant investment for small and medium-sized businesses.
  • Resource Intensive
    The tool can be resource-intensive, requiring significant system resources for smooth operation, which might affect performance on less powerful machines.
  • Learning Curve
    Despite its user-friendly interface, there can be a steep learning curve for users who want to utilize its more advanced features.
  • Limited Community Support
    Compared to some other popular testing tools, TestComplete has a smaller user community, which can make it challenging to find solutions to uncommon issues.
  • Complex Licensing Model
    The licensing model can be complex, potentially confusing for new users who need to understand different types of licenses and their limitations.

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.

TestComplete videos

TestComplete: The Easiest-to-Use Automated UI Testing Tool

puppeteer videos

Puppeteer - Video Review

More videos:

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

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to TestComplete and puppeteer)
Automated Testing
58 58%
42% 42
Website Testing
100 100%
0% 0
Browser Testing
52 52%
48% 48
Software Testing
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 TestComplete and puppeteer

TestComplete Reviews

Best Automation Testing Tools (Free and Paid) | July 2022
TestComplete is a commercial testing tool and it allows you to create reusable tests for all web applications including modern JavaScript frameworks like React and Angular on 2050+ browser and platform configurations.
Top 10 Best Selenium Alternatives You Should Try
TestComplete is an influential and tough automated tool for testing mobile, desktop and web applications. It can be integrated with open source tools like Selenium, Jenkins etc. TestComplete supports few name mapping functions and GUI features that are not available with Selenium.
Top 6 Complete Automation Testing Solutions
TestComplete is an automation testing tool developed by SmartBear and used for web, mobile and desktop applications. The main feature of this tool is the object recognition engine that can detect dynamic elements from a UI.
Source: dzone.com
Top 20 Best Automation Testing Tools in 2019 (Comprehensive List)
TestComplete is the top automation testing tool for desktop, mobile and web applications. With TestComplete, you can build and run functional UI tests via robust record & replay capabilities or by scripting in your favorite languages, including Python, JavaScript, VBScript and more.
Top 20 Best Automation Testing Tools in 2018 (Comprehensive List)
TestComplete is the top automation testing tool for desktop, mobile and web applications. With TestComplete, you can build and run functional UI tests via robust record & replay capabilities or by scripting in your favorite languages, including Python, JavaScript, VBScript and more.

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.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, puppeteer seems to be a lot more popular than TestComplete. While we know about 106 links to puppeteer, we've tracked only 2 mentions of TestComplete. 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.

TestComplete mentions (2)

  • How to create step recording program like testcomplete?
    I've been working with Selenium and Python for the past two years and I can say I've good enough experience with them about now. One thing that has always bothered me is how much manual work I have to do in order to implement the steps I need my program to make. So I've been thinking of making my own "step recorder", something in the vein of TestComplete. I've been using PyAutoGui too and the thought of crossing... Source: over 2 years ago
  • Looking for OS automation software
    SmartBear TestComplete and Ranorex both offer 30-day free trials to try them out. Their suites make it easy to automate desktop apps, but licensing is expensive. Part of what you pay for is being able to write "codeless" tests by recording your mouse and keyboard activity and validating whatever you want on the app. Source: about 3 years ago

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 1 month 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 / about 2 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 / 12 months 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 / 12 months 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
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing TestComplete and puppeteer, you can also consider the following products

Sauce Labs - Test mobile or web apps instantly across 700+ browser/OS/device platform combinations - without infrastructure setup.

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.

Ranorex Studio - Accelerate testing with Ranorex Studio, the all-in-one tool for test automation. For desktop, web, or mobile app testing, with easy codeless automation tools, a full IDE, robust object recognition, flexible reporting and built-in Selenium WebDriver.

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

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

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.