When it comes to web app testing, it takes a lot of effort and time to ensure the quality of the application. For a developer, the main purpose of web app testing is to improve the feature set, speed the performance, and provide a scalable product to the audience. For the QAs, the focus is on the web app’s usability testing and compatibility testing.
So, how can you scale the development and testing process to get the maximum results?
The best way to test an application is to use online Selenium Grid which enables you to perform web app testing quickly. Selenium Grid is one of the four essential components of Selenium Suite. It is based on the client-server architecture that enables simultaneous testing on different devices, operating systems, and browsers. A selenium grid is extremely useful in reducing time on large and long-running test suites by executing tests on various machines simultaneously.
Moreover, the grid works well with agile software development while allowing test results to be delivered quickly. But, the question here is which Selenium grid you should use – local or cloud-based?
Test with Local Selenium Grid
Selenium grid runs in parallel while enabling a distributed test execution environment. It reduces the total time to execute a test suite to achieve a complete pass. With the local Selenium Grid, you can set up multiple machines in both virtual and physical machines.
Selenium Grid is based on the hub and node structure, where the nodes can be more than one. The hub receives the test information that needs to be executed, including specifications about the platform and browser where the test needs to be completed.
The hub of the grid is programmed to capture the configuration details of the registered nodes. This information can be used to find the node available with the appropriate platform-browser combination. Once a node is identified, the hub part initiates the selenium commands to the specified node for the test.
Why Use Local Selenium Grid?
When using a local selenium grid, you need to consider a few things, such as downloading the Selenium Server Jar, Configuring the hub, and Setting up the nodes.
The major advantage of using a local selenium grid is the amount of time it can save for testing teams by allowing distributed parallel testing. Besides, if the test fails, Selenium Grid will provide diagnostic tools to shed light on the issue to resolve it. Apart from that, it also supports focused testing while enabling particular tests to be assigned to specific computers. This provides flexibility in the test automation process.
But, there are two drawbacks as well. For instance, performance can be an issue with the local selenium grid, especially when there are many node servers. Another problem is setting up the initial stages of the selenium grid, which is quite challenging. And it is even more challenging if you haven’t leveraged parallel testing before.
Setting up a local selenium grid requires a significant investment because you’ll need powerful machines with various operating systems and web browsers. Also, there is a trivial chance that you can cover all the corner test cases with automation testing on local machines.
Thus, when testers require a selenium grid, they need to choose between on-premises or cloud-based grid. A cloud-based grid allows you to test your web app functionality without installing and maintaining physical infrastructure.
Why Use Cloud-based Selenium Grid?
Automated testing on the local grid is neither scalable nor economical. Even if you invest a huge amount in the overall infrastructure, you will not achieve the desired results and quality of the product, test coverage, test performance, parallelism, etc. Moreover, cloud-based testing is more scalable and cost-effective, as you’ll only pay for the resources that you use.
There are numerous benefits of website testing with the cloud-based grid. Here, we are listing the top reasons that will make you adopt a cloud-based grid.
- Cloud-based selenium grid eliminates environment-related schedule delays, which often makes the testing process clumsy and slow. It also eliminates the need to share environments amongst team members.
- It allows you to improve collaboration between diverse team members while monitoring other activities quickly.
- It helps you scale your existing testing infrastructure. Scalability is an essential component for software testing, as rapid growth is the norm in software development.
- With local grid testing, the testing architecture may fall prey to downtime, which can be a major issue. However, a cloud-based grid gives you added advantage in terms of reliability.
- The cloud-based selenium grid has built-in functionalities that make maintaining your testing infrastructure easy.
- The ownership cost of cloud-based testing selenium grids is less than the in-house infrastructure. For example, many cloud-based testing offers a ‘pay-as-you-go’ model, which allows you to save costs when the tools are not in use.
- Cross-browser testing on a cloud-based selenium grid can be highly beneficial, as you can execute automated tests in parallel on the grid.
How Can LambdaTest Help You?
Lambdatest is a cloud-based automation testing platform that is integrated with Selenium Grid, which helps you focus on writing better test scripts without worrying about infrastructure maintenance. In addition, this online grid is much more affordable than the local grid, as it gives you access to multiple devices and the latest browsers.
With Lambdatest, you get instant access to real desktops and mobile devices. You can find bugs quickly by testing the website and web apps on a wide range of real Android and iOS devices. It even allows you to run parallel testing with Selenium Grid to shorten your test cycles by multiple folds.
The tool supports more than 3000 browsers, operating systems, and device combinations to help you perform cross-browser testing. Along with that, the tool offers a collaborative platform that enables you to bridge the gap between respective teams. It even supports integration with popular CI/CD tools to help you build a robust delivery pipeline.
The cloud-based Selenium Grid by LambdaTest also supports integration with popular test management & test reporting tools to help you analyze the test results performed on the platform. In addition, the tool supports almost every programming language, including Python, Java, Ruby, JavaScript, C#, PHP, and more.
Final Words
Selenium is one of the best and open-source automated tools that allow you to test your web app effectively. However, choosing between local and cloud-based Selenium Grid is quite challenging, as both have something different to offer. In this article, we tried to clarify the advantages and disadvantages of both grids to help you understand which selenium grid is best suited for your web app testing.