Software Testing in a Cloud Service: An Overview of the Best Tools in 2021

Mobile software becomes part and parcel of our personal life each year.

On average, every active user of mobile devices spends 4 hours a day, using a smartphone, tablet, or another mobile device.

This compels product companies to develop a field of mobile software more and more actively.

Mobile software is very convenient: it’s accessible 24/7 and can be used even by a small child.

There is a problem that on many mobile devices, it should not simply be opened but look visually expensive and strengthen the client’s authority in the eyes of potential users.

It’s impossible to test all types of mobile devices, using real devices since it’s very hard and expensive to collect over 10,000 various mobile devices in one place.

But here cloud services can help since they give a possibility to test mobile software online and on any modern (and not) device.

Here are the top 4 portals of such a type.

SauceLabs

SauceLabs

http://saucelabs.com/

• About 800 various mixes of browser/OS/platform;
• Complete integration with up-to-date CI solutions;
• About 2000 real mobile devices with a function to manually test and share a screen while testing.

BitBar

BitBar

https://bitbar.com/

1. 380 connected mobile devices;
2. Regular support of the most popular frameworks for creating various automated tests;
3. Complete integration with Jira.

Dynatrace

Keynote

https://www.dynatrace.com/platform/offerings/customer-experience-monitoring/

• About 300 online mobile devices;
• Integration with all up-to-date CI solutions;
• Numerous functions of collecting the analytics of software usage;
• Work with crash reports;
• Presence of many mobile carriers for testing, a possibility to record logs and videos.

Xamarin

Xamarin Test Cloud

https://dotnet.microsoft.com/apps/xamarin

1. Approximately 2800 devices of a different kind;
2. It’s an integrated solution made by Microsoft, aimed at improving the development and testing of mobile software.

Advantages of cloud solutions

• A QA and testing services company don’t need to support numerous functioning real devices;
• New models of mobile devices appear in clouds instantly;
• Various devices;
• There is no technical limitation — both native and web products can be tested;
• Log recording, constant monitoring of RAM usage, and device processor.

Disadvantages

• They are quite expensive;
• No possibility to test scripts connected with network changing;
• The need for a constant reservation to use a certain device.