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Appium vs Katalon Studio comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Appium
Ranking in Regression Testing Tools
6th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
Mobile Development Platforms (6th)
Katalon Studio
Ranking in Regression Testing Tools
2nd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
46
Ranking in other categories
API Testing Tools (4th), Test Automation Tools (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Regression Testing Tools category, the mindshare of Appium is 4.7%, down from 5.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Katalon Studio is 17.3%, up from 16.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Regression Testing Tools
 

Featured Reviews

Abhishek-Tiwari - PeerSpot reviewer
Has cross-platform flexibility and a record-and-play option
The challenging part with Appium is that installation can be a bit tricky. It can be challenging to set up in Android versus iOS environments. Appium has some limitations in terms of writing code using simulators and online cloud devices. I faced challenges with native based scenarios, battery turn out percentage, battery charging percentage, and memory capacity. The other challenge I faced involved codes changing from device to device. For example, the piece of code that works in iOS version 10.1 won't work in iOS version 6.0. In upcoming releases, if they can reduce some more of the dependencies like SDK, UIAutomator, etc., it would be great. That is, I'd like to see a consolidated package or bundle release that is much more user-friendly.
Anuradha.Kapoor Kapoor - PeerSpot reviewer
Functional automation features and the recording functionality saves time but the performance and script execution is slow
I would like to see improvements in how Katalon Studio works with iOS applications, especially with React Native applications. The speed is very slow. It takes time. Katalon Studio also takes my laptop memory, and execution becomes slow for the script. There are parallel execution options. I'm sure their online cloud version must be very fast, but as a service-based company, we are under NDA with our clients and can't run their code on our servers. I would like to see iOS improve and see a more capable recording feature. Katalon Studio has released an AI version, and I have a demo scheduled to see the new features.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The most valuable features of Appium are the in-built functionality, which we can use in our code. For example, move back, move front, navigate one page before, and navigate one page ahead. You can do this by using the in-built functions from Appium."
"It has great documentation and excellent community support."
"Appium helps me to do as much as much as I want to."
"Appium's wide support of programming languages is valuable."
"Appium provides a record-and-play option, and the commands are the same as those that Selenium uses. So a person who has some exposure to Selenium will be able to write a piece of code in Appium."
"The interface is user-friendly, which is beneficial for users, even for those who are new to it."
"The way Appium server interacts with mobile apps is fantastic. It provides all the information about the elements inside the app, Android as well as iOS. I can interact with the element quickly, just type some text or get some text values from the element - whether it's a drop-down, or web text, or a native element."
"The solution is stable."
"The basic framework and project organization is very good."
"Smart Wait and XPath healing are valuable features."
"The most important feature is the Jenkins integration; it is pretty straight forward and allows us to run nightly builds."
"The tool has a good record and playback feature for functionality, which saves time when creating automated tests."
"The scalability of the product is good."
"The recording feature of this product is very valuable for our testing purposes."
"The tool is easy to use. The product gives me the flexibility to use Selenium. I can also use my Java capabilities in the solution."
"I like the feature where you can define a model that represents your website and then reuse the components from the model. It makes creating more test cases easy."
 

Cons

"There is always a concern about the amount of code that is required to enhance the automation process. The idea of having less code or no code is what we would like to see in future updates."
"One area where I think Appium could improve is in addressing security concerns for our data. Currently, we're unable to use cloud solutions like CloudForm due to security restrictions on our servers. We also face challenges in updating packages for the same reason. It would be beneficial if the solution could provide better support for auto-reporting and easier connections to mobile device farms."
"Appium could improve by enabling record and run techniques similar to what they have in other licensing tools, such as Micro Focus. We have to all write the code, and then we can proceed."
"We haven't been able to fully leverage Appium for multiple reasons. I think number one is just that the tests take a long time to run. We have had some issues around just the results themselves and how predictable they are, but those are not issues with Appium directly."
"Appium can improve when the case fails, there should be a feature where you can generate the report from Appium. Once you're on a test case, automatically the screenshot should be captured which would avoid manual intervention. These features would be beneficial to migrate to Appium."
"Support-wise, it could be better."
"The installation part of Appium is somewhat clumsy, requiring numerous dependencies and configurations."
"Configuration-wise, there is a lot of room for improvement."
"Katalon Studio should improve its usability, it still needs some improvement where users can easily use it to build their automation suite. It requires some initial work to set it up. There should be more keywords in the library to limit the coding requirements, this will allow a non-technical person easily start using it, which would be better."
"There is not much support offered for the free version, which is something that could be improved."
"We would like to see improved integration with various reporting tools; this would make our testing data more complete."
"We have had some issues when it comes to stability, which is something that needs to be improved."
"Katalon's support is not very strong unless you opt for the enterprise version."
"One improvement would be if it could support more programming languages such as JavaScript or Python. Right now, it is only on Groovy, which I think is not a too popular language."
"It should start working on Silverlight automation."
"It would be helpful to have an automatic save feature."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is open source so it is free."
"There is no license for this solution because it is open-source."
"The solution is open-source."
"Appium is free and open-source."
"It's open source, so it's completely free."
"This is an open source solution so it does not cost anything for licensing or otherwise."
"I'm unsure if there's any cost associated with Appium. I got the free package which includes the server GUI application and the inspector application, and it was free to download, and that's all I need to get my work done. I'm not aware of any additional costs associated with the tool."
"The solution is free."
"The solution is more affordable than other vendors."
"The pricing is good. It is the market average."
"It is freeware software, so start using it."
"Katalon Studio is an expensive tool."
"I am using the free version."
"The product is expensive."
"Its pricing is quite reasonable. If you require their help in getting started, then there is a professional services fee on top of the product license cost."
"The tool is free to use."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
19%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Insurance Company
5%
Educational Organization
33%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Do you recommend Appium?
I do recommend Appium. It is an open-source solution and completely free of charge. We use Appium and Appium Studio as our base for any type of mobile automation for testing. It has a great interfa...
What do you like most about Appium?
Appium helps me to do as much as much as I want to.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Appium?
My experience with Appium from a pricing perspective is favorable due to it being open source, making it a cost-effective option.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Katalon Studio?
The pricing of Katalon Studio is affordable, making it a sensible option for those looking for an affordable range.
What needs improvement with Katalon Studio?
I would like Katalon Studio to develop manual test case generation using AI capabilities, as other tools like those using OpenAI are already doing this. Also, enhancing its test management aspects ...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Nuvizz, Coupa Software, Eventbrite, Evernote
Coca-Cola Tesla Black Board TaTa Consultancy Services Sony
Find out what your peers are saying about Appium vs. Katalon Studio and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
841,004 professionals have used our research since 2012.