Appium vs Sauce Labs comparison

Appium and Sauce Labs are both solutions in the Regression Testing Tools category. Additionally, 93% of Appium users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Sauce Labs users who would recommend it.

Appium

Read 29 Appium reviews

1,867 Views
1,498 Comparison Views

93% willing to recommend

Sauce Labs

Read 113 Sauce Labs reviews

5,277 Views
4,142 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

Appium

Sauce Labs

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Appium and Sauce Labs based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Regression Testing Tools solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Appium vs. Sauce Labs Report (Updated: October 2024).

Buyer's Guide

Appium vs. Sauce Labs

October 2024

Download the complete report

Helped 816,406 peers since 2012

Categories and Ranking

Appium

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Mobile Development Platforms (7th), Regression Testing Tools (6th)

Sauce Labs

Average Rating

8.8

Number of Reviews

113

Ranking in other categories

Functional Testing Tools (12th), Test Automation Tools (15th)

Featured Reviews

Abhishek-Tiwari

Senior Associate at PwC

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.

Read full review

Savio De Souza

Sr. IT Architect at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees

Enables us to have a fully functional CI/CD process while saving time and cutting down on the training required for individual testers

When we were in development, it was a bit of a pain because we have onshore and offshore development. One of our development shops is in India, and we were running tests over there. When some of the users tried to log in, it was slow for them or we didn't have enough licenses. That was during the core development before we even launched. We got around that by purchasing more seats, tinkering with some of the virtualization pieces, and scaling. Now we don't have that issue, because we scaled back the offshore team significantly, so when we run it overnight, there's really no effect. We come in the next morning and review the results. It doesn't affect the overall business or the offshore team. There were also some bottlenecks because of the amount of time testing takes, so we started using more tunnels and running it in parallel. That was the main issue that we faced initially, but now that it's all set up, we're good to go. We were struggling with the volume of tests, and Sauce Labs suggested we run everything in parallel. Sauce Labs isn't lacking any features that we want, and it has several we're not using, like mobile and API testing. They've also introduced a ton more features since we launched, so I don't see anything missing on their end.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."

"Obviously because of automation, it reduces manual testing efforts."

"The library is extensive so the driver interacts with most functions or actions on mobile devices."

"We get a list that shows all devices that are connected to the system."

"It runs completely flawlessly and seamlessly every day."

"The solution is easy to use."

"What I like about Appium right now is that it's like Cypress in the sense that............. to test the components in the way I want them to be tested."

"Appium's best feature is that it supports multiple frameworks."

More Appium pros

"Sauce Labs is optimized for automation and integration with the major CI/CD platforms and developer tools. We have an integration with App Center that we're working on. They have a storage API that lets us retrieve APK and IPA, iOS and Android builds off the phone, so that we can continue testing with CI/CD. They integrate with Jenkins, and Jenkins is the main CI/CD."

"One of the most valuable features is that we do not have to have the cross-platform testing vehicles in-house. Sauce Labs gives us the ability to test across platforms and that really helps give us confidence in our products."

"It has a wide assortment of platforms."

"Before implementing Sauce Labs, we tested physical devices that team members had to share. It was more feasible when we were all located in one office, but we couldn't leverage our offshore capacity. With this solution, we can do everything remotely, which is essential now that most of us work from home."

"The solution they provide is very robust. We can quickly connect to their environment with the hub URL. They have a URL that has the entire grid of desktops, web browsers, and mobile devices. They also provide real devices, so you just provide the URL and test your application."

"I like the dashboard and seeing the test results. As a manager, I like to see the insights of the people using it, understanding the total path and run. I can see all of that as a manager. I also know team members love seeing the dashboard and seeing the test results in real-time."

"Sauce Labs provides us with more combinations to test, so we can keep adding platforms and devices to our network. That's been a very seamless experience. Let's say there's an iOS or a private device we need. Sauce Labs has helped get all those set up when needed."

"The most valuable feature is the ability to easily test multiple browsers and versions, as well as off-loading our local environments using the SauceCloud."

More Sauce Labs pros

Cons

"Configuring the project to be used in Appium is a little bit tedious."

"I rarely use Appium nowadays because I'm now at the managerial level, but the last time I used it, whenever I selected and clicked on an element, Appium was very slow. I tried to debug it, but I still couldn't find the problem, so this is an area for improvement in the solution. Another area for improvement lies with the connector and server. For example, the effort to get into the local machine sometimes causes the emulator to become slow, which then leads to failure in testing, and this is the usual issue I've encountered from Appium. An additional feature I'd like added to Appium in its next release is being able to do automation in iOS without using XPath and the name of the element. In Xcode, you can use previous UI tests for detecting elements, but in Appium, you have to use Xpath and the element name instead of being able to directly put the X-UiPath, which is what you can do in Xcode. In iOS as well, sometimes the element doesn't have a name or a path. Sometimes, there's also no element."

"They should add an in-built framework."

"Stability is an area that needs some improvement."

"Support-wise, it could be better."

"The tool needs to add a dependency manager."

"The initial setup is straightforward if you have previous experience with the solution, but it can be complicated for a novice user."

"What needs improvement in Appium is its documentation. It needs to give more context on the libraries that Appium is using under the hood. For example, my team is using Appium for Android automation, and a lot of times, I feel that there's functionality that's available through the Appium interface, that exists within the UIAutomator, but there aren't a lot of useful or helpful resources on the internet to find that information, so it would be good to have some linkage with the underlying platform itself. Another room for improvement in Appium is that it's buggy sometimes. For example, at times, there's a bug in the inspector application that doesn't allow me to save my desired capability set, so it would be nice to get that bug fixed, but overall, Appium is a good tool. The Touch Actions functionality in Appium also needs improvement. For example, if I want to initiate a scroll on the device that I'm running Appium on, sometimes Swipe works, but in other situations, I have to explicitly use action chains, so I'm not too sure what's the better approach. What I'd like to see in the next version of Appium is a more intelligent and more intuitive AppiumLibrary, in terms of identifying menus and scroll bars, etc., because right now, I'm unsure if I have to do a lot of export reversals to get to the elements I'm looking for. It would be nice to have some functionality built in, which would allow me to easily get those exports."

More Appium cons

"Another aspect that could be improved is having the virtual devices boot up a little quicker. Sometimes we wait up to a minute before a device is available. It would be nice if that was 30 seconds or so."

"Sauce Labs has room for improvement with its price point. Using a real mobile device, and having that dedicated to your team, costs more than actually purchasing a mobile device. We haven't tried the real devices yet. This is because of their price point."

"Sauce Labs' dashboard could be improved by adding more filters and allowing more customization options. There was one instance where the dashboard on the Sauce Labs UI didn't meet our requirements, so we had to use the Sauce Labs API to create some apps and dashboards on our own. The API endpoints could be a little more robust and customizable."

"Multi-domain SSO is a big concern for us right now, especially as we've been merged into a larger company. I suddenly have teams coming from 20 different domains, and because the main master Sauce Labs account is locked down to one SSO domain, there are teams that can't run a test right now. I've heard they're working on a solution and they've been very communicative with us about it. A solution to that would help us a lot."

"I would like for there to be more detail in regards to the quality of our code i.e. how many failures occurred, how many passed based on industry standard metrics, etc."

"Better and programmatic controls on request/response recordings and sharing with developers."

"I can't remove team members that have left the organization. I can only set them as inactive. It would be really nice to clean up my data and delete them from the team management."

"The one issue I have is the 14-day trial that a new user gets for free. I understand the concept of the trial period; however, I think this could be revamped to a free 30-minute run time every few months or after a significant update once the trial period has ended."

More Sauce Labs cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price is good for people to be able to make a favorable decision for the value."

"The pricing of Appium is fine."

"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."

"As far as I know, Appium is a free solution. It's not for commercial use."

"The solution is open source so it is free."

"Appium is free and open-source."

"There is no license for this solution because it is open-source."

"It's completely 100% free, and there are no hidden fees."

More Appium pricing and cost advice

"Go ahead please. Try it at a smaller scale."

"Compared with other services, Sauce Labs is a bit expensive."

"Their pricing is incredibly competitive."

"It could be less like pay-per-use with a lower rate."

"Trial the product and see if it suits your needs."

"The pricing is definitely on the higher end, and there are other options that are more cost-effective."

"With respect to pricing, they did a bundled discount because we went with Sauce Labs for both mobile and browser. They were very competitive on pricing and provided a bundle discount for us as a larger customer."

"Now that we have an enterprise license, we no longer have to worry about minutes each month!"

More Sauce Labs pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Regression Testing Tools solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

20%

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Financial Services Firm

18%

Computer Software Company

17%

Manufacturing Company

Healthcare Company

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...

See all answers

What do you like most about Appium?

Appium helps me to do as much as much as I want to.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Appium?

Appium is open source, so there is no cost involved. This is a significant advantage over commercial tools like UFT, which require payment.

See all answers

What do you like most about Sauce Labs?

It has significantly enhanced our testing accuracy by approximately 50%.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Sauce Labs?

Sauce Labs can include new technologies like generative AI, which can reduce the human effort in writing test cases. For example, in my current project, we reduced the time it took to complete user...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Sauce Labs?

I work as an automation engineer using Selenium WebDriver with Java, and API automation using Rest Assured with Java. I have also worked with Docker integration on AWS. Additionally, I have experie...

See all answers

Comparisons

Katalon Studio vs Appium

Compared 20% of the time

Tricentis Tosca vs Appium

Compared 17% of the time

Perfecto vs Appium

Compared 16% of the time

Apache JMeter vs Appium

Compared 7% of the time

SmartBear TestComplete vs Appium

Compared 5% of the time

More Appium Competitors

BrowserStack vs Sauce Labs

Compared 46% of the time

Perfecto vs Sauce Labs

Compared 23% of the time

LambdaTest vs Sauce Labs

Compared 13% of the time

Bitbar vs Sauce Labs

Compared 3% of the time

BlazeMeter vs Sauce Labs

Compared 1% of the time

More Sauce Labs Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Appium

November 2024

Download Appium product report

Buyer's Guide

Sauce Labs

October 2024

Download Sauce Labs product report

Learn More

Appium

Sauce Labs

Overview

Appium is an open-source mobile application development tool that is designed to give users complete control of their application development process. It enables them to optimize the development process when the need calls for it, and create the applications that they want in the most efficient manner they can.

Appium Benefits

Some of the benefits that come from using Appium include:

Ease of deployment. Appium is fairly simple for users to set up for the first time. Developers can download Appium and launch it with only a couple of clicks.

Easily track the results of application tests. Appium automatically creates reports when developers run application tests. These reports can give users insights into every aspect of the tests that they just ran. They can include detailed test results, screenshots of the test as it took place, and videos showing the test while it was in progress. Developers can also recall these reports with ease so that the information that was gathered is always at their disposal.

Gain deep insights into your application. Users can easily gain insight into the way that their application is running and how it might be improved. The reports that the system produces can provide developers with all of the data and insight that they need to improve their applications and make informed decisions.

Appium Features

When users choose to employ Appium’s mobile development solution, they gain access to many different capabilities. These features include:

Remote testing capability. Teams that are spread across the globe can collaborate and run tests from wherever they happen to be at the time. They can connect to Appium’s cloud testing feature and always have access to the latest iteration of the project they are working on.

Customizable test reporting capability. Appium enables users to customize the way that information from their tests is reported. They can create the kinds of reports that best reflect their objectives and needs. When specific information is needed, the reports can be formatted to show that particular aspect when the solution generates it.

Parallel testing capabilities. Developers who use Appium can run multiple application tests at the same time. This enables them to save time and resources while still accounting for every scenario that their applications might experience. Users can run all of the tests necessary to ensure that their applications are successful while spending the minimum amount of time doing so.

Reviews from Real Users

Appium is a solution that has a great deal to offer its users. It is a very complete mobile development solution that gives users the capabilities that they need to design their mobile applications with the greatest level of ease possible. Users can scale their application scripts to meet their needs. Additionally, developers can automate testing protocols, which reduces the amount of time and other resources that need to be devoted to the testing process. These two features make Appium a leader in the field of mobile application development.

Jayanta K., automation and nft manager at a computer software company, writes, “The interface for mobile automation is helpful for scripting and execution. It's scalable and there are many testers who would like to automate. In terms of scripting, scalability is very good.”

The head of solutions delivery (systems) at a wellness & fitness company writes, “Obviously, because of automation, it reduces manual testing efforts.”

Sauce Labs is a functional testing tool that ensures your apps and websites work flawlessly on every browser, OS, and device. The solution allows you to automate functional testing on multiple operating systems and browsers, emulating the way that a user would use the website. With Sauce Labs, you can also run tests on various operating system and browser combinations in parallel, reducing the amount of time to get results. The Sauce Labs solution provides enterprise-grade security, scalability, and reliability.

Sauce Labs Features

Sauce Labs has many valuable key features. Some of the most useful ones include:

Automated cross-browser testing
Mobile testing
Secure tunneling protocol
Usage reporting
Enterprise security
Provisioning
Centralized user account management
Access controls
Support for Selenium, Appium, and JUnit Testing

Sauce Labs Benefits

There are many benefits to implementing Sauce Labs. Some of the biggest advantages the solution offers include:

Speed up development time: The solution makes it possible for you to test web and mobile apps in parallel and accelerate your testing time by up to 10x or more. Using Sauce Labs, you can increase developer productivity because your teams will be able to spend less time with test maintenance and debug faster.

No worrying about infrastructure: With Sauce Labs, you don’t have to buy or maintain more servers or mobile devices. You also don’t need to worry about updating browsers or VM licenses. Sauce Labs allows you to easily scale your tests with parallelization to speed up test cycles and boost capacity on their reliable cloud.

Run tests securely: The solution enables you to securely run your scripts and access your data and files from behind your firewall. Sauce Labs generates single-use VMs for every test and destroys them immediately afterwards so your data always remains secure.

Easy integration for your CI systems: Sauce Labs automated testing platform integrates with Jenkins, Bamboo, Microsoft VSTS, and others so you can test as fast as you develop. In addition, you can share results instantly by using the solution’s simple plugins.

Reviews from Real Users

Sauce Labs is a solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. It has valuable features that include error logging, helpful dashboards, and its browser.

Joel A., Product Manager - Data & APIs at a marketing services firm, says, "The error logging is very robust. If we run a test through Sauce Labs and there's some sort of issue, a log will appear on the screen. Log messages are usually heinous and horrible... Sauce Labs is incredibly good at saying things like, 'Hey, here is the exact issue. Fix this and you can run the test.' That helps in getting things up and running and executing the way they should."

Savio D., Sr. IT Architect at a healthcare company, mentions, "Sauce Labs' dashboards contain multiple useful metrics in one place. Everything is represented to us visually on the dashboard, which helps us understand where to focus our attention, what the issues are, and what we need to resolve."

PeerSpot reviewer, Rob L., Director of Quality Assurance - Shared Service at a financial services firm, writes, “The most valuable feature for us is the browser. The most critical thing is that this software aligns with our Agile and DevOps way of doing things. It integrates with kickoff scripts through DevOps.”

Sample Customers

Nuvizz, Coupa Software, Eventbrite, Evernote

Salesforce.com, Mozilla, Zendesk, Puppet Labs, Twitter, Bank of America, Eventbrite, Bleacher Report, Okta, Intuit, Travelocity, Sharecare, CapitalOne.

Buyer's Guide

Appium vs. Sauce Labs

October 2024

Free Report: Appium vs. Sauce Labs

Find out what your peers are saying about Appium vs. Sauce Labs and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.

DOWNLOAD NOW

816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Appium vs. Sauce Labs report.

See our list of best Regression Testing Tools vendors.

We monitor all Regression Testing Tools reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.