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Katalon Studio vs SmartBear TestComplete comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 15, 2024

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

Katalon Studio
Ranking in Regression Testing Tools
3rd
Ranking in Test Automation Tools
3rd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
45
Ranking in other categories
API Testing Tools (5th)
SmartBear TestComplete
Ranking in Regression Testing Tools
5th
Ranking in Test Automation Tools
6th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
75
Ranking in other categories
Functional Testing Tools (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Test Automation Tools category, the mindshare of Katalon Studio is 11.2%, down from 11.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of SmartBear TestComplete is 6.2%, down from 7.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Test Automation Tools
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Prakhar Goel - PeerSpot reviewer
Used for integration automation, user-based automation, and web automation
The solution's most valuable features are the drag-and-drop feature, keyword-driven approach, and reusability of the scripts. The solution has introduced a new feature that helps us identify objects we cannot normally identify. It gives you a fair idea of objects, resolving the object recognition issue. The solution can be used to perform different tests on different machines.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I personally like the 'Object Spy' feature of this tool. It makes it easy to find an element on the web page."
"The most valuable feature of Katalon Studio is that everything can be managed from one platform."
"One of the features that I like is Object Recognition. It worked very well, and it allowed me to create a dynamic expert based on my requirements."
"Katalon Studio has the highest number of integrations compared to other tools at a similar price point, such as Jira, Brokerstack, and Jenkins."
"The most important feature is the Jenkins integration; it is pretty straight forward and allows us to run nightly builds."
"Katalon Studio's biggest advantage is its price. It's a good tool for the price, albeit with some limitations when you compare it with tools like Tricentis Tosca."
"The basic framework and project organization is very good."
"Overall, I recommend it highly and find it easy to use with many integrations."
"The reporting is ready to use and doesn't require any setup."
"SmartBear TestComplete performs some self-healing and has a feature called OCR (optical character recognition)."
"It works very fine. It is fast on almost any machine, and it is also very well organized. I like its object mapping and its capability to find and interact with almost everything that exists on Windows."
"The ease-of-use and quality of the overall product are above average."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is its ability to integrate with Azure DevOps for continuous integration and deployment."
"The ability to run a whole suite of tests automatically (which we did overnight)."
"In TestComplete, I saw a conformed package of a tool that kept everybody in consistency. The team was able to regenerate further tests without having to manipulate more code because the record feature is great."
"The solution's most valuable features are the drag-and-drop feature, keyword-driven approach, and reusability of the scripts."
 

Cons

"They need to work on documentation to make it more centralized and easier to find what you are looking for."
"It should be faster while executing, and there are some defects, like choosing the new device with the test case."
"Katalon Studio's pricing is expensive."
"The price of Katalon Studio is an area of concern where improvement is required."
"There could potentially be more reporting within the solution. We need more issue reports, for example."
"Currently, I'm the only one who can use it because I have a Mac. It is giving a hard time to my team members who are on Linux. My team members are using Linux, and Katalon doesn't support Linux very well. It keeps on crashing. It crashes and shuts down almost every time they save their work, so they are not able to use it. It should have good support for Linux. We don't know what the problem is. If the Katalon team can pick up this issue, it will be very helpful."
"The product’s regression testing time could be reduced."
"We would like to see improved integration with various reporting tools; this would make our testing data more complete."
"Error handling features in the tool are a little limited."
"TestComplete gives support to do requests to a SOAP web service but has no support to do HTTP requests on Restful services."
"The solution’s customer support should be improved."
"SmartBear products generally have a weak link when it comes to integration with other test management tools like Inflectra."
"If that engine could better identify more XPaths automatically and make the process more flexible, that would be better."
"The learning curve of the solution's user interface is a little high for new users."
"The initial setup of SmartBear TestComplete was complex."
"During the distribution of our regression test cases, the control IDs are not always recognized correctly."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"In terms of pricing, Katalon, Selenium, and Cypress all represent a similar level of investment. The software for these tools are either true open source or almost open source (because they charge a small fee), so pricing is a neutral point for me."
"Katalon Studio is less expensive than other solutions, such as Micro Focus UFT."
"Katalon Studio is a free tool."
"It is freeware software, so start using it."
"This product is freeware, so there is no charge for using it."
"The tool is affordable."
"The price is not high it's good."
"The tool's pricing is cheap compared to other alternatives. I would rate the tool's pricing a three out of ten."
"The licensing costs are in the range of $1,000 to $3,000."
"The price of SmartBear TestComplete could be less. The main challenge is when it comes to node-locked. They should use a subscription model, such as a monthly-based subscription or, a quarterly-based subscription. Their floating license is very expensive, and this high price should be reduced or provide, at a minimum, a subscription model."
"The solution's licensing cost has increased because it has moved to some new SLM-based licenses."
"It comes with a high cost."
"This is a pay-per-use service that is not expensive, and cost-efficient if you have a small team."
"It costs a few hundred per year, but I am not sure. It is not at all expensive as compared to other tools."
"The solution is around $1500. Some are perpetual licenses, and some get a yearly report card."
"The product is becoming more and more expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
33%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Computer Software Company
19%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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 ...
What do you like most about SmartBear TestComplete?
TestComplete has strong reporting capabilities. The reports they generate are really good.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for SmartBear TestComplete?
I don't know much about the pricing, however, I think it's cheaper.
What needs improvement with SmartBear TestComplete?
The recording function, when using Python, could be improved, as it does not work well in recording testing.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Coca-Cola Tesla Black Board TaTa Consultancy Services Sony
Cisco, J.P. Morgan, Boeing, McAfee, EMC, Intuit, and Thomson Reuters.
Find out what your peers are saying about Katalon Studio vs. SmartBear TestComplete and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
831,158 professionals have used our research since 2012.