- Ability to convert the test steps from manual mode to script mode and vice versa.
- The web recording feature is very amazing and helpful in capturing test steps as user interacts on websites.
- Can create common test cases for later re-use.
- Can define custom keywords.
- Supports data-driven testing.
- Free.
Software QA Engineer at a tech vendor with self employed
Can convert the test steps from manual mode to script mode and vice versa.
What is most valuable?
How has it helped my organization?
We achieve better productivity with this tool because of easily created, stored, maintained tests. We don't have to perform again and again every manual test step when it comes to regression. Moreover, this tool also solves our problem of having too many manual testers that are afraid of writing scripts.
What needs improvement?
- Restricted choice for scripting language (just Groovy).
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used this tool for three months and still do not want to leave it.
Buyer's Guide
Katalon Studio
October 2024
Learn what your peers think about Katalon Studio. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2024.
814,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
I did not encounter any deployment issues.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I did not encounter any stability issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I did not encounter any scalability issues.
How are customer service and support?
Customer Service:
Customer service is 8/10.
Katalon Studio customer service is good and fast. They rapidly answer users' questions and usually do surveys to enhance the performance.
Technical Support:Technical support is 9/10.
Thank the technical support team for their help. I appreciate their efforts on giving us quick and correct answers. Their answers are always on point and polite.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I previously used TestComplete, but now I use Katalon Studio because it matches my job requirements and it is free.
How was the initial setup?
Initial setup was easy.
What about the implementation team?
An in-house team implemented it. I think the tool can be easily implemented by an in-house team.
What was our ROI?
The learning curve is not steep, and it is quite easy to get used to it. I'm sure it won't take you much time, but the results will be worth it many times over. Plus, it's free, so especially teams with a low budget will find it worth investing.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It's free (freeware license). So, go ahead!
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing this product, I also evaluated Selenium, TestComplete, and Telerik.
What other advice do I have?
I think Katalon Studio and the team behind it did a great job. The tool is not only useful but also cost-effective. I think they are continuing to upgrade the tool (really hope so). I and other users will be very happy with upcoming astonishing features.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Executive at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Good tool for its price bracket, despite limitations and lack of support for some technologies
Pros and Cons
- "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."
- "One aspect that can be improved is testing for desktop applications. I would like to see them support more technologies in this area."
What is our primary use case?
I am the manager of a team that provides testing services to clients and we use Kalaton Studio for test automation (mainly for web applications) as well as Jira which we use for test management.
Most of our Katalon Studio deployments are based on a private cloud because we work with companies that have particular concerns about security and they prefer to use either private cloud or on-premises infrastructure with machines internal to the company.
Being based in Portugal, our team size isn't that big compared with other countries like Germany, UK, or the United States. Thus, we are not officially partners with Katalon, but sometimes our clients ask us to facilitate the reselling of Katalon Studio.
What is most valuable?
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. However, these tools are in completely differently leagues, just like in football where you have the National league and the Championship league. For specific needs, given its price, Katalon Studio is a good solution.
What needs improvement?
One aspect that can be improved is testing for desktop applications. I would like to see them support more technologies in this area. For example, Tosca, in contrast to Katalon Studio, has support for more than 150 different technologies.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Katalon Studio for about 18 months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a stable product.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have previously used Micro Focus UFT One and Tosca, and we also have experience using Selenium and Cypress in specific situations.
How was the initial setup?
It's tricky to say whether the setup is easy or not in an absolute sense. In some cases, it's very straightforward, and in general it is easy to set up. We usually take a few days for the installation of Katalon Studio.
What about the implementation team?
We implement Katalon Studio as part of a comprehensive solution that we provide as a service for clients, and it is just one piece of the whole solution. The number of people involved in the initial deployment is completely dependent on the size of the project and the stringency of the security required, but it usually only takes one or two people.
What was our ROI?
We have seen return on investment, but it depends on the application that you need to test. It's like a car; if you buy an expensive car that supports hundreds of thousands of kilometers without expensive repairs in the garage, you get the payback on that investment. And if you buy an expensive car and you only want to use the car on weekends, e.g. 100 kilometers per weekend, you might die before you get return on that investment. So it all depends.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
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. The price isn't a problem. It's all about compatibility with the application undergoing testing.
If you took twice as many hours to finish something that in another tool you could finish in half the time, then it represents an unnecessary cost. What you don't spend in license fees, you may be spending in the service itself, or in people to support it. These are costs that may become evident later.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Other test automation tools that we evaluated are products that we have used previously such as Micro Focus UFT One and open source tools like Selenium and Cypress.
When it comes to Selenium, it is more of a scripting language, while Katalon is a keyword-driven solution in which you can use visual programming.
What other advice do I have?
The biggest piece of advice I can give to others is to first analyze whether the tool is compatible with the application to undergo testing.
I would rate Katalon Studio a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
Buyer's Guide
Katalon Studio
October 2024
Learn what your peers think about Katalon Studio. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2024.
814,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Technical Project Lead, Agile Coach, IT Educator at Asia Pacific College
Stable and good for API and continuous integration testing
Pros and Cons
- "It is good for API testing. It is also good for continuous integration testing. You can connect it to Jenkins."
- "It would be helpful if they can integrate a feature for performance testing."
What is our primary use case?
We're using it for API testing. It is deployed on my desktop.
What is most valuable?
It is good for API testing. It is also good for continuous integration testing. You can connect it to Jenkins.
What needs improvement?
I believe it would a great feature if they could integrate JMETER and other performance testing tools so that Katalon would become an all-in-one test automation tool
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for almost two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a reliable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I have not scaled it or used any plug-in. Currently, we have less than five users of this product.
How are customer service and technical support?
I haven't contacted their technical support because everything is okay.
How was the initial setup?
It wasn't complex.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We are using the free version. We plan on getting a paid version because there is a limitation in terms of the number of users. We want to maximize it.
What other advice do I have?
It is a mature product, and it is a good starting point for beginners. It is pretty much similar to the other tools in the market.
I would rate Katalon Studio an eight out of 10. It is not perfect, but it is an excellent tool.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Lecturer and Researcher at a non-tech company with 10,001+ employees
Powerful yet easy-to-use and focuses on the end-user as well as interface testing
Pros and Cons
- "This is a product that is well ahead of its immediate competition in features and functionality."
- "They need to work on documentation to make it more centralized and easier to find what you are looking for."
What is our primary use case?
We are using this product as a tool to teach students about testing. We are not teaching them how to use this specific tool. We are helping the students to understand how to find the right tools to do the testing on what they develop.
How has it helped my organization?
fast learning curve tool (and profesional) for students new at the subject
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features for me are that Katalon Studio is powerful and yet easy-to-use. This solution — even in comparison to Selenium, which we were using previously — is a little bit more simple from a user's standpoint. It is interesting because it is not only focused on the end-user but interface testing — and that includes API testing. Even if we do not generally need to use it, it is interesting. We are a university and we have a very small department that is doing development testing of software. Most of the projects are not API-based. We still are employing some old client-server versions and software architecture. But the capability is still interesting looking forward.
I have worked with the record and replay feature which helps to create test cases. It is quite useful for assisting in testing a user interface and a very good experience for students' understanding of procedures.
What needs improvement?
I really do not know what every user who is using this product might need to make it better for them. I do not think this is an easy question to answer for users globally. I do not think there are any features that we need. We had a small problem with an update of the web browser, but we managed to figure it out. New features are not part of our usage for the product.
I think the one thing that is more problematic for the product is the online documentation. It could be more centralized and better or just easier to find.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Katalon Studio off and on as a teaching tool at our university for maybe two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is OK.
We had 3rd party problem (browser update) that broken the test case. But it was fixable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We do not really have a reason to test the scalability, but it should be quite scalable. For the training project, it is only something students do for a few weeks. It depends on the team, but between two and six weeks, and no more. We get an average of about fifty students in their third year right now. They launch an initial development project including testing activity. The use of this kind of tools is optional and tool selection depends on the student group. The do not develop more than 2/3 sprints.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Within the department, we were previously using Selenium a few years back for teaching testing. We actually switched to Katalon from student suggestions. In the future, we may change again.
The most important thing about the product is that we can use it to teach about testing. So it was not imperative to switch but it is also good for students to have varied product experiences.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup takes a couple of weeks. That is not really too long for a product like this. It was relatively easy to do.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
One of my colleagues is in charge of teaching software engineering testing issues. When the students are tackling the testing project, they sometimes suggest using different tools. Some years ago it was Selenium, nowadays it is Katalon. Of course, there are other tools that perhaps in the future we will suggest to the students to use in their projects. We are not teaching them to be professional users of Katalon and we will continue to evaluate tools and take suggestions for future packages.
What other advice do I have?
In looking at Katalon Studio and comparing it with Selenium, I think Katalon is better. The capture and replay functionality for sure sets Katalon ahead. As far as the API testing, we have not tried to explore that part. I have only heard that Katalon is very powerful in that capacity. Katalon is easier to work with and to integrate. Those are the main strengths and the differences we have found between the products.
I would rate Katalon Studio as an eight-of-ten overall on a scale from one to ten where one is the worst and ten is the best. It should be considered that we are not very demanding users. We have not put a lot of stress on the product in our testing.
To get a nine or ten, if they could provide some capabilities with artificial intelligence to help to assist testing models that could help people to improve in finding the best-case scenarios. Version testing might be an option as well. But Katalon is much closer to getting ten points than Selenium.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Programmer Analyst at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Easy to use, runs Selenium scripts, and the element capture is helpful
Pros and Cons
- "It is easy for a non-technical person to use and adopt."
- "It is difficult to identify elements on websites that use Angular or ReactJS because they don't have an option to view source code."
What is our primary use case?
We are using Katalon Studio for test automation. There are multiple use cases including creating Selenium scripts to help guarantee RPA frameworks.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is the Element capture. It is capable of scanning the application, recording, and capturing the elements.
You can develop a Selenium script and execute it in Katalon Studio.
There are multiple ways that you can guarantee the functionality of RPA frameworks.
Katalon makes it easy for the automation engineer to create automation scripts.
There are lots of script creation options including for the desktop and the API.
It is easy for a non-technical person to use and adopt.
What needs improvement?
It is difficult to identify elements on websites that use Angular or ReactJS because they don't have an option to view source code.
There is no centralized repository for documentation, which is something that would assist users.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Katalon Studio for about a year and a half.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Katalon Studio is scalable because of the cost, and that you can execute Selenium scripts.
We have three people in our team who use it.
How are customer service and technical support?
My opinion of the technical support is that it is average. I am satisfied with it.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Katalon Studio is a free tool.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, it is a good tool in the market for test automation.
I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Test Lead at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Good end-to-end UA, Web,API, and mobile app testing capability
Pros and Cons
- "The basic framework and project organization is very good."
- "We have had some issues when it comes to stability, which is something that needs to be improved."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use this solution for user acceptance testing, web testing, regression testing, and mobile app testing.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is the capability of doing end-to-end testing for both web and mobile apps.
The basic framework and project organization is very good.
Data design testing capabilities are useful.
What needs improvement?
The maintenance of the tools can be improved.
We have had some issues when it comes to stability i.e when project has lot of items in workspace, which is something that needs to be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Katalon Studio for just under two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
At times, Katalon is a little bit non-stable i.e When a project has lot of items in workspace, it takes a while to save . We have had a couple of issues related to instability for more complex models, but we are hoping that it will get better. Because of these issues, we are not able to integrate this solution into our platform.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is okay for our immediate purposes. We have a maximum of ten users who are all test engineers.
How are customer service and technical support?
We did have a couple of questions for technical support but we did not have direct interaction with them. Instead, we asked them through the web community forums, and some of them were answered.
It was a difficult problem so that may be why not all of our questions were answered. Also, you don't always get reliable answers from the community. For example, we followed some free advice to help with the implementation and it was not good for that purpose.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Prior to Katalon Studio, we were using UFT for our testing. We switched because Katalon is free and doesn't cost any money. It works in the meantime, and they have the capabilities that we need. The cost was definitely a factor.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is really simple, which is one of the good things about this product.
It was really easy to implement and use. I look for information online from Katalon before we started our testing.
What about the implementation team?
We completed the implementation using our in-house team.
It takes two or three people to deploy and maintain this solution.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There is a free version of the tool to use and support is available through the community forums, but there is a licensed version as well.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We did not evaluate other options. We needed certain capabilities and we found Katalon to be acceptable.
What other advice do I have?
It is a good product. I would recommend it because they are promoting that they will update it for free, for life. We have had issues with stability but it might be better with the licensed version.
I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
QA Architect at a media company with 201-500 employees
Easy to setup, with fast automation and not overly technical
Pros and Cons
- "The automation is very fast and you don't need to be overly proficient in coding."
- "There could potentially be more reporting within the solution. We need more issue reports, for example."
What is our primary use case?
We will primarily use the solution for regression testing.
What is most valuable?
Katalon is very easy to record and then we can use the identifiers very easily. Katalon automatically gets you all the identifiers. It's very user-friendly. How it finds the objects and gets the identifiers is excellent.
The initial setup is very easy.
The automation is very fast and you don't need to be overly proficient in coding.
What needs improvement?
I just started using it, however, if I get the demo, I'm looking for mobile as well, so that I can get more area on it. As of right now, I don't have that much. I'm just starting with it. Once I get to be a full-fledged user, then I can give better input.
There could potentially be more reporting within the solution. We need more issue reports, for example.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've only been using the solution for a couple of months at this point. It's still pretty new to us. We're still exploring the product.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We are still very new to the solution and we need more time to test the stability, to see if it is reliable. We haven't had any problems just yet, however, we haven't had enough time with the product to really make a judgment call on stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We are still simply exploring the solution and therefore only have maybe ten users on the solution at this time.
How are customer service and technical support?
I've never had an opportunity to interact directly with technical support. I cannot speak to how helpful or responsive they are.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have used Selenium in the past.
How was the initial setup?
We did not find the initial setup to be very difficult or complex. It was straightforward. It was easy. A company shouldn't have any trouble with the process.
We were using the trial version and it was very easy to install.
What about the implementation team?
We mostly installed the trial version ourselves, although we were in touch with Katalon during the process.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before implementing Katalon, we compared it with Selenium, which we were already using.
If a user has good programmatic skills, I'd go for Selenium. Otherwise, due to its relative speed and faster automation, I'd go for Katalon.
What other advice do I have?
We want to use Katalon Studio RE. I had a call with the salesperson. He said that he'll arrange one day a demo, however, that has not been scheduled yet.
In general, I would rate the solution at a seven out of ten.
I'd recommend it specifically for users that don't have that much programming prowess.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Software QA Test Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Good reporting as well as integration with Jenkins and Slack, but it crashes often
Pros and Cons
- "The most important feature is the Jenkins integration; it is pretty straight forward and allows us to run nightly builds."
- "It would be helpful to have an automatic save feature."
What is our primary use case?
We evaluated Katalon Studio along with Postman and SoapUI to be part of our testing framework. We used it mainly for microservices, API automation, and testing API endpoints. We click one button to have it run all of the tests and generate a report.
How has it helped my organization?
Katalon Studio is useful because it helped us to generate reports to see which test cases passed versus which ones failed. It gives a good graphical representation of the results.
What is most valuable?
The most important feature is the Jenkins integration; it is pretty straight forward and allows us to run nightly builds.
The integration with Slack is very helpful.
The Katalon Analytical Studio, which is directly integrated, offers better reporting capabilities, which is a good feature.
What needs improvement?
We found that Katalon Studio crashes a lot of the time and it would be very good if it were more stable. When it crashes, the tests are not always saved and this means that you have to start again from scratch. It would be helpful to have an automatic save feature.
For how long have I used the solution?
We used Katalon Studio for about two months while we were evaluating different products.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This solution crashes often and stability is something that needs improvement.
I would rate the stability a six and a half out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability depends on the scope of the project. It is not meant for load testing. However, if it can be integrated then you would see that it's more scalable in that aspect. Because it is just for API endpoint testing, it is not as scalable as one would assume. Again, it is for endpoint testing as opposed to load testing.
We had a team of four or five people who were using this product. They are test engineers with similar roles.
How are customer service and technical support?
It is a growing community. There are documents available but I would say that the community is pretty small as compared to what Postman has.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Prior to this solution, we were using TestNG. It is more about writing automation code as opposed to using an automation tool. Using it means that you have to write a lot of code. Code snippets will do for some testing but if you want to do regression testing then there is a lot more to do. One of the reasons that we implemented Postman, and evaluated Katalon Studio, was to get away from writing code and using something more stable.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is quite straightforward.
We deploy per release, where every two weeks we deploy a new release.
Our implementation strategy is to create the test case first, then to create a test suite in the object repository. We can add all of the endpoints, and the calls for the endpoints. We run the tests through the suites, which will test all of the test cases. It is then run with the Jenkins integration and Slack integration to get the results, and what has passed or failed will be clear.
What about the implementation team?
The implementation is straightforward if you are using it from the local machine. You can download it directly through the provider interface.
If you are running it through the Jenkins you will require a plugin to be downloaded. Jenkins supports plugins that include the Katalon plugin, and once downloaded, you enter your code into the repository and run it from there.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We were using the free version of this tool.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated Postman and SoapUI along with Katalon Studio. Ultimately, we chose Postman because it has been in the market for a while, it has good open-source documentation and has a more active community. In general, people trust it.
What other advice do I have?
Products such as this one are a byproduct of artificial intelligence. It comes up with very nice code snippets that we can use, and it is good to see the industry moving forward in this aspect. The future is AI and Katalon is a part of that.
When it comes to testing RESTful APIs, this is a good solution but in the alternative, Postman is out there. That is the one that we ultimately chose to implement.
I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Updated: October 2024
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