Parasoft SOAtest Reviews

• Being able to load existing .EDN and .XML messages and translate them into segments. I can use them to automate the generation of new messages.
• Generating new messages, based on the existing .EDN and .XML messages, is a crucial part or the testing project that I’m currently in.

We don’t have to manually create .EDN and .XML messages. We can do this with just one click now. This drastically decreases the time that is required to create these messages.

Parasoft SOAtest has an internal refresh function where you can refresh the software to show the changes you’ve made in your projects. Unfortunately this function does not work properly, because it often does not show the changes after you’ve hit te refresh button a few times. I have to restart the software for it to see the changes I’ve made. I have been in contact with the Parasoft Support Division and they told me that it was a known issue and that it has something to do with Java.

I’ve been using SOAtest for about four months now.

I haven’t experienced any stability issues.

I haven’t experienced any scalability issues.

I would give technical support a rating of 9/10. When I encountered an issue, I could always ask for support from Parasoft and they replied with answers very quickly.

The project hasn’t used any other solution before this one.

The setup was very easy. Just a plain installation on Windows and the activation of the license key are required.

From what I understand, Parasoft SOAtest isn’t the cheapest option. But it has a lot to offer. We are only using it for generating test messages, but there is so much more that you can do with it. I suggest getting full support from Parasoft.

I joined my current project at a later stage, but I’m sure that other options were evaluated before choosing Parasoft SOAtest for this project. Unfortunately, I don’t know which other options were evaluated.

You need to check all the features that Parasoft SOAtest offers. If you just need a specific feature from the program, then there could be a cheaper alternative option that works just as well. (This is an assumption.) If you’re looking for a complete testing software/suite, Parasoft SOAtest is a serious option.

Automated execution and chaining of test validators is the most valuable feature; it is easily extensible via the built-in custom scripting API.

It has allowed us to build a large library of repeatable automated tests that are able to be quickly executed on demand. This builds a solid foundation for future initiatives expanding into a more continuous integration and the agile methodology adoption.

Memory Management suffers when using solutions other than the data repository for managing the test cases.

I have used this solution for about three to four years.

The platform can become unstable as the memory usage increases. For example, we use Excel spreadsheets for managing test cases, so the size of these test cases must be tightly controlled.

Scaling tests beyond a certain point can trigger issues with Memory Management, but good design practices usually indicate a need to break up a test before it would reach that point.

Technical support from Parasoft has been excellent.

The setup was straightforward. It was very easy to set up a test scenario that consumed assets in our web service layer and to run validation against the results. The tool itself allows for some more complex chaining of components within a test scenario, so familiarizing yourself with the tool enough to get more creative in your test setups can be more complex.

If you plan on using a floating-license model, plan on a buffer of at least 10 user tokens between the maximum allocated by your license and the expected usage for the tool.

I looked at SoapUI NG Pro.

Keep your test scenarios small and focused rather than trying to cover an entire web service with one scenario.

• The ability to rapidly set up functional test scenarios using WSDL web service descriptions or XSD message specifications
• The ability to quickly make these test scenarios data driven using one of a variety of Data Sources
• The ability to quickly add validation and verification points in these test scenarios
• The ability to add custom validations and actions to these test scenarios using the integrated scripting environment

As a test consultant, I have been able to deliver high quality automated testing solutions to our clients using SOAtest in a quick manner. For example, I have been able to implement a test suite that automatically generates and executes thousands of test cases directly from formal specifications for a web service validating fixed length messages on a large number of syntactic, semantic and business rules.

• The features of SOAtest used for testing (web) applications on user interface level suffice for very basic web applications, but there are better tools on the market.
• The report output could use some work. It contains a lot of technical details which are quite clear to the person or team that implemented the automated tests, but they are not really suited for distribution to, for example, a management team.

I have been using SOAtest for over four years at the time of writing

No

As SOAtest is based on Eclipse, it may consume quite a bit of memory, which can lead to performance and stability issues on lower-end systems.

No.

Customer Service: Good to great, although it helps that I happen to know people at Parasoft personally.Technical Support: Good. The ticketing system on the Parasoft website works well and issues are handled swiftly.

No.

Very straightforward. The product is delivered as a single installer file and the wizard guides you through the installation process easily. The tutorial in the manual helps new users with creating their first tests.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

Some best practices I have learned from my own experience:

• There's a myriad of tools available within SOAtest. Learn to know them and how to use them.
• The possibility for additional scripting is very powerful, but only use it when necessary to avoid overly complex test suites.

Disclosure: The company I work for is a Parasoft partner

We use a lot of tools from Parasoft toolset, but with SOAtest specifically, we use it for creating and running integration tests.

They have a feature where they can record traffic and create tests on the report traffic. That is one of the most valuable features that we've found. So we can run our UI automation tests and directly create services tests from that, which is really, really helpful.

The product is very slow to start up, and that is a bit of a problem, actually. It is not as fast and it's a bit clunky, especially if you use it for the whole day or for a long time, it doesn't save the data, for example. So, it's a bit clunky and slow.

I've been using the solution for three or four years.

The scalability is good.

The stability is good. Currently, in our organization, we have about twelve to fifteen people using the solution and as the organization grows, and the "number of people" requirement is growing, we have plans to increase our usage. We also plan to move to other areas and try to get other people to use it as well. We do plan to increase the usage in the next one or two years.

The technical support is very good. Any time we have any issues and we raise a question, we get fast answers and we get fairly good answers, because being a licensed tool, we don't get a lot of online applications, but if you raise a request, support is pretty good.

The initial setup was fairly straightforward, easy to install, and easy to get the license keys and use them. It's very easy.

They do have a confusing licensing structure. Their licensing structure is really complex and being able to find out the right product for you, for an organization specifically, is a bit harder, but once you find the thing, their scalability and stability is pretty good. 

It's not a simple licensing model. It's not a licensing model that just, "do this and you get this", it's a bit more complicated and quite complex. For a person who is not used to this at all, it's a bit complex.

We did evaluate the other options in the market, Tosca and SoapUI, which we evaluated. Ultimately, we went with this tool.

It is a good solution, and if you're looking to migrate from an existing toolset as well, it's a pretty good solution. It is quite vast, and they have a lot of other toolsets in there. It has a lot of other toolsets like virtualize which is really helpful. The toolset is really good, I'm really impressed with it.

In the base licensing, we would like to have CLI support included because CLI is the most basic stuff that we need. Currently, it's a separate licensing that we need for that. If I'm getting an application and I need to use it. I would like to use the command line interface as well. I would expect that to be part of the base licensing.

I would rate this solution at an eight and a half out of ten.

Repeatable automated regression tests in a SOA architecture IT landscape, for several SOAP/REST webservices including Web Gui end-to-end testing, all scenario-based for 10+ applications. Also, scheduled for test runs at night, using Jenkins.

It provides us with fast(er) test results, more predictable results and automatic (regression) test runs outside the employee workstations. This tooling made us more agile and more ready for continuous integration. We use the night hours to run different regression tests over systems, for which we only need to check the results in the morning.

• Fast and easy automated tests for UI
• Interfaces (SOAP, REST)
• Additional database queries
• Easy validations on responses (soap, rest, json, sql, Gui)

Most valuable for us is the combination of all these items in one solution for us. Broad user story scenario's from A to Z, though a chain of systems, including test data prerequisites.
The next most valuable benefit over the past year is the possibility to use the tooling for continuous testing purposes, using the server-side run option 'as a web service' for (nightly) batch runs.

In general, its user-friendliness needs a little improvement since there are a few bugs that still remain. It needs to be (possibly) more lightweight and have more validation options. The bulk changes in the test cases are not always easy. But all in all, these are minor details compared to the benefits that we have.

More than five years.

Very seldom, there were some stability issues but they do appear only from time to time. Since the 9.10 release we haven't seen this any more. Stable!

We only encountered scalability issues with large test scenarios, combining interfaces with a lot of browser GUI tests. Work-around is cutting up the test cases into smaller scenarios.

The technical support is fairly okay. Technical tool-wise they help a lot if needed, but when it comes to complex test scenarios or weird issues, they do not always have a solution.

An exchange of examples is difficult, since we use tooling for internal applications. So, it is not accessible from the outside world, which makes combined debugging impossible.

Initially, we were using some lightweight open-source (free) tools, but none met with our requirements fully; so we switched solutions.

The setup was fairly easy. They provide good instructions. The workstation install is a piece of cake and some additional (simple) config is needed, for Git/SVN etc. The license server install can be tricky, but it turned out to be fairly easy compared to the earlier versions.

We did it our self, with a little help from the seller.

Use floating licenses, so it’s not attached to one workstation. Furthermore, the pricing is something for the staff to handle, not for us. ;)

We mainly looked into the SoapUI solution, along with some Selenium software and besides that, other stand-alone database tooling options. We also evaluated manual testing.

Start off simple. Build your test setup from there. Do think about setting up some specific test cases as building blocks (reference material) for other test scenarios to use, so that the maintenance in the future is more easily done.

Also be sure to read the Help function, might help you on your way when you're facing some difficulties.

Automatic testing is the most valuable feature.

Compatibility with HTTP 1.1 and TLS 1.2 needs to be improved.

I have used SOAtest for one year.

We get a lot of time-outs and after we start the run again it goes well.

We have had scalability issues.

I rate technical support 8/10.

It was our customer’s choice to use SOAtest.

The tool is complex.

We followed our customer’s choice.

Think twice before you start with it.

It totally gives control to the end user to play with data and deploy the changes directly and that reflects in the application.

1 year

There were few hick ups in the beginning but the talented Parasoft support team helped troubleshoot the problem personally.

No

Yes, there were few issues, that caused the Memory out, but was resolved.

Customer Service: 5/5Technical Support: 4/5

Yes, there were few other tools in the plate, but this one stood out to be the best.