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PeerSpot user
Senior Director, Software Development and Testing at Softcrylic
Consultant
It gives us the ability to execute tests in parallel which provides time savings for testing.

What is most valuable?

  • Automate test across several browsers such as IE, Chrome, Firefox and Safari
  • Write automation scripts in any language of your choice Java, C#, PHP, Python and many more
  • Ability to execute tests in parallel which provide time saving for testing
  • Ability to take screenshots of every tests
  • An open API that can be extended based on our needs
  • A Recorder Tool to record tests and execute them for non-developers

How has it helped my organization?

We provide IT services and solutions, and this solution helped our clients reduce their manual testing efforts to greater level. Our clients have realized benefits by reducing their testing cycle from three days to three hours through Selenium.

What needs improvement?

They can improve test reporting, and more importantly on test scripts, by providing less constructs to automate more complex testing scenarios.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used it for the past nine years. We use it alongside Appium.

Buyer's Guide
Selenium HQ
March 2025
Learn what your peers think about Selenium HQ. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.
849,190 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

Deployment is little tricky but with good help from external vendors organizations, can implement a Selenium based test automation solution in a short period of time.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There have been no issues with the stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

There have been no issues with the scalability.

How are customer service and support?

There is great on-line support from the users community. External vendors have innovative solutions build using these tools where they provide tremendous support.

How was the initial setup?

It was difficult to some extent, but with good documentation from the on-line community we where able to implement the tool.

What about the implementation team?

We did it in-house. If you are implementing it for enterprise level its better to seek external vendor help.

What was our ROI?

We have seen ROI of more than 60%. It's open source.

What other advice do I have?

I would say start lean, gain small wins and incrementally add more. Example: Start automating test cases for one browser and slow expand to multiple browsers.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user203841 - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineering Senior Analyst at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
We have been able to fix many browser related issues in the application before deployment, but I've seen latency issues in IE while executing scripts.

What is most valuable?

  • Open source
  • Ability to run tests across multiple browsers and OS
  • Using Java as programming language

How has it helped my organization?

  1. There are important projects in my organization which require a lot of cross browser testing to make sure that the application functions across different types of browsers eg. Internet Explorer, Chrome, FireFox, and Safari along with different versions eg IE9,10,11 etc. Hence we needed a tool which can run our tests across all these browsers in different machines to ensure defect free application. We have been able to fix many browser related issues in the application before deployment. Thus our efficiency of delivering a higher quality product has been increased a lot.
    This is important because our end users may use any kind of browser to use the application and we don’t want to get into issues where our applications crashes in 1 browser and works well in other.
  2. A lot of time & cost has been saved by using Selenium automation because now we don’t need all browsers to be tested by manual testers. Just 1 automation script is required which can be run across different browsers. We only need 1 person to kick off the script execution

What needs improvement?

We have seen latency issues with Internet Explorer. I would like to see better support for Internet Explorer.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used it for one year and one month.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I've seen latency issues in IE while executing scripts. The same script runs faster in Chrome and FireFox. Sometimes, the same xpath may not identify an object in Internet Explorer, but will identify it in Chrome/FireFox. So we have to write a different code in that case. This is not a very common scenario though.

How are customer service and technical support?

Although there is no customer service for this, the code documentation and online resources make it easy to work with.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We used IBM Rational Functional Tester v8.5. The reason we switched over this product was because Selenium WebDriver:

  • Is Open source
  • Supports execution in multiple browsers
  • Has the ability to run multiple tests across browsers and OS at the same time using Selenium Grid

How was the initial setup?

It was straightforward. All we needed was an editor like Eclipse and all the required JAR files and driver executables. All these are available online.

What about the implementation team?

We did it in-house. You should have JRE up to date, and make sure your IDE is configured properly. All driver executables should be downloaded and all JAR files should be applied to the project.

What was our ROI?

We have saved overs 400 hours of effort in our regression testing.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

There is no license cost.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Selenium HQ
March 2025
Learn what your peers think about Selenium HQ. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.
849,190 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Mudasir Shafi - PeerSpot reviewer
Testing Lead at Enstoa
Real User
Cost-effective with good community support, but the interface could be more user-friendly
Pros and Cons
  • "The stability and performance are good."
  • "Coding skills are required to use Selenium, so it could be made more user-friendly for non-programmers."

What is our primary use case?

The primary use case is web automation.

It has an extension available called Appiam that we use for our mobile automation.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features are that it's open-source and the community support is good.

This is a product that does the task for us and it's easy to use.

What needs improvement?

Coding skills are required to use Selenium, so it could be made more user-friendly for non-programmers. If you purchase Katalon Studio, then it comes with an interface for Selenium.

If there were other tools or companies that integrated with Selenium then it would be helpful. At the moment, it's just Katalon.

It would be helpful if there was an organization that we could reach out to, in order to get support for the product. As it is now, you have to find help yourself. For example, you may have to use Google search to look for similar issues and discover how they were resolved.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Selenium HQ for between two and three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability and performance are good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This is certainly a scalable product. However, based on our requirements, we haven't had a need to scale. It's used in-house and at the moment, there are only five people who use it.

It's a standalone tool, so you put it in one place and everybody uses the coding scripts that you write.

We do have plans to expand our automation capabilities, and if so, it will expand our usage of Selenium.

How are customer service and support?

We are using the open-source product, and they do not have a dedicated support center. Instead, you have to look for online forums and you always find people that are willing to help you. That said, you have to do some research on your own.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is fairly easy. It requires you to install their IDE, which is Eclipse. In total, it takes between three and four hours to deploy.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented this product in-house. It does not require much maintenance.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

This is an open-source product that can be used free of charge.

What other advice do I have?

This is a Java-based product so the version is tied to your version of Java.

Overall, this is a good product and I recommend it. It is easy to use and works well once it is set up, although support requires research and you need to have some coding skills to use it.

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.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1709871 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Project Engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Saves us much time and effort through the use of parallel test execution
Pros and Cons
  • "There are many useful features in Selenium that I like, and of the new features I particularly enjoy the Selenium Grid. With this, we can run many test cases in one go, and in one suite we can extract multiple results."
  • "For email-based applications, we can't automate as we would like to, making it necessary to bring in a third-party product to do so."

What is our primary use case?

In my current project, we are working with an online pharmacy system, and for this system we maintain prescription details for patients. For example, patient names and other details such as where the patients live, what medications they need, and other types of information for various scenarios.

Then there is information for the doctors, such as what prescriptions there are in the system, and from which doctors they have been prescribed. These are the types of scenarios and test cases that we are automating with Selenium.

Specifically, I have been using Eggplant Functional and the Java Selenium pack, and Selenium WebDriver is the driver we use for developing the automation and scripts for the different test cases we use. This is our main testing tool for the online pharmacy system project and it is deployed on the cloud on a virtual machine because we are working from home now.

How has it helped my organization?

Selenium HQ has helped us through its automation capabilities, because testing manually takes a lot of time and money. For instance, we have now automated an end-to-end application for the test cases. So now it's really easy for the testers, and it reduces the time and effort taken to do their work.

There are many phases that must be completed while delivering the product to the client, and in the system integration testing phase we can easily execute our automation and scripts, which saves us a lot of time and enhances the testing process dramatically.

What is most valuable?

There are many useful features in Selenium that I like, and of the new features I particularly enjoy the Selenium Grid. With this, we can run many test cases in one go, and in one suite we can extract multiple results.

Because Selenium also supports parallel test execution, I believe it is one of the best testing applications out there.

What needs improvement?

Beyond the many advantages that Selenium HQ brings, there are also several disadvantages. For example, there are some complex scripts which can make Selenium unreliable in some cases.

For email-based applications, we can't automate as we would like to, making it necessary to bring in a third-party product to do so. Eggplant, for example, offers email-based processing, like with the OCR engine, and for automation testing and reporting I would like to see a similar feature in Selenium.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using Selenium HQ for at least one year now. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I find it a reliable solution for the most part. But in some cases it is only as reliable as the third-party code it works alongside with. For example, Selenium doesn't have automated generation code, so we are dependent on other tools for this. And as I have mentioned, we also need to use third-party tools for things like email-based applications.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Selenium HQ can be scaled with the use of parallel test execution, and when it comes to expanding its use more generally, it's possible to add on to its automation functionality with third-party tools as well.

How are customer service and support?

For our work with Selenium, we have a support team that helps us so we can go through them when we have problems. But for the small things, we generally solve problems ourselves. We are able to do self-study when it comes to support, and we also have a tech support architect who is able to help when needed.

How was the initial setup?

The initial deployment was simple, as we are not doing anything too complex with it. We're using Azure DevOps for the deployment, so we test for that with a test plan and build up the pipeline accordingly, so we can execute and get the test execution report in order to find out what other test cases were impacted, and what other test cases we need to resolve. Doing it this way, we can easily find and fix any bugs in the deployment.

What about the implementation team?

We have built up some custom implementation strategies when it comes to our daily use in Selenium HQ. For the test cases, we first verify which test cases we need to automate by coding some common functions, like logins and other common functions that are present in the application. After that, we look at the locators we will need to select using XPath, and then we start building the test cases according to the specific application, using code from all the common functions.

In the implementation team, we have six people who are using Selenium HQ for our current project. There are more people in other projects that I have running, but for this one there are only six of us. One or two are technical leads and the others are project engineers.

When it comes to maintenance of Selenium, we leave that up to others. We are mainly responsible for automating all the scripts that we deliver to the client.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Selenium HQ is open source and our use of it in our company is provided for free.

What other advice do I have?

I would surely recommend others to use Selenium as we do, especially because while using Selenium we can use Java concepts as well. It's great that, through Java, anybody can use Selenium; even novice programmers. In today's market, automation is a big part of every organization, and Java programming skills can hugely enhance the use of tools like Selenium.

One of the biggest lessons I learned was during my time as part of the development team. I didn't want to work in the manual testing team and so when my development project was completed, I moved to the automation department because I wanted to carry on being productive. With this move, I realized that I could easily learn other tools and technologies that are useful in the market, by adapting my programming skills in Java, Python, or any other programming language, to working with tools such as Selenium. In addition to my Selenium work, I also now do Rapid Automation as an automation engineer.

I would rate Selenium HQ an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Managing Partner at Business Dialog
Real User
A stable and scalable browser-based regression automation suite, but it would be better if it was more user-friendly for business users
Pros and Cons
  • "I like its simplicity."
  • "It would be better if it accommodated non-techy end-users. I think it's still a product for developers. That's why it's not common for end-users, and especially for RPA activities or tasks. It's hard to automate tasks for end-users. If it will be easier, more user-friendly, and so on, perhaps it can be more interesting for this kind of user."

What is our primary use case?

We have a lot of information that we are putting on different websites and social media platforms because we need to inform our social network users about what we are doing, what we are planning to do, and what was done. Sometimes, it's information which is the same, or it's the same on different websites, in different web software, and so on. I am using Selenium mostly for this purpose.

What is most valuable?

I like its simplicity.

What needs improvement?

It would be better if it accommodated non-techy end-users. I think it's still a product for developers. That's why it's not common for end-users, and especially for RPA activities or tasks. It's hard to automate tasks for end-users. If it will be easier, more user-friendly, and so on, perhaps it can be more interesting for this kind of user. 

The second thing, when you are working in IT, you know about such tools. But if you are on the business side, you don't have much information at all.

I would like to see easy onboarding with training for end-users. Because there is a lot of stuff for developers, but for end-users, I would say none or approximately none.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using Selenium HQ for five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I didn't have problems with stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I didn't have problems with scalability.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is complex. I think some changes were done, but it's still too complicated for end-users. 

What other advice do I have?

I would advise potential users to contact their IT guys because they will have a problem setting up the first automation. Of course, if there are people like me who want to develop their own knowledge, I would say they need time to get to know how to use it, optimize the process, etc. 

But if not, it will be easier for end-users to start with some kind of RPA offering by different vendors because they have their tools prepared for the end-users, for onboarding, and so on.
Because these open-source tools are still tools made for developers and IT guys, not for end-user.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give Selenium HQ a six.

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.
PeerSpot user
VinodKumar9 - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Analyst at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Consultant
Top 10
Easy and fast to automate, saving lots of time
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature of Selenium is how easy it is to automate."
  • "There are some tiny issues with SeleniumHQ. For example, with respect to the scraping tests. Sometimes, a website will have some hidden items or blockages that inhibit us from extracting data directly. It would be beneficial if Selenium could extract that information."

What is our primary use case?

SeleniumHQ is WebDriver-related. It is a package that we can use with any language such as Java or Python.

We use Selenium for automation purposes. For example, if we need data from a website, we write code that will extract the data automatically. If there are logins or pop-ups, the code will close them, so we can extract the data. 

When we are testing a website, we use SeleniumHQ automation testing to determine if there are any bugs.  

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of Selenium is how easy it is to automate. For example, often when data is needed, someone will sit and copy and paste it. What we can do with SeleniumHQ is automate it so that the data is directly extracted from the tools and libraries that we use. This saves time and is much better than copying and pasting.

What needs improvement?

There are some tiny issues with SeleniumHQ. For example, with respect to the scraping tests. Sometimes, a website will have some hidden items or blockages that inhibit us from extracting data directly. It would be beneficial if Selenium could extract that information.

The other issue is browser-related. There are small bugs causing it to break automatically. Sometimes it will close automatically. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using SeleniumHQ for a year and a half.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Stability depends on how you write the code. If you handle all conditions, there will be some surprises. Suddenly, you will have pop-ups and other conditions. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

SeleniumHQ is scalable. Anyone can use it. We have approximately 30 users of the solution. 

How are customer service and support?

Customer service and support with Selenium are good. If any bugs are found and brought to their attention, they will immediately help. They provide lots of documentation as well as answers on the internet. The technical support team, themselves, will answer questions within 24 hours.

How was the initial setup?

We use Python, so the initial setup of SeleniumHQ was quick and simple. You can use any browser or tools like, Chrome, Firefox, or Edge to run the automation testing. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We are using Selenium open-source, so there is no need to purchase anything.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated other options. 

For mobile scraping, non-mobile scraping, or to test anything mobile there are more applications available on the internet, like Appium for Android, which is like Selenium for browsers, or TestComplete for iOS drivers. 

However, Selenium is particularly the best for browsers or PC, operating systems.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution to anyone considering implementing it into their organization. Overall, I would rate SeleniumHQ an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Harold Rios - PeerSpot reviewer
Director at Finding Technology Company
Real User
Top 20
Free to use and available on different platforms but has a complex setup
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution is free to use."
  • "For people that don't know about technology, maybe it's difficult to use."

What is our primary use case?

In my company, I use the tool for testing web browsers.

We basically use the product for two things. The first is for testing for a website. The other thing is for repeating actions so that you can repeat the same action over and over with ease and without having to repeat the original steps. 

What is most valuable?

The solution is free to use. It's open-source, and you can modify the source. 

You can use it on different platforms, including Windows, Linux, or macOS.

It's easy to find and receive help from other developers. There is a good community that surrounds it.

The solution has been very stable so far.

What needs improvement?

Sometimes it's difficult to understand the solution. It's a good solution, however, it has many specific things you need to know, or you need to learn about. For people that don't know about technology, maybe it's difficult to use. You have to know how to program. You need to be a developer.

The tool has two steps: first, when you record, and second when you play back. However, in the middle, you need to look at a file. You need to save a file and after that look at them. It would be ideal if the solution allowed for the process to be one step and more automatic. 

The initial setup is quite complex.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for maybe two years or so at this point. It's been a while.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of the solution is good. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I've never tried to scale the solution, however, it's my understanding that it is possible. On a scale from one to ten, I'd rate the potential to scale at a six or seven.

The tool is open source. Typically, when something is a commercial solution, there is more of a possibility of being scalable. We depend on other developers to grow the tool. 

Last year, we only had two people on the tool. However, this year, I want to grow that number to about ten. They are all engineers. Of the team, 80% would be quality engineers and 20% would be developers.

How are customer service and technical support?

I don't use Selenium technical support. As an open-source tool, you need to go to the community and the forums.

Typically, you can find your answers pretty quickly. You can ask the community as well, and usually, someone gets back to you pretty fast.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I also use SmartBear. Selenium only works for web browsers, and sometimes I need to check an application. When that is the case, I cannot use Selenium, and I instead use SmartBear.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is not straightforward. It's pretty complex.

It's complex due to the fact that you need to download a complement for the web browser and you need to recall the tests and you have to load the files. When you do a recall, the tools create a file with the steps. Before you need to playback, you need to load the file. It's not easy. You need to know some things about the tool. 

The deployment took maybe six months to possibly 10 months.

You only need one person for deployment and maintenance.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution is open-source and free to use. There are no licensing costs.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did look at Katalon Studio before ultimately choosing Selenium HQ.

The principle difference is Katalon is one solution. You can't change the functionalities in the solution. It's also complex to use and demands a lot of memory. You need a lot of RAM or a big processor. It just takes up too many resources. 

What other advice do I have?

We are just a customer and end-user.

I'm not sure which version number we're using. However, it is a version from 2020, from the last year or so.

I'd advise those considering the solution, if you want use SeleniumHQ, it's a good option if you have good developers that understand the tool and can make changes in the tool. If you have the right people on hand, it works very, very well.

I'd rate the solution at a seven out of ten. If it didn't need such technical expertise, I might rate it higher.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Quality Analyst at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
The primary benefit is its cost and the ability to use the cloud
Pros and Cons
  • "The primary benefit is its cost and the ability to use the cloud."
  • "It does require a programming skill set. I would like the product not to require a heavy programming skill set and be more user-friendly for someone without a programming background."

What is our primary use case?

We are using mobile application and functional testing. It performs pretty well. 

We are using Selenium for scripting. We use Sauce Labs for the hardware device coverage on the client side.

How has it helped my organization?

The primary benefit is its cost and the ability to use the cloud. 

We use it with Sauce Labs. So, we have a large base of real devices and emulators, as well as breadth of coverage.

What is most valuable?

  • Flexibility
  • Scalability

What needs improvement?

It does require a programming skill set. I would like the product not to require a heavy programming skill set and be more user-friendly for someone without a programming background.

For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

So far, I have not have any issues with its stability.

How is customer service and technical support?

Technical support is one of the downsides of it. When you are buying a commercial tool from a vendor, your technical support is readily available but you are paying for it. However, they're going to take care of you. When you're dealing with open source, your support is based on research that you can do on the Internet. You rely on somebody else having had the same experience or one of the developers of the code having put something out there on the subject.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

This product is open source and free. That was a huge deciding factor for us getting into it.

What other advice do I have?

I don’t see it as a company spending money on anything. I like to keep up with the market because I built my career around test automation.

Most important criteria when selecting a vendor: 

  • Ease of implementation
  • Ease of adaptability
  • How much skill set would be required to operate it. Can I take somebody with no programming background and get them up and running on it, or does it require a heavy-duty programming background?
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Selenium HQ Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: March 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Selenium HQ Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.