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According to a survey by Statista, smartphone mobile network subscriptions worldwide reached the mark of almost 6.4 billion in 2022 and are forecast to cross 7.7 billion by 2028. This shows how the mobile landscape is experiencing rapid growth, with a wide range of mobile applications, spanning from video apps to mobile banking solutions. 

It’s widely acknowledged that the process of testing mobile apps can be quite intricate. This complexity arises from the multitude of platforms and operating systems, diverse testing scenarios, and the involvement of various network connections in the realm of mobile applications. The two dominant mobile operating systems, Android and iOS, reign supreme. These platforms boast millions of apps that require thorough testing to ensure their functionality and performance.

Kobiton, a leading mobile-centric testing platform, has been popular among many organizations for its exceptional features and advantages. To gain a holistic understanding of what sets Kobiton apart, let’s delve into its testing capabilities and explore the reasons behind its popularity.

Understanding Kobiton

Kobiton is a platform for testing mobile apps that lets developers and testers use real mobile devices and simulators to check if their apps work well. It also offers helpful tools like device logs, screenshots, and video recording to find and fix problems in their apps.

Features: 

• Allows real device testing with actual devices, helping you get more precise outcomes.
• The cloud-based system offers scalability and adaptability.
• It seamlessly connects with well-known testing frameworks like Appium, Espresso, or Selenium.
• Thorough analytics and reports help you identify patterns and facilitate well-informed decision-making.
• Through its collaborative testing, you can enhance productivity and efficiency

Despite being a popular choice, Kobiton also comes with a few drawbacks.

Cons: 

• It comes with a challenging learning process.
• It can be a strain on the budget, particularly for small teams or individual developers.
• It lags behind competitors in terms of speed, which can lead to automated test failures due to connection timeouts.
• The user interface is cluttered and lacks customization options, making it difficult to resize devices, conceal logs, or split windows.

Though Kobiton is preferred by many for mobile testing, 2023 offers a fresh opportunity to explore alternatives that do not have their disadvantages and can better cater to your specific testing needs. In this blog, we’ll take a deep dive into the top Kobiton alternatives, each offering a unique set of features and capabilities to help you make an informed decision for your mobile testing strategy.

Top Kobiton Alternatives in 2023

With the “Mobile-First” era dictating market dynamics, making the right choice for your testing needs is crucial. In this article, we’ll explore these testing tools and their features to help you make the right decisions and stay ahead in the highly competitive app market.

1. TestGrid

The quality of your mobile app can make or break its success in the market. That’s where TestGrid’s mobile automation testing comes in. With TestGrid, you can automate your mobile testing efforts with ease, ensuring your app’s reliability and performance. Trusted by numerous companies worldwide, it offers a range of features that make mobile app testing efficient, accessible, and cost-effective.

TestGrid is one of the most popular alternatives to Kobiton. It comes with a bunch of features that can combat all the problems that come with Kobiton.

Features: 

• Simple-to-use test infrastructure with features that can be accessed with a few clicks; no expertise is required.
• Save and reuse tests across app versions and different applications.
• Perform API testing and cross-browser testing and derive performance metrics in one environment
• Run tests anytime from anywhere in the globe via a cloud server
• Automate tasks, reduce expenses and boost team productivity for higher profits
• It seamlessly integrates with tools like Travis, Jenkins, CircleCI, BitBar, JIRA, GitLab, and more.
• Reduces your reliance on emulators and simulators by letting you test on real devices
• Lets you test mobile apps across real-world conditions like network strength or battery life
• Facilitates geolocation testing and utilizes GPS for creating real-world test scenarios

2. ACCELQ

ACCELQ is a cloud-based platform that enables even testing teams without extensive programming knowledge to easily use it thanks to its automation-first, codeless features. It provides a single platform for testing mobile, web, APIs, databases, and packaged applications. 

Features: 

• Manual testers can automate tasks without requiring programming skills.
• It follows a design-first approach with built-in modularity
• Supports a wide range of platforms, including web on mobile, native iOS, native Android, and hybrid Apps.
• Provides AI-based test case generation and data planning.
• Offers an automation flow recorder along with a powerful natural language no-code editor

3. Kalaton

Katalon Platform eliminates the steep learning curve associated with automation testing tools, making codeless testing accessible to users of all skill levels. Beyond supporting Android and iOS platforms, it also extends testing capabilities to various operating systems such as Windows, macOS, and Linux.

Features:

• Perform tests both locally and remotely on physical devices, simulators, or custom cloud-based devices.
• Streamline maintenance tasks by integrating with commonly used project management tools like Jira.
• Generates informative test reports for all stages of testing to enhance monitoring and collaboration within teams.
• Access customer support through live chat, contact forms, and email.
• Offers cross-browser testing functionality and API testing

4. Lambda Test

LambdaTest is a digital testing platform designed for developers and QA engineers for running manual and automated testing of mobile apps. It offers a virtual device farm consisting of actual Android and iOS devices. 

Features: 

• It enables remote testing from various geographical locations and GPS coordinates.
• Access to advanced functions like capturing camera images, automating mobile gestures, app profiling, and more.
• It allows real-time debugging of native apps by providing device logs, app logs, network logs, screenshots, and videos.
• Integrate tests easily with third-party tools for CI/CD
• Lets you install and test apps through Google Play Store or App Center

5. Testim

Testim Mobile offers a mobile testing solution that accelerates the release of high-quality applications, a crucial requirement for agile development teams. It stands out with its exceptional stability and reduced maintenance, thanks to AI-powered code locators capable of adjusting to changes in the application.

Features:

• Test both native iOS and Android apps alongside web and mobile web apps from a single platform.
• Incorporate checks within your mobile UI tests to validate backend or service responses.
• Address unique testing challenges by creating and sharing custom steps in JavaScript.
• It supports various applications like web, custom-built, cloud-native, and native mobile apps.
• Suggests the probable cause of test failure based on previous test failures

Conclusion

The choice among these alternatives ultimately depends on your specific requirements and the nature of your mobile app projects. Each of these tools has its strengths, and your decision should align with your team’s expertise and the complexity of your testing needs.

TestGrid is one of the most popular Kobiton alternatives as it comes with a bunch of features that Kobiton does not offer, such as:

• Comes with private browser cloud infrastructure.
• Facilitates web-based API testing.
• Allows AI-based test case creation from manual test cases
• Offers test data parameterization
• Provides network-level testing
• Allows network traffic monitoring

As the mobile application market continues to expand, TestGrid offers a comprehensive set of features that make the process of mobile automation testing more efficient in comparison to Kobiton. With these valuable insights, we want you to make informed decisions and ensure the quality and reliability of your mobile applications in 2023 and beyond.