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Appium vs Katalon Studio comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on May 21, 2025

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

Appium
Ranking in Regression Testing Tools
6th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
30
Ranking in other categories
Mobile Development Platforms (7th)
Katalon Studio
Ranking in Regression Testing Tools
3rd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
49
Ranking in other categories
API Testing Tools (4th), Test Automation Tools (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Regression Testing Tools category, the mindshare of Appium is 3.3%, down from 5.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Katalon Studio is 14.5%, down from 17.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Regression Testing Tools Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Katalon Studio14.5%
Appium3.3%
Other82.2%
Regression Testing Tools
 

Featured Reviews

Luis Gerardo Meneses Hernandez - PeerSpot reviewer
Allows for direct interaction with an application's DOM but complex configuration
What I like about Appium right now is that it's like Cypress in the sense that I can get to the new DOM of the application and select the components and create the functions to test the components in the way I want them to be tested. That's why I like it right now.
Appu Ashok - PeerSpot reviewer
Expansive integrations boost automation potential across devices
I am in the field of product research and am familiar with Katalon Studio for product comparisons and test automation. Even though I am not an active tester, I have created a few tests using Katalon Studio Some of our customers use Katalon Studio, however, our own product, Tangene, is a…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Appium's wide support of programming languages is valuable."
"It runs completely flawlessly and seamlessly every day."
"Obviously because of automation, it reduces manual testing efforts."
"It's an open-source solution with a very large community and available documentation."
"The solution is stable."
"The best feature of Appium is that it allows you to inspect the element. With the Appium Inspector, you don't have to install another application to do the inspection. I also like that Appium has Android device connectivity. Currently, most people use Appium as automation software, and I haven't found any other tool that's more powerful than Appium."
"What I like about Appium right now is that it's like Cypress in the sense that............. to test the components in the way I want them to be tested."
"It has great documentation and excellent community support."
"The most valuable feature of Katalon Studio is visual testing. It compares the look and feel of an application which is useful."
"It provides us daily feedback on the status (failing/working) of the core features of our websites."
"The most valuable features of Katalon Studio are its user-friendliness and the AI smart healing capabilities."
"This is a product that is well ahead of its immediate competition in features and functionality."
"The product provides ease of automation for the cloud."
"The basic framework and project organization is very good."
"We can write code in Java and it is easy to link to other JARs that we find on the internet, which is very handy."
"It is easy for a non-technical person to use and adopt."
 

Cons

"It breaks down."
"What needs improvement in Appium is its documentation. It needs to give more context on the libraries that Appium is using under the hood. For example, my team is using Appium for Android automation, and a lot of times, I feel that there's functionality that's available through the Appium interface, that exists within the UIAutomator, but there aren't a lot of useful or helpful resources on the internet to find that information, so it would be good to have some linkage with the underlying platform itself. Another room for improvement in Appium is that it's buggy sometimes. For example, at times, there's a bug in the inspector application that doesn't allow me to save my desired capability set, so it would be nice to get that bug fixed, but overall, Appium is a good tool. The Touch Actions functionality in Appium also needs improvement. For example, if I want to initiate a scroll on the device that I'm running Appium on, sometimes Swipe works, but in other situations, I have to explicitly use action chains, so I'm not too sure what's the better approach. What I'd like to see in the next version of Appium is a more intelligent and more intuitive AppiumLibrary, in terms of identifying menus and scroll bars, etc., because right now, I'm unsure if I have to do a lot of export reversals to get to the elements I'm looking for. It would be nice to have some functionality built in, which would allow me to easily get those exports."
"Image recognition could be improved. We have some images in our mobile applications. It should be able to run from the cloud, so we can automate the catcher."
"They should add an in-built framework."
"An application developed on the Unity platform, such as a gaming application, objects are moving in that case. Interacting with those elements is still lacking in Appium. Appium doesn't have the internal library to play with the Unity platform. That is a huge lack right now."
"It needs to accommodate applications that use React.js and AngularJS."
"Appium has problems with automated validations following iOS updates, causing us to have to validate manually."
"The deployment process and configuration are quite complex and require improvement."
"One improvement would be if it could support more programming languages such as JavaScript or Python. Right now, it is only on Groovy, which I think is not a too popular language."
"The price of Katalon Studio is an area of concern where improvement is required."
"Extending the certification validity, especially after the trial period, would be beneficial."
"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 could potentially be more reporting within the solution. We need more issue reports, for example."
"It seems to lack a few requirements that a typical customer would want. Compared to other solutions, this product is lacking."
"The solution can be further improved with better loading time."
"The product is comparatively slow."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is open source."
"The solution is open source so it is free."
"The solution is free."
"We found out that we could explore features of the solution for 30 days trial. We can switch to a permanent license later if we want."
"The pricing of Appium is fine."
"Appian is open-source, which is not licensed."
"Appium is open source; we can use it for free."
"I'm unsure if there's any cost associated with Appium. I got the free package which includes the server GUI application and the inspector application, and it was free to download, and that's all I need to get my work done. I'm not aware of any additional costs associated with the tool."
"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."
"I am using the free version."
"The pricing is good. It is the market average."
"The product is affordable. It has an average and competitive pricing compared to other vendors."
"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."
"The price is not high it's good."
"The approximate cost is around $8,000."
"We were using the free version of this tool."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
19%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Educational Organization
6%
Computer Software Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Government
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise19
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business19
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise19
 

Questions from the Community

Do you recommend Appium?
I do recommend Appium. It is an open-source solution and completely free of charge. We use Appium and Appium Studio as our base for any type of mobile automation for testing. It has a great interfa...
What do you like most about Appium?
Appium helps me to do as much as much as I want to.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Appium?
My experience with Appium from a pricing perspective is favorable due to it being open source, making it a cost-effective option.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Katalon Studio?
Katalon Studio is on the expensive side. I rated it eight on a scale where ten is very expensive. I recommend optimizing the pricing, as a moderate value around five would be preferred.
What needs improvement with Katalon Studio?
The pricing could be improved. Offering a discount on Katalon Studio licenses could encourage more users. There is significant competition, so providing a good offer with extra features could be be...
 

Comparisons

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Nuvizz, Coupa Software, Eventbrite, Evernote
Coca-Cola Tesla Black Board TaTa Consultancy Services Sony
Find out what your peers are saying about Appium vs. Katalon Studio and other solutions. Updated: September 2025.
868,787 professionals have used our research since 2012.