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SpecFlow vs Visual Studio Test Professional comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024

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

SpecFlow
Ranking in Test Management Tools
21st
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Visual Studio Test Professi...
Ranking in Test Management Tools
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
53
Ranking in other categories
Functional Testing Tools (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Test Management Tools category, the mindshare of SpecFlow is 2.1%, up from 2.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Visual Studio Test Professional is 4.2%, up from 2.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Test Management Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Visual Studio Test Professional4.2%
SpecFlow2.1%
Other93.7%
Test Management Tools
 

Featured Reviews

SD
Senior QA Automation Engineer at AMCS Group
Ensures efficient testing and validation of both business and technical requirements
In terms of improvement, SpecFlow's installation and configuration can be a bit challenging due to its flexibility as an open-source tool. While it offers a balanced flexibility, setting it up might require more effort compared to some licensed products that handle everything. However, SpecFlow is a framework, not an automation tool, so the actual automation is carried out through tools like Selenium. Despite setup complexities, the framework itself serves its purpose effectively. In future releases of SpecFlow, it would be beneficial to have some built-in methods for common actions like opening and closing browsers or implementing loops. Having predefined libraries for these functions would save automation engineers time and make the framework more user-friendly. While I'm not sure if such features already exist, they could be valuable, especially for those working on web applications. It would provide a generic and optimized solution that anyone can easily implement without worrying about performance issues.
Payel Saha - PeerSpot reviewer
Test Automation Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Integrated collaboration with automated test management has improved our agile workflows and continuously supports quality reporting
Visual Studio Test Professional could be improved as earlier we had flexibility in automation testing with TFS, which became a bit difficult moving to Azure DevOps. Additionally, in Visual Studio Code, we have an agent mode for GitHub Copilot, which is very helpful in testing or development phases, while Visual Studio's GitHub Copilot is a bit tricky and sometimes does not provide my desired output.For future improvements, I would like to see prompt fixing, as currently, if something goes wrong in Visual Studio, the fixing options are not always correct. If that intelligence is embedded, it would be very helpful.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"One of the most valuable features of SpecFlow for us is its risk identification capabilities."
"It helps us to write down the scenarios in Gherkin and write down the implementation of each step and scenario."
"The initial setup is easy."
"SpecFlow's best feature is the ability to add additional layers to the programming."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is unit testing...It is also an easy-to-use and user-friendly product that can easily adapt to any framework."
"The most valuable features are the SSIS reports, the deployment models, and the ability to interact with other Microsoft tools."
"We are satisfied with technical support. Communicating with them is very simple. We also have a lot of online resources to check and to study and to train our team with. The documentation is very clear and readily available."
"The user interface is very friendly."
"It is a very common and strong product, and a lot of support is available for this product."
"Visual Studio is an exemplary integrated development environment that stands out due to its exceptional features. It allows for the seamless selection of the appropriate programming language for the specific development tasks at hand. This facilitates a swift and effortless transition between languages, providing a highly efficient development experience."
"Visual Studio is the easiest to use."
"The debugging feature is valuable."
"The solution is very stable; there's nothing in relation to stability to complain about."
 

Cons

"There should be more integration with the application life cycle management tools, including integration with Jira and Azure DevOps."
"SpecFlow's installation and configuration can be a bit challenging due to its flexibility as an open-source tool."
"Regarding improvement, it would be good if SpecFlow could provide chain testing, which it currently doesn't allow."
"SpecFlow would be improved with the addition of functionality reporting, which would be really helpful for automation testing."
"I'd prefer in TFS if we could be writing test cases, not in the old classical version. We should be writing in Gherkin and then automatically have it convert that Gherkin test case into SpecFlow feature files."
"The solution's documentation could be improved for beginners."
"The solution is quite expensive."
"Visual Studio Test Professional needs to improve its stability."
"Sometimes, the solution hangs, so its performance could be improved."
"The pricing of this solution should be lowered."
"It needs more integration with other tools for monitoring. Microsoft also needs to make it more modern to make it work with microservices and the cloud. It is a bit outdated currently."
"The database administration could be better; it would be nice if we could do every design related task also in Visual Studio what is possible in SQL Server Management Studio."
"The solution's documentation could be improved because it keeps disappearing from the solution."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"SpecFlow is an open-source product."
"SpecFlow is open-source and free of charge."
"Users have to pay a licensing fee for Visual Studio Test Professional."
"We pay a yearly licensing fee for Visual Studio Test Professional, which is expensive."
"I positioned it at a mid-range level. It isn't an inexpensive solution, but considering its capabilities, it represents excellent value for the functionalities it offers."
"The tool is expensive in my region."
"Our company pays a yearly licensing fee for Visual Studio Test Professional."
"We use the solution’s community version, and the solution’s pricing could be cheaper."
"Visual Studio Test Professional is not an expensive solution."
"I think that the pricing is quite good."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Construction Company
13%
Outsourcing Company
8%
Media Company
8%
Construction Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Outsourcing Company
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business15
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise25
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Visual Studio Test Professional?
The tool is free, resulting in no costs associated with its use. The absence of price makes it cost-effective.
What needs improvement with Visual Studio Test Professional?
Visual Studio Test Professional could be improved as earlier we had flexibility in automation testing with TFS, which became a bit difficult moving to Azure DevOps. Additionally, in Visual Studio C...
What is your primary use case for Visual Studio Test Professional?
We are using Microsoft Visual Studio for automation testing, specifically using C# Selenium.Visual Studio Test Case Management, which is embedded in Azure DevOps itself, is part of our process. We ...
 

Also Known As

SpecFlow+
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Microsoft, Caterpillar, Siemens, Charles Schwab, IBM, Deloitte, Accenture, Philips, Dell, Deutsche Bank
Transport for Greater Manchester, Ordina, Bluegarden A/S, CLEAResult, Jet.com, OSIsoft, Australian Taxation Office, BookedOut, Tracasa
Find out what your peers are saying about SpecFlow vs. Visual Studio Test Professional and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.
920,769 professionals have used our research since 2012.