Selenium HQ Reviews

Our company is a customer of Selenium and I work in QA.

One of the most valuable features of this solution is Web Scraping although overall I think every single feature of Selenium is valuable because it's purely API so we can integrate it with any other tool.

In terms of improvement, I think there could be additional readability and abstraction in the solution, similar to the way other frameworks function. The solution could possibly use a more generic framework with more machine learning. If the community or IT companies had the budget, they might be able to work on that but it would definitely improve the solution, particularly in areas such as image comparison and image recognition. Machine learning capability would enable a self-healing capability in terms of locators. Selenium is not a magician, you need to provide instructions in order for it to identify any element in the web. That would really be an advantageous feature. Jason Arbon, CEO at test.ai, demonstrated this in Appium, which derives from Selenium. 

I'd also like to see a one-click install package. For now, I have to use TestNG, then Java, and then build them back. That could be simplified. 

I've been using this solution for almost five years. 

It's a pretty stable solution but we have to be careful and make sure we're using what has been released. We need to know which version to use and make sure it's the latest one so we know it will be stable. 

We are a small setup so have four or five users in the company. I've worked in bigger companies where thousands have used the solution on a daily basis, so it's very scalable. 
It's not the solution that deals with scalability, it's the cloud or a virtual system that enables scaling. If there are 1,000 test cases that I want to commute in an hour, then sometimes the reports can be messy.

We use Selenium forums most of the time and we get most of our answers from there. There are multiple people online providing answers. Selenium does provide a service but we don't use it because we are self-sufficient in that respect.

I have used Coded UI from Microsoft, which I believe will be deprecated some time this year. That was a very good solution. Before that, I also used HP QTP. Both of those are easier solutions than Selenium but also quite expensive. 

The very first setup several years ago was quite complex, nowadays it is simple. Generally we use Maven, so it is simply importing and doing the setup. If I already know the settings, it can be deployed within half an hour. It depends on the system configuration so there can be issues sometimes. Setup can easily be done internally and if there are good community people there could be a one-stop solution layer where installation is one click. Maintenance is only required when there are updates or API changes. 

The solution requires good understanding of Python, Pearl or Java and it's important to use the documentation. It would take a few hours of watching video sessions or reading the documentation to get started. It also helps to have an understanding of how API works, the architecture and how Selenium interacts with browsers. Having the background helps to design something with more features. 

I would rate this solution an eight out of 10.  

The primary use of this solution is UI testing.

This has improved our organization through the automation of UI test cases.

The most valuable feature is the Selenium grid, which allows us to run tests in parallel.

Selenium HQ easily integrates with other dependencies.

I would like to see XPath made more reliable so that it can be used in all browsers.

I have been using Selenium HQ for five years.

We primarily use the solution for automation testing.

Nowadays we are using the solution to allow old solutions to run through it. This way, we don't need to go check functionalities created previously. We just run the automation. In just one click you run the automations through. It saves a lot of time and allows us to focus on other things.

The solution is very flexible; there are different ways of using it. It's open-source and has a lot of support on offer. 

It's excellent for analysis automation testing.

You can use the solution on many different browsers as well.

The solution need to  offer up much more information in regard to performance testing using selenium.

The solution is very scalable. You just have to have an understanding of how you are going to use it before you proceed. We do plan to increase usage in the future.

Technical support is very good; I'd rate it seven or eight out of ten.

We also use ReadyAPI alongside Selenium. We're working to integrate the two to have an overall more powerful performance.

The initial setup was straightforward, however, it does depend on what the organization's requirements are. Deployment can take up to one or two months.

The solution is open-source; you don't have to pay a licensing fee.

We're using the on-premises deployment model.

It is an open-source solution and you are able to build vertically. There is also lots of support pertaining to Selenium such as videos on YouTube. It's very easy to integrate on different platforms.

The solution is constantly being updated and advanced; it's very reactive and in a constant state of change. 

I'd rate it seven out of ten.

We primarily use the solution for browser compatibility testing and web-based applications.

The most valuable aspect of Selenium is that it gives you the flexibility to customize or write your own code, your own features, etc. It's not restricted by licensing.

The solution is an open-source tool. They should also build other features and tools to assist in further capabilities. 

A drawback of Selenium is that it only focuses on web applications. If it could be integrated into one application together with APM, it would be in peer competition with other players. Developers tend to bundle both in one, but Selenium is just in a silo.

The solution's UI path needs to be modernized.

The solution needs to offer a mobile platform.

Considering that a lot of corporations are using it, it has obviously gained quite a lot of trust from a lot of Fortune 500 companies that use it. It's considered very stable.

It depends on the server you place the solution on, but the application itself is quite scalable.

The technical support is good in the sense that, although is more of an open-source community, there's quite a lot of resources online that are available for troubleshooting issues.

The initial set up requires a bit of research because it's not straightforward. You need to be a developer to be aware of how to set it up. As an open-source tool, you do need to have some kind of background knowledge on how to implement it. Basic deployment takes about a week or two.

Selenium is open-source so it is free to use the solution. You only pay for whoever is implementing and/or the server that you are deploying on.

We use the on-premises deployment model.

I'd recommend Selenium, but it depends on the client's use case. As it is a free solution, users are able to cut a lot of costs. They can bring in developers that are experienced with Selenium, and those developers can build it up, scale it up and then, later on, you just need a few people to maintain it. It's a great option that allows companies to refrain from paying all sorts of license subscriptions that are quite exorbitant.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

The solution has two primary uses: using a robot to navigate to and search for issues, and helping with some algorithms with Python.

The data collection and sorting is the solution's most valuable feature.

The API that Selenium gives you doesn't act well with browsers. This should be improved. Right now, it's not stable.

The stability of the solution is good.

The scalability of the solution is good.

Technical support isn't very good. Sometimes their recommendations were not very clear.

The initial setup is straightforward. Deployment took about seven months.

We worked with a consultant that assisted us with the implementation.

I'm using a free version of the solution currently.

We use the on-premises deployment model.

It's a mature product that has been on the market for ten years.

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten.

We primarily use the solution in a web environment.

You can build your own framework. I think that's the most powerful feature. You can connect with a lot of other tools that use frameworks, or keywords, etc. That helps make it a stronger solution.

The solution should listen to the community and build new features for it based on their advice.

Normally, the solution is stable.

The solution is scalable, but there are boundaries to it.

The solution is open-source, so everyone relies on the community to assist with troubleshooting and information sharing. If there's a complex issue no one has faced, it may take a while to solve the problem.

If you've dealt with the solution before, it's fairly easy, but if you are new to Selenium, you will find it complex to implement. It's not a simple click-to-install product.

Deployment times vary depending on a company's rights and frameworks as well as the application deployment environment. If you have to do it from scratch, and you have to build a development pipeline, then it takes several days, and possibly even weeks. If you already have a development pipeline, and you just have to install the Selenium web line onto a machine, then it's done in five minutes.

I would advise others to only use Selenium in a unit test environment, and not an end test environment. It's very technical; you need a programmer and/or a developer to create your scripts. If you do not have development skills, then you will not be able to create scripts, at least in Selenium.

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten.

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.

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.

• Flexibility
• Scalability

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.

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

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.

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

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?

We primarily have been using Selenium WebDriver for functional and regression testing of our business management platform. 

Our technology stack includes Apache HTTP, Tomcat, PostgreSQL, CentOS, Java, J2EE, JavaScript, and Eclipse. Plus, we are using Selenium WebDrivers and TestNG for testing with Firefox and Chrome. 

Our platform runs into several thousand screens and a few thousand test cases, something which would typically take months to test manually. However, we have been using Selenium to automate our testing process since day one. As of today, the entire process takes a little over two days to run. We plan to further optimize it and bring this duration down to about 12 hours.

We plan to integrate Selenium with JMeter for performance testing, too. 

WebDriver and Grid: Without these, we would have been nowhere so far. The shear size of team/software license required to accomplish this humongous task would have thrown us out of business. 

Improvement in Selenium's ability to identify and wait for the page/element to load would be a big plus. This would ensure that our failed test cases will drop by 60%. Introduction of FluentWait has improved things, but it does not work in all scenarios 

In the beginning, we had issues with several test cases failing during regression. Over a period of time, we built our own framework around Selenium which helped us overcome of these issues. 

I have had experience with Rational tools in the past, but with DWA Commerce, we wanted to go the open source route. 

We have had extensive experience in testing and have pretty much worked with most testing solutions. Therefore, we did not have to go in for a re-evaluation. Our choice was clear. 

Just go for it.