Appium vs. BrowserStack

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Appium
Score 9.1 out of 10
N/A
N/AN/A
BrowserStack
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
BrowserStack is a test platform built for developers and QAs to expand test coverage, scale and optimize testing with cross-browser, real device cloud, accessibility, visual testing, test management, and test observability. BrowserStack states it currently powers over a billion tests a year for customers who include Amazon, Paypal, Well Fargo Bank, Nvidia, MongoDB, Pfizer, GE, Discovery, React JS, Apache, JQuery and several others rely on BrowserStack to test their web and mobile apps.
$0
per month Unlimited users and 5000 free screenshots
Pricing
AppiumBrowserStack
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Percy - Free
$0
per month Unlimited users and 5000 free screenshots
App Percy - Free
$0
per month 5000 free screenshots and 100 minutes of infrastructure
Test Observability - Unlimited Free
$0
Accessibility Testing - Free
$0
Test Observability - Observability Pro
$0.01
per month per test execution
Percy - Desktop
$0.02
per month per screenshot
App Percy - Visual Core
$0.02
per month per screenshot
Percy - Desktop & Mobile
$0.02
per month per screenshot
App Percy - Visual Cloud
$0.03
per month per screenshot
Live - Desktop
$39
per month per user
Live - Desktop & Mobile
$49
per month per user
App Live - Individual
$49
per month per user
Automate - Desktop
$129
per month 1 parallel test
Live - Team
$175
per month 5 users
App Live - Team
$175
per month 5 users
Accessibility Testing - Team
$199
per month 5 users
Automate - Desktop & Mobile
$225
per month 1 parallel test
App Automate - Device Cloud
$249
per month 1 parallel test
App Live - Team Pro
$289
per month 5 users
App Automate - Device Cloud Pro
$299
per month 1 parallel test
Automate - Enterprise
Contact sales team
Percy - Enterprise
Contact Sales
App Automate - Enterprise
Contact Sales
App Live - Enterprise
Contact sales team
Live - Enterprise
Contact sales team
App Automate - Device Cloud Pro + Visual Cloud
Contact Sales
App Percy - Enterprise
Contact Sales
Test Observability - Enterprise
Contact Sales
Accessibility Testing - Enterprise
Contact Sales
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
AppiumBrowserStack
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
AppiumBrowserStack
Considered Both Products
Appium
Chose Appium
Most of mobile testing tools which are available in the market are paid license tools. But Appium is Open source mobile testing tool. We can create customised automation framework using Appium. It also supports various languages such as Java, Javascript etc. And also supports …
Chose Appium
The main reason we selected Appium is that we had people experienced in WebDriver API and some framework solutions in place, so given our setup, it provided a faster and cheaper kick-off. Another reason we selected Appium was that SauceLabs had pretty good support for Appium …
Chose Appium
Appium is a wrapper of selenium and is available for mobile based applications. It has also the similar features as selenium has for website automation. Together both provide a combined solution for automating web and mobile apps. Can provide end to end automation with a …
Chose Appium
Appium is comparable with Calabash because it's the only cross-platform tool like appium. Espresso is only to automate Android tests and XCTest is only for iOS. We selected Appium because it solves a lot of automation situations and gestures of the mobile apps. We've used …
Chose Appium
If you're an Apple developer, you use Xcode. It's practically a forced necessity. For system testing though, it doesn't have to be. You can have your development team focus on unit and integration tests in their platform and another team automate acceptance tests with a …
Chose Appium
Hard to compare Appium to Xcode and Android sdk because Appium uses them, but those are the only comparisons I could come up with to compare Appium with another product. I'm sure there may be other mobile automation tools, but none are as mainstream as Appium or with the …
Chose Appium
Appium is one of the most valuable fully featured open-source tools with good support for iOS and Android mobile automation which cannot be matched even by enterprise tools.
Chose Appium
I have not used any other product that compares to Appium in the realm of mobile automated testing.
BrowserStack
Chose BrowserStack
The main factor contributing to the adoption of BrowserStack over the others we tested is its ease of adaptation. This tool doesn't require much training to adapt. Onboarding is faster, and UAECases testing is very fast, as it includes parallel testing automation capabilities.
Chose BrowserStack
We found BrowserStack and never tried anything else.
Chose BrowserStack
Chrome DevTools is free, but it takes a lot of time to manually switch devices/models, etc. And it doesn't let you switch to another system or browser (of course). When we did use it more, we'd also have to find other Chrome extensions to make up for things it didn't have built …
Chose BrowserStack
We used LambdaTest, but ultimately it didn't work for us because it put us in a queue when we kicked off a testing job instead of starting immediately. Our continuous integration process is managed by Microsoft Azure DevOps, and the pipeline agents it provides have a 60-minute …
Chose BrowserStack
Ability to evaluate across platforms is a unique feature in BrowserStack
Chose BrowserStack
It had all of the features we needed. The user interface is clean and accessible. AWS Device Farm was clunky, slow, and hard to use AND offered very little automation options / APIs.

We really needed a solution that could become part of an automated testing pipeline and …
Chose BrowserStack
BrowserStack is simpler and more user friendly than Sauce Labs and can be easily learned by any individual who is new to it and does not require much efforts. Also, BrowserStack is more trusted by the clients that we offer services to, and is always considered the best option …
Chose BrowserStack
It has a wide range of devices for both mobile and web browsers.
Chose BrowserStack
BrowserStack is much compact and faster compared to katalon studio for mobile testing and supporting a lot of emulators compared to katalon.The licensing cost is also better compared to katalon and the user base of BrowserStack is high with official documentation well in place …
Chose BrowserStack
BrowserStack is often favored for its broader device coverage, ease of use, and strong local testing, while Sauce Labs shines with deeper analytics (video, network capture), AI-driven features, and robust performance for large-scale automation, especially for mobile/desktop …
Chose BrowserStack
Before BrowserStack, I use local emulators. They were helpful for quick checks but not reliable for real world testing.
Chose BrowserStack
well is a better option for doing testing. I used only Snagit for simple things in documentation, but usinga browser is more complete for the process of doing a large number of test cases. Snagit can crash your system with a lot of pictures, but a browser doesn't do it …
Chose BrowserStack
I actually tried BitBar back when they were still called CrossBrowserTesting. They offered a free trial when Browserstack got hacked in 2014. I wasn't a huge fan of their service vs Browserstack, mainly because the UI was less intuitive. I ultimately ended up going back to …
Chose BrowserStack
Easy UI and seamless integration with CI/CD
Chose BrowserStack
The test results were not realistic and accurate. The user friendly dashboard in BrowserStack scores above other application
Chose BrowserStack
N/A - BrowserStack was the first software I've tried to address these requirements.

Previously we've been limited to testing on a handful of devices and browser combinations that our team has physical access to.
Chose BrowserStack
BrowserStack is user friendly, has more tools and integration with Jira.
Chose BrowserStack
I've never used any competing products before.
Chose BrowserStack
BrowserStack provided similar features at a lower cost than any other platform. All features surpass those of our competitors. Support from the BrowserStack team is awesome.
Chose BrowserStack
I chose BrowserStack over Playwright because it was far more simpler to test test cases, builds were already set up and was just right because our web application was not as complex as others. We also used it because of the text and image validation which is what we really …
Chose BrowserStack
A bit cheaper and I had experience with you in another company I worked at so I recommended you
Best Alternatives
AppiumBrowserStack
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Medium-sized Companies
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Score 9.0 out of 10
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Enterprises
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User Ratings
AppiumBrowserStack
Likelihood to Recommend
9.9
(0 ratings)
8.8
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(0 ratings)
8.1
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.8
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
5.8
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
7.9
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(0 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
4.1
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(0 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
8.3
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
9.9
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
8.2
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
AppiumBrowserStack
Likelihood to Recommend
Appium works well for well-structured mobile applications test automation that is particularly easy to leverage when different pages of the app use similar building blocks. If it takes time for some content in the app to be rendered, ask your dev team to add progress indicators and ensure they are accessible. That might be more complicated to do with Appium, though, if there's no good contact with Dev team established so you can request accessibility IDs added quickly enough when needed. Appium supports another locator strategies as well though (such as xPath or iOS class chain on iOS) but they wouldn't work as fast so you may get really slow tests.
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As per my experience, BrowserStack is more suited for those organizations that have a remote work culture and also for those who need multiple device testing. Also, it is beneficial for those organizations that do not want to spend more on physical devices, as the devices update frequently in the market. It is not appropriate for those organizations which have lesser need of multi- device testing as the subscription model may not be feasible for them. Also a small organization with less number of employees would not opt for BrowserStack as it would be costlier for them.
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Pros
  • Crossdevice: With Appium you can automate tests for Android and iOS both. There is no need to learn more than 1 language.
  • Easy: It's really easy to configure and use appium; it's very useful when you're testing strategy is based on "developers write tests".
  • Open Source: It's such a nice strength of appium, because you don't need to pay to use a good tool like Appium is.
Read full review
  • Test client website on 5x more platform.
  • Provide a real device with features like media injection and Physical SIM testing for manual testing of a specific feature.
  • Automate regression suite to execute parallel on multiple device.
  • Provide an accessibility report for the website through automated scanning of the site using site.xml.
Read full review
Cons
  • There are a number of expected methods that are not implemented, yet. With a similar sounding name as Selenium with similar functions, people who are familiar with Selenium try to use methods that appear to be available, but give a "not yet implemented" exception when run.
  • Documentation can be confusing.
  • Setup was a difficult process. This may not necessarily be the case once you figure everything out, but the whole figuring it out process was difficult and I ran into many, many problems when I first started.
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  • I wish it didn't time out so quickly. I often move back and forth between my native Mac OS system and browsers to BrowserStack for Windows browsers and it often times out so I have to start over.
  • I am not sure why, but when I've been testing in BrowserStack for a long period of time - maybe over a couple of hours, it sometimes gets buggy and unresponsive or slow to respond. It makes it hard to tell if I'm experiencing an issue with the site I'm testing or if it's an issue with BrowserStack.
  • If I'm wishing for the moon and stars, I'd ask for the ability to use BrowserStack to also test with JAWS screen reader. But I'm happy having NVDA.
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Likelihood to Renew
I am rating 10/10 because Appium can use with multiple programming languages with multiple Test engines. Also, it works for both Android and iOS.
Read full review
It's simply a must-have tool. As a designer, I have to ensure my work is at least functional in older browsers. I also have to ensure that, when I design for mobile devices, any differences between platforms aren't problematic. BrowserStack allows me to test my work in a fraction of the time, with a whole lot more accuracy.
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Usability
I would like to give 9/10 rating to Appium because of it can easily integrate with popular frameworks and CI/CD tools, as well as it is reliable, flexible and easy to use. The setup can bit complex in initial step, but once on configured it's very easy to use and enables stable and scalable mobile automation for real and cloud devices.
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So many options that it can be a little overwhelming, but the core functions are easy to find and use and it's usually not too hard to figure things out for the more complex tasks. Very easy to boot up a device and a specific browser from the dashboard to begin a manual website test.
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Reliability and Availability
No answers on this topic
I rated BrowserStack's availability a 10 because it is consistently reliable, with minimal to no downtime or unplanned outages. The platform is accessible whenever needed, ensuring uninterrupted testing. Its robust infrastructure and proactive monitoring ensure a seamless experience, allowing us to meet deadlines without delays caused by availability issues and all
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Performance
No answers on this topic
The tests are fast considering the fact that they're Appium tests. I've seen tests reliably pass or fail when they're supposed to, with next to zero issues on the BrowserStack side of things. Tests launch only seconds after I kick off them off from my CLI.
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Support Rating
No answers on this topic
I've not had much direct interaction with the BrowserStack support team. The help and community are great and we've not run into any issue that has really required us to reach out. I guess having a stable and easy to use system means you may never need to contact support.
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In-Person Training
No answers on this topic
Yes, it was online training on meet, and trainer looks like skilled and technical strong, he has covered end to end all the features and he has answers all the queries. because of this trainings we are able to implement it by our own in the organization, thank you for support and training.
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Online Training
No answers on this topic
It was a quick training from the support of browserstack, it was nice and easy to understand, thanks again for the support given by the team. and regularly I used to receive mails for training from support for any new feature they launch, I was able to spread same training to all my team and dev.
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Implementation Rating
No answers on this topic
I rated the implementation satisfaction an 8 because while it went smoothly overall, there were some challenges during the initial learning phase and integration with existing tools. Key insights include the importance of providing sufficient training upfront and ensuring seamless integration with other systems to minimize disruptions and improve adoption speed.
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Alternatives Considered
Most of mobile testing tools which are available in the market are paid license tools. But Appium is Open source mobile testing tool. We can create customised automation framework using Appium. It also supports various languages such as Java, Javascript etc. And also supports various operating systems such as Android, IOS etc. We can easily integrate Appium frameworks with CI/CD [Jenkins, Git etc].
Read full review
We used LambdaTest, but ultimately it didn't work for us because it put us in a queue when we kicked off a testing job instead of starting immediately. Our continuous integration process is managed by Microsoft Azure DevOps, and the pipeline agents it provides have a 60-minute timeout. We need immediate tests instead of flipping a coin, which could cause a false positive failure due to timeouts.
Read full review
Scalability
No answers on this topic
I may not be the best person to answer this as I am only using it for 1 department and at 1 site but will still try my best As far as Scalability for Devices for Mobile Automation is concerned, it gets a Solid 10, as the users can run cases on upto 10 device parallel and also have the best choices of devices to choose
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Return on Investment
  • For cost of ownership, the increase is positive times infinity, as it's free to install and use
  • Lead time for suite development can be a negative, if not planned for during sprint planning
  • Using Appium to execute tests in parallel across a cloud solution can improve CI/CD cycles by 100's of a percent
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  • Browserstack improved our internal confidence level when it came to signing off on testing
  • Browserstack improved the confidence level of our clients by decreasing the number of bugs found during PVT and providing an entry level opportunity for our clients to perform UAT using the same tools.
Read full review
ScreenShots

BrowserStack Screenshots

Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of Screenshot of