BrowserStack vs. Katalon

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
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
Katalon
Score 7.7 out of 10
N/A
Katalon Studio is provided by the vendor as a free and robust automation solution for API, Web and Mobile testing. It is designed to eliminate the complexities of building an automation framework by integrating all necessary test components with built-in keywords and project templates. Katalon Studio includes a full feature set for a complete test automation process covering multiple platforms and testing types. New users can get started with test automation using its easy-to-use…
$69
per month
Pricing
BrowserStackKatalon
Editions & Modules
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
Node Locked License
$69.00
per month
Floating License
$1,529.00
per year
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
BrowserStackKatalon
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsKatalon Studio was originated from KMS Technology R&D. It has been a successful solution for numerous automation projects ranging from small team to enterprise client. Katalon Studio is free for use, product development is funded by the testing services provided by KMS Technology. To support future releases, please consider subscribing to our business support services.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
BrowserStackKatalon
Considered Both Products
BrowserStack
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
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 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
Katalon
Chose Katalon
The decision to use Katalon was made by my organization before i joined it.
Chose Katalon
Initially, our oragnization had to integrate Katalon tests with the Jenkins to schedule the test runs. The reports were stored in company local database. To identify test flakiness or product issue one had to dig deep into the reports. This issue was all solved by Katalon …
Chose Katalon
Ready API is one of the most popular and widely used tool for API automation. Data driven testing and reporting are some of the features which makes this tool very useful. but if we compare this tool with Katalon Studio, this is only useful for API automation where as Katalon …
Chose Katalon
Katalon Studio is above both the tools is due to its codeless test automation feature and having API, desktop, web, and mobile automation in one place but obviously there is room for improvement when desktop automation is of primary importance in the automation.
Chose Katalon
Katalon Studio License cost is reasonable and it suits the budget where as other tools are expensive and its difficult to get right ROI.
Capabilities are user friendly while using the Katalon Studio for api, mobile , web and desktop application automation where as expensive …
Chose Katalon
My company was using selenium until we shifted to Katalon Studio. The transition was pretty easy as this tool is built on top of selenium frameworks. Since the companies application grew from web to mobile, glad to have a single automation tool for all different testings. The …
Chose Katalon
I've used the Selenium IDE before. According to Katalon Studio, it is very slow and has little functionality.
Chose Katalon
Katalon has no License fee, a nice user-friendly UI to use, easy setup and quick automation, easy integration with other tools like JIRA, Jenkins, ALM, etc., and Katalon analytics tools.
Best Alternatives
BrowserStackKatalon
Small Businesses
TestComplete
TestComplete
Score 8.0 out of 10
BrowserStack
BrowserStack
Score 8.4 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
ReadyAPI
ReadyAPI
Score 6.1 out of 10
ReadyAPI
ReadyAPI
Score 6.1 out of 10
Enterprises
ignio AIOps
ignio AIOps
Score 8.1 out of 10
ignio AIOps
ignio AIOps
Score 8.1 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
BrowserStackKatalon
Likelihood to Recommend
8.8
(0 ratings)
8.1
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.1
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
9.8
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
5.8
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.9
(0 ratings)
9.9
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
7.3
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
4.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.1
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
8.3
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
8.2
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.9
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
9.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.2
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
BrowserStackKatalon
Likelihood to Recommend
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.
Read full review
Free trial version is fine but you don't get the adequate support and VFM for the licensed version. Customer service needs to be improved a lot and any QA's with less technical background or less time to troubleshoot issues in the software on their own would find it difficult to use.
Read full review
Pros
  • 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
  • Easy to setup and quick to get started: As Katalon comes with built-in features a new automation tester can automate easily. Script creation time is quick.
  • Test Analytics: Katalon also provides analytics which tells you the pattern of your automated tests at a different instance of time.
  • Third Party Integration: Katalon provides amazing integration with 3rd party tools like JIRA, ALM, GIT, JENKINS, etc.
  • Image-based testing: Katalon also provides inbuilt image based test automation.
Read full review
Cons
  • 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.
Read full review
  • Katalon Studio supports only grovvy language for now. It will be nice to see support for other scripting languages.
  • Performance issues; sudden crash of the tool.
  • Debug button is provided only to licensed owner since Katalon 7+ version.
  • New tool, few resources available to learn. So there is a mild learning curve here.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
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.
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Usability
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.
Read full review
Due to the slowness, there is an intermediate timeout. There is no other problem.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
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
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Performance
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.
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
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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I love the support. They have provided answers and solutions for most of our questions or doubts that could come up. They also have provided basic tutorials on how to get familiarized with the program.
Read full review
In-Person Training
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.
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Online Training
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.
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
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.
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
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
Initially, our oragnization had to integrate Katalon tests with the Jenkins to schedule the test runs. The reports were stored in company local database. To identify test flakiness or product issue one had to dig deep into the reports. This issue was all solved by Katalon TestOps. Katalon TestOps provides report history in one place and also helps in easy triage of the report by pointing out script flakiness
Read full review
Scalability
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
Read full review
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • 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
  • Support can be better: As mentioned before, katlon community is still growing but is currently a small community. If you are stuck, its hard to find help in the community and one has to reach out to the support for help. This takes a while before you can get solution to your problem.
  • Result upload takes little longer time: It is been observed that uploading tests results takes little longer.
  • Sometimes it gets hard to integrate: Since this is fairly a new tool, requires lot of learning curve to get the job done effectively.
Read full review
ScreenShots

BrowserStack Screenshots

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

Katalon Screenshots

Screenshot of Project setup - fast start with pre-built templates and scriptsScreenshot of Run Single Tests or Suites on multiple configurations and data sets
Multiple Platform Support so you can run your automation tests on Windows, OSX, Android, and iOSScreenshot of Maintain TestsScreenshot of View Reports