BrowserStack Alternatives: Choosing the Right Tool for Your Tests

For a while, BrowserStack has been the cloud-based test automation platform. Just like Tesla was the electric car, or the first iPhone was the smartphone.

The smartphone and EV markets have moved on since those breakthroughs. Software testing tech has too.   

BrowserStack still does a lot of stuff right. It’s got an extensive feature set and has proven itself with a wide range of customers. Equally, there are now plenty of BrowserStack alternatives offering more powerful AI features, which may address some of the pain points users experience with the platform. 

Here’s why now’s a good time to see what else is out there, and a few BrowserStack alternatives to get you started on your search. 

Why Consider BrowserStack Alternatives at the Moment?

BrowserStack is a powerful cloud-based testing tool. It offers a wide range of test automation options, and has embraced new testing tech with a few nifty AI-based features. 

So, why consider an alternative?

Ultimately, whilst revolutionary back in 2011, there are now plenty of other tools on the market that can match (and exceed) BrowserStack for automated testing efficiency and features:cost ratio. 

In other words, because of the explosion in AI-led software testing tools, the market is more competitive, and you might be able to get more bang for your buck elsewhere – especially if you’re experiencing the following: 

• Cost – BrowserStack’s free tier offers limited functionality, but the cost of scaling up is steep (especially for smaller startups and scaleups)
• Sluggish performance on remote sessions due to shared cloud infrastructure, with no option to run faster tests locally
• Lack of full control over the remote device/browser environment, such as not being able to install certain tools, limited OS versions, or limited sensors or hardware features
• Limitations on ‘low code’ features for more advanced tests 

What Criteria Should I Look For in Potential BrowserStack Alternatives? 

Make sure you replace BrowserStack with something better, rather than something equivalent. 

What ‘better’ looks like will depend on how your team works and your business needs, use these criteria as a starting point for evaluating BrowserStack alternatives and customize as needed:

• No-code testing that works for both complex and simple tests
• Flexibility over where you test – in the cloud or locally in your CLI
• Out-of-box integration with your CI/CD and workplace productivity tools 
• Self-healing tests to save time
• Flexible pricing that meets you where you are, rather than forcing you into paying for features you don’t need

5 Great BrowserStack Alternatives for Automated Software Testing

1. Best BrowserStack Alternative: Momentic

Best Overall: Momentic

One of the biggest issues users tend to have with BrowserStack is that, whilst powerful, it can seem clunky and a little sluggish, performance-wise. 

What software teams need right now is a tool that prioritizes speed and agility across the board – AI capability to supercharge test run speed and slash time to deployment, self-healing tests so you can ditch all those hours of maintenance, complete flexibility over where you test, and an installation process so efficient that you might miss it if you take your coffee break at the wrong time. 

A tool that could, say, achieve a 14x speedup in test executions, so that you can run executions in 20 minutes of your day, rather than over several hours. 

No, it’s not too much to ask. In fact, that’s precisely why we built Momentic – because busy engineering teams need a tool that can match the demands that rapid, 21st-century software release cycles present. 

Momentic’s key features

• Plain English test creation for web and native mobile: describe what you want to test, and our AI handles the rest. You can record tests too, but writing them in plain English is even quicker
• Self healing tests: intent-based, natural language locators automatically update when the DOM changes, so tests flake less and you don’t need to spend time weeding out false positives
• Autonomous AI testing agent: not a physical robot (sorry), but a virtual AI coworker that gets smarter the more you test – as you use Momentic, it can suggest, generate, and maintain tests for key functions
• Lots of integrations out of box: any CI/CD tool, plus a wide range of workplace productivity software like Slack, Jira, and more – all part of a plug-and-play approach to minimize downtime and get you testing as soon as you install
• Test anywhere: in the cloud, or locally in your CLI – whichever works best with your processes
• No learning curve: ‘so easy a junior dev could pick it up on their first day’ according to one of our clients – because who wants to spend valuable development time sitting in boring training seminars? 

2. Best Open Source Pick: Playwright

On a budget? Happy to spend a little time customizing an open source tool to your workflows? Playwright’s open source, code-first automation framework has plenty to love, including three out-of-box AI agents, test recording, and anti-flake features. 

As an established open source tool, there is a good chance your engineers know how to use it already – and there’s a mature community online for troubleshooting. If you’re happy to write some code and let AI do the rest, Playwright is a solid alternative. 

• Cross browser and cross platform compatibility – test Chromium, Webkit, or Firefox; and across Windows, Chrome Linux, and macOS
• Native AI agents – plus lots of third-party plugins for further AI-based automation
• Auto-wait, web-first assertions, and tracing features to eliminate flaky tests
• Codegen for recording tests, then saving them into any language
• Mobile web emulation for Google Chrome for Android and Mobile Safari

Considerations

Playwright makes things more efficient, but it is not a code-free tool, and you’ll need to spend time configuring the tool yourself. You’re also restricted to testing web apps – no native mobile testing functionality here. 

3. Best for Salesforce Developers: Tricentis Testim

If you’re looking for an AI-led, low-code testing tool for Salesforce apps, your options are limited. Even more so if you’re looking for ‘general’ web and mobile testing features alongside Salesforce-specific functionality. 

Testim’s extensive testing suite offers both a comprehensive BrowserStack alternative for mobile and web teams, and some nifty specialist features for Salesforce developers, all backed by time-saving AI copilot features. 

Key features

• Salesforce Lightning optimization, with prebuilt test steps for common Salesforce operations such as permissions testing and document validation
• Codeless testing via action recording and prebuilt
• AI copilot tool that accelerates test creation and debugging
• Self-healing tests to reduce time spent on test maintenance

Considerations

Testim is a powerful tool – and all those features come at a price point. Startups and smaller businesses may find they are paying for functionality they don’t need, or that the learning curve eats into valuable development time. 

4. Best For Flexible Pricing: TestingBot

If you’re looking for a BrowserStack alternative that supports everything from completely manual testing (with over 5,200 desktop and mobile browser combos) to seamless, natural-language powered AI testing. You can test web, mobile, smart TV…in short it’s pretty comprehensive. 

What makes TestingBot stand out is its flexible pricing structure that allows users to customize their plan based on users, parallel test requirements, and automation minutes. Bonus: you can upgrade your plan with instant notice, so your tool can grow with you.  

Key features

• No-code testing: write tests in natural language and let the AI do the rest
• Full support for a range of testing frameworks including Playwright, Selenium, Appium, Puppeteer, Expresso, Cypress, and more
• Web, native mobile app, and smart TV testing in one tool
• Codeless visual UI testing, with easy ‘slider’ tool for analyzing diffs

Considerations

Some users report integration quirks CI/CD tools and testing frameworks (Appium in particular) – it’s less ‘plug and play’ than other solutions on this list. Users also report minor issues with speed and performance, with test execution feeling slower on mobile devices in particular.  

5. For Agility: BugBug

If you’re a smaller team looking for a low-code regression testing tool, and you don’t have the time to deal with a steep learning curve or lengthy installation process, there’s a lot to like about BugBug. It’s fast, it’s intuitive, and (importantly) it’s affordable. 

Key features

• Generous pricing – unlimited cloud test runs for a fixed price per month, and unlimited invites for collaboration features
• Low-code testing via recording actions in browser, with compatibility for complex actions like hovers
• Smart waits and smart click and scroll for tests that behave like a human
• Useful test management features, such as including manually adjusting steps after recording a test 

Considerations

BugBug might struggle with automating complex tests (which you’ll need to code in JavaScript) and doesn’t offer as mature an AI offering as some options on this list. However, it makes up for this with a fast, flexible approach to software testing that SaaS teams in particular will love. 

Momentic: The Best BrowserStack Alternative for Growing Teams

“I didn’t think testing could be fun” – Lead Engineer, Retool

Momentic’s agility, instant learning curve, and AI testing features allowed Retool to 4x their release cadence in just over a month. They now release 4x per week – not bad for a platform used by over half of the Fortune 500.   

Want to join them? Book a call with one of our engineers to see how Momentic could take your test speed and coverage stratospheric.