Appium vs Espresso: The Most Popular Automation Testing Framework in 2019

Mobile app automation testing has evolved as a crucial aspect of the mobile app development process to help deliver better quality solutions, under controlled time cycles and cost schedules. But for delivering bug-free app, choosing the best suitable automation testing framework for your app is very important. There are many automation testing frameworks available in the market with exceptional capacities. This blog is all about Appium vs Espresso and we will analyze which of these two most widely used Automation testing frameworks is preferable for your app testing.

Espresso was not preferred because of its flakiness and instability issues. But, from the time Google has brought Android Test Orchestrator, a Gradle test option, instability and unreliability of Android Espresso tests have vanished. This, in turn, is creating a serious problem for the most popular automation framework Appium.

Let’s find out in this blog if Espresso now comes with a power to kill Appium or Appium can hold its stand in this fiercely competitive market.

Let’s get into the details.

What is Appium?

It is an open source, cross-platform mobile app automation testing framework. Appium allows native, hybrid and web app testing and supports automation test on physical devices as well as emulators or simulators. The Appium server uses selenium web driver which permits platform independence and allows the user to use the same code for Android or iOS.

Advantages of using Appium

• Facilitates test execution without server machines
• Does not require app code recompilation
• Automates various types of mobile apps
• Testers can use real devices, emulators, and simulators
• Provides a record and playback tool
• Testers can automate apps without adding extra components
• Supports several web driver compatible languages

Disadvantages of using Appium

• Common gestures
• No script execution on multiple iOS simulators
• Lacks the capability to recognize images
• Does not support older versions of android

What is Espresso?

Espresso is a tool developed by Google which is used for testing the UI of Android apps. It automatically synchronizes your test actions with the user interface of the mobile app and ensures that the activity is started before the tests run.

Although when you execute an Espresso test you will have shared state in separate tests and some flakiness. For this Google came up with a solution. Android Test Orchestrator is a Gradle test option that helps in testing and increases the reliability of our automated test suites.

If you use Gradle build tools in any version of Android Studio below 3.0 then you also have to update the dependency setup. Let’s take a look at the advantages of using Android Espresso.

Advantages of using Espresso

• Integration with Gradle
• Test Orchestrator
• Less flakiness
• It’s easy to develop Espresso test automation
• Reliable and fast feedback
• Simple workflow

Disadvantages of using Espresso

• It requires access to the application source code
• Narrow focus
• Knowledge of launching Android app on emulators required

Conclusion

Appium and Espresso both can be used to perform UI testing on Android app but if you have to choose one of them then you need to decide on the bases of your requirements. What kind of app is it and what kind of testing you want to perform. Developers who want to perform UI testing for their native Android app should go for Android Espresso. Although, if the test needs to support iOS and Android both and you want to test at a functional level then you can use Appium.

Originally published at www.pcloudy.com.