In this fast-paced technological world, organizations have to maximize the visibility of their business to succeed. Since every business’s target audience is on the web and mobile devices, organizations must provide great software platforms for their consumers to interact on the web and mobile. A well-planned mobile and web application testing process is required to create flawless software apps. Businesses are attempting to employ mobile application testing to gain and retain their user base as customers’ mindsets change. For accelerating the testing cycle, having 24/7 access to the testing lab is crucial. Hence QA teams are considering laptop or mobile device lab on cloud for 24/7 access, cost-efficiency, scalability and much more. Similarly, QA teams are considering laptop device lab on cloud for web application testing. Mobile and web application testing approaches, on the other hand, are different. Before we get into the differences between mobile and web application testing, let’s look at the difference between web and mobile apps.
Web applications are software applications that can be accessed through a web browser such as Google Chrome, Safari, Mozilla Firefox, UC Browser, MS Edge, and others. Most times they are stored on a web server. The developers use HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and other programming languages to create web apps. Optimized Web applications can be used on various devices with active internet connections, including PCs, laptops, mobile phones, and tablets.
Mobile applications are tailored and created specifically for mobile devices. The most prevalent types of mobile applications are as follows:
- Mobile Web Applications: These are standard web applications that have been tailored to work on mobile devices and can be accessed through mobile browsers. These apps may resemble mobile apps, but they differ significantly from typical mobile applications.
- Native Mobile Apps: These are designed exclusively for operating systems. These mobile apps are available for download from their respective app stores (Google Play store, App Store, Microsoft Store, etc). Developers use platform-specific programming languages to create them. The iOS apps are developed in Objective-C and Android apps in Java. These apps are costly and require additional effort from developers since they must maintain two independent code bases for Android and iOS.
Here is a helpful poster that highlights the Types of Applications
The above mentioned differences between mobile and web applications demonstrate how they differ in terms of their creation and how users interact with them via different gestures like scrolling, pinching to zoom in and out, voice input features, and so on. As a result, the approaches for performing mobile and web application testing become naturally different. Although the tools used to test mobile and web applications differ, key testing methodologies such as functional, performance, usability, compatibility, and localization testing, are common for both..
Mobile application vs Web application testing
In a nutshell, the basic difference between mobile and web app testing looks something like this:
Source: https://bit.ly/3vdU2BX
1. Distinguishing between web and mobile apps:
- The most important distinction between mobile and web app testing is that the former tests software applications for mobile devices, while the latter tests web-hosted software applications for functionality, compatibility, and usability.
- Mobile apps can run on a wider range of devices than web apps, such as smartphones, smartwatches, tablets, lock systems, fitness trackers, and tablets. As a result, testing mobile apps becomes more arduous than testing web apps on mobile devices due to their numerous functionalities.
- Web apps are meant for stationary laptops and desktops with the classical features of the WiFi router and mouse cursor that are absent in the case of mobile apps that continuously perform on-the-go computing operations.
- How people utilize applications has changed dramatically in recent years. People who worked on online apps used to log in and out before shutting down their laptops/desktops, but now they can stay logged into their mobile apps without shutting down their devices.
- Mobile apps have a wider user base than web apps, thus testing both is done at a different level, taking into account factors such as continual network availability, notification management, app sync across platforms, and so on.
- Web apps are more business-to-business, whereas mobile apps are more customer-centric. As a result, mobile app testing focuses on customer interaction and app experience.
- For cloud based test automation for mobile and web apps you require mobile device lab on cloud and for desktop-web applications you require laptop device lab on cloud.
2. Technical Challenges: Web and mobile app development is different in terms of usage and dealing with different device types. Here are a few areas based on which web and mobile testing are differentiated:
Difference Table — Web application vs Mobile application testing
Most times, web and mobile apps are related so the testers use some common testing techniques for testing both of them. This requires a robust test management platform for framing a common testing strategy for both web and mobile applications involving common workflows, resources and scenarios related to web and mobile app testing in common.
Conclusion
As previously stated, to keep a competitive edge in the market, it is critical to work on both web and mobile applications in this continuously expanding technological environment. For creating a well-functioning app with a great user experience, businesses must guarantee that both mobile and web application testing are given equal weightage. Also instead of physical device labs, laptop or mobile device lab on cloud must be considered as cloud based testing platforms offer multiple benefits.
The choice between a Web application and a mobile application is entirely dependent on the business needs, but having both offers you the added assurance of reaching a larger audience.
Originally published at https://www.pcloudy.com.
