Differences Between Selenium vs QTP
The main difference that is observed by the organizations during or after implementation of Selenium against QTP are ‘Selenium is smarter in performance and efficiency’ when compared to QTP, which is ‘slow in performance and less efficient’. On the other hand, Selenium can be used for testing only the web based applications with any programming language like Java, .net, PHP, etc. However, QTP can be used to test any type of application including the system software and application software but can support only VB Script for programming.
What is Selenium?
Selenium is an open-source automated tool for testing. Selenium has four components as follows: 1) Selenium Integrated Development Environment (IDE) 2) Selenium Remote Control (RC) 3) Web Driver and 4) Selenium Grid. However, Selenium RC and web driver got merged into the single framework as selenium 2. Selenium was created by Jason Huggins in 2004. As it is open source there is no licensing cost, which is a major advantage than other testing tools. We can write test scripts using any language like java, python, ruby, C#, Perl, etc. Selenium is suited for the agile methodology of coding and testing.
What is QTP?
QTP is a Quick Test Professional, which is an automation functional testing tool. With QTP we can automate user actions, windows, and web-based computer applications and test the same actions for different users. For testing we can start QTP and login activity, it will record steps and able to run the same steps in the future. QTP comes with a license, when we installed for the first time, 60 days fully functional demo license is given after that we need to buy the license. Using QTP we can test web-based and desktop applications and it provides both record and playback facility. It is based on VB scripting language. QTP can be used by both technical and non-technical users.
Head to Head Comparison Between Selenium and QTP
Below is the top 9 Comparisons between Selenium and QTP:
Key Differences Between Selenium and QTP
Below is the list of points that explain Some key difference between Selenium and QTP:
- In Selenium, we can execute tests when a browser is minimized whereas in QTP we need to have an application under test to be visible on the desktop.
- QTP comes with a built-in object repository whereas Selenium has no built-in object repository.
- In QTP, data-driven testing is easier as it has built-in global and local tables whereas in Selenium we need to rely on programming language capabilities.
- In Selenium, we can execute multiple tests in parallel whereas in QTP we can execute only one test at a time. We can run tests in parallel in QTP also but we need to use Quality center which is a paid product.
- In QTP, we can access controls within the browser whereas in Selenium we can’t access elements outside of the web application.
- Using Selenium, we can run our tests in 9 different types of browsers whereas in QTP we can run only in chrome, Firefox, IE 11 and Safari.
- QTP has built-in capability to export test data into external format whereas Selenium has no capability to export runtime data to external format.
- Selenium supports mobile devices like Android, iPhone, Blackberry, Headless WebKit whereas QTP uses a commercial product for mobile app test automation i.e. HP UFT Mobile.
- In QTP, we can easily integrate with HP quality center or HP ALAM which are commercial products whereas in Selenium we can setup framework using Eclipse, Maven/Ant, Jenkins, TestNG/JUnit, SVN/GIT etc.
- QTP has dedicated HP support along with online forums whereas Selenium has open source community and several online forums.
- Selenium has zero maintenance cost as it is open source whereas QTP has a license and annual maintenance charges.
- Image-based tests are possible in QTP whereas in Selenium also possible but not easy.
Selenium and QTP Comparison Table
Following is the Comparison Table Between Selenium and QTP.
| Basis of Comparison Between Selenium vs QTP | Selenium | QTP |
| License | Selenium is a free open source, so there will be less maintenance cost and testing cost. | QTP is a commercial product which comes with 60 days free trial and later user should buy the product. So testing may be costly compared to selenium. |
| AUT Technologies | Selenium supports HTML 5 and web2.0 | QTP supports visual basic ,HTML 5 , web 2.0, Active, SAP, QT etc. |
| Operating System | Selenium supports Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10, Linux, Mac OS etc. It supports Windows PC/MAC/LINUX/UNIX platforms. | QTP supports Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8 etc.
It supports only Windows platform. |
| Programming Language | In selenium, we can develop tests in different programming languages like Python, Java, C#, Ruby, Perl, PHP, .net etc. | In QTP, we can develop tests only using one language i.e. VB Scripting. |
| Browser Compatibility | Selenium is compatible with 9 different types of browsers of which two are headless browsers such as chrome, IE 11, Firefox, Safari, Android, Opera, HtmlUnit, Phantom JS etc. | QTP is compatible with only 4 browsers such as chrome, IE 11, Firefox and Safari. |
| Cloud Execution | In selenium, we can run multiple and simultaneous tests at a time per machine. It will require medium set up and maintenance time and Linux VM’s are cheap. | In QTP, we can run only test at a time on a single machine. It has higher setup cost and maintenance time. Windows VM’s are costly. |
| Test Management | In Selenium, we don’t have an inbuilt functionality to track tests and generate reports. We need to track separately by using testing frameworks. | In QTP, we have TD/QC which can be easily integrated and track the test runs and generate reports. |
| Environment/Workspace | In Selenium, we have a wide range of IDE’s like Eclipse, Netbeans, Visual Studio etc. for test development. | In QTP, we don’t have any IDE’s with QTP. We need a separate environment for test case development. |
| Application Support | In Selenium, we can test only web-based applications. | In QTP, we can test both desktop and web-based applications. |
Conclusion
Finally, it’s an overview of the difference between Selenium and QTP test automation tools. I hope that you have a better understanding of Selenium vs QTP tools after reading this difference between Selenium and QTP article. Even though QTP has more capabilities, Selenium dominates in cost, flexibility and parallel testing. If we use Selenium as Functional test automation tool we can reduce the cost used for licensing of QTP. Selenium vs QTP will take almost require same efforts for automation once all solutions are in place.
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