Appium Vs Espresso : Which One Should You Choose?

What are the differences between Appium and Espresso for mobile app testing?

Appium is an open-source tool that allows testing on real devices, emulators, and simulators across multiple platforms. Espresso, on the other hand, is a Google-developed tool focused on Android app testing, providing more reliable and faster UI testing capabilities specifically for Android apps.

When you need to pick the right Android automation testing framework for your project, there are several important things to think about. These include the languages it works with, the apps it can test, and the type of Android testing you want to do, like mobile application testing. As one of the best QA companies, we carefully look into all the tools available. We use only the one that fits our needs the best, and if necessary, we may explore a similar framework to ensure comprehensive testing coverage. In this blog, we will compare Appium and Espresso. This will help you choose the right testing framework for you.

Appium

Appium is a free testing tool that uses a client-server setup. If you want a tool that works with many programming languages, Appium is a good choice. Its server is built in Node.js, which makes it work well with popular languages like Ruby, Java, and Python. A key point is that Appium does not need your source code to run properly. Still, choosing a testing tool is not always simple. There are many factors to think about, especially since your project may have different needs and special edge cases. We will look into these details after we introduce you to Espresso.

Espresso

Espresso is a free tool from Google. It focuses on running automated UI tests for Android and helps Android app development by enabling developers to write automation test cases. Being a Google product makes Espresso special. It is part of the Android SDK and is used by developers for mobile app development, especially for Android apps. Espresso is very dependable for simulating user interactions in Android UI tests. Now that we know the main benefits of both Appium and Espresso, let’s look closer and see other important details in our Appium vs Espresso comparison.

Cross-platform Support:

Appium provides automated testing on real devices and mobile applications. This includes virtual options like emulators or simulators. It can test native, hybrid, and web applications, ensuring comprehensive test coverage. Appium also supports cross-platform testing on different platforms. This means you can use one API to run test scripts on both Android and iOS. It does not depend on the operating system of the mobile devices.

Espresso can only run on Android because it only supports APK files. If you want to test on iOS too, you should use Appium. We have talked about language support before. Espresso is only available in Java.

Speed:

Execution speeds matter a lot when you have limited time for testing. Usually, Appium takes more time to run tests than Espresso. This is because Appium follows a longer path for each command it runs. You can understand this better by looking at the image below that shows how Appium’s execution flow works.

Espresso is faster to use because it doesn’t need to talk to a server. It can also sync UI elements and test actions automatically. This means it can run test commands at the right time, as it knows when the main thread is quiet.

Ease of use:

Espresso is much faster than Appium. It is also easier to use. Espresso has three main APIs: viewMatchers, viewActions, and viewAssertions. These are simple to maintain and customize. You can easily record user interactions with the app, which creates the test code you need automatically. Use Cases for Appium include its trouble detecting web elements on its own, which means testers must do everything manually, a hard task.

Setup:

The setup process is simpler with Espresso than with Appium. This is because Espresso is built into Android Studio. Since Android Studio is a native Android development environment, you do not need to work hard to set it up. In contrast, setting up Appium needs a lot of knowledge about programming the Appium server. This is due to its client-server model as mentioned before.

The flakiness of Tests:

Appium tests can work on different platforms, but they are not very stable. The UI elements, like the caller dial, can change on every device. This can cause the automation scripts to fail. However, since Espresso is a native framework, it can give us much more reliable results.

Appium vs Espresso: The Key Differences

Conclusion:

We have listed the main differences to help you pick the best framework for your needs. As one of the top mobile app testing companies, here is our recommendation.

We hope you found our blog on Appium vs Espresso helpful! While these are our suggestions, remember to choose the tools that best suit your project’s needs.

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