Advantages & Disadvantages of using of Appium

An open source tool that is required for mobile web, automating Native and hybrid application on Android and IOS platform is known as Appium which was in 2012. Appium is considered to be a cross platform that will low you to write tests which are on multiple platforms like Android and IOS. They do this using the same API. This facility will enable you to do reuse of codes between Android and IOS test sites.

Those Apps are written by using Android SDKs and IOS are known as Native Apps.

The advantages of Appium are listed below:-

  1. Using the same API, Appium will allow you to write tests that are against mobile platforms.
  2. By using any kind of test frame work or language you can write and run the tests.
  3. Appium is an open source platform so you can contribute to it easily.
  4. For the hybrid mobile applications and Native, Appium provides cross platform.
  5. Appium supports JSON wire protocol.
  6. Appium do not require recompilation of App.
  7. Appium also supports automation test on the physical devices and also for simulator or emulator both.
  8. Appium does not have any dependency on mobile devices.

The disadvantages of Appium are listed below:-

  1. The testing of those android that are lower than 4.2 is not allowed.
  2. Appium has limited support for hybrid app testing. You will not be able to test the action that allows switching of applications from native to web app and from web app to native.
  3. There is no support that will allow you to run Appium inspector on Microsoft windows.

The testing of those android that are lower than 4.2 is not allowed.

Selendroid driver supports SDKs starting from API 10, which is Android 2.3.3

Appium has limited support for hybrid app testing. You will not be able to test the action that allows switching of applications from native to web app and from web app to native.

Depending on what one calls “hybrid”. If we are talking about web views support then Appium can switch between native and webview contexts even if there are multiple.

There is no support that will allow you to run Appium inspector on Microsoft windows.

Appium Desktop is based on Atom-Electron and can be executed everywhere where this wrapper is supported, including Windows: Releases · appium/appium-desktop · GitHub

Here are some disadvantages of Appium:

  1. The testing of those android that are lower than 4.2 is not allowed.
  2. Appium has limited support for hybrid app testing. You will not be able to test the action that allows switching of applications from native to web app and from web app to native.
  3. There is no support that will allow you to run Appium inspector on Microsoft windows.
  4. Doesn’t support image comparison.
  5. Long time to configure appium for both android and iOS.

@Divyang_Solanki

  1. number of android 4.2 and less is 3%.
  2. appium fully support switching to webView. It is fully depending on application itself. Developers should enable debug for webViews in app for automation.
  3. wrong. There is no problem for Android. For iOS no any app that able to do it under Windows.
  4. Appium has full image compare support
  5. There is zero problems to configure both Android and iOS in one project.

There is no support that will allow you to run Appium inspector on Microsoft windows.

You mean that iOS-related stuff does not work on Windows? Unfortunately, it does not depend on us, but rather on Apple. However, you can still connect to a remote session being on Windows.

Doesn’t support image comparison.

Image comparison stuff (based on OpenCV):

https://github.com/appium/appium/blob/master/docs/en/advanced-concepts/image-elements.md
https://github.com/appium/appium/blob/master/docs/en/writing-running-appium/image-comparison.md

Long time to configure appium for both android and iOS.

Have you tried to run Appium Doctor?

@Aleksei : Can you please help me with the Image comparison ?

@Shivang_Tiwari example: https://github.com/appium/java-client/blob/master/src/test/java/io/appium/java_client/ios/ImagesComparisonTest.java

@Aleksei : Thanks a lot.

@Aleksei : One another request to you @Aleksei. Can you please help on this too:

https://discuss.appium.io/t/how-to-create-single-framework-for-both-android-and-ios/28802