Top Cross-Browser Testing Tools to Test from Different Geo-Locations

Written by anugrg | Published 2021/07/07
Tech Story Tags: cross-browser-testing | geolocation | software-testing | test-automation | automation | programming | coding | software-development

TLDR Cross-browser testing is crucial as it helps us discover how our app or site performs across various legacy and modern websites. These tools will also help us check the overall UI of our site too. As of May 2021, the global browser market share report by StatCounter states that around 64.73% consume content via Google Chrome, followed by Safari at 18.43%. Some sites display cookie alerts based on locations, and even search results are customized based on geo-location. To know how to test your website in various locations using Testsigma, check out this article.via the TL;DR App

Cross-browser testing is crucial as it helps us discover how our app or site performs across various legacy and modern websites. As of May 2021, the global browser market share report by StatCounter states that around 64.73% consume content via Google Chrome, followed by Safari at 18.43%.
People across the world consume content via different browsers and on different devices, and to ensure our site performs uniformly across various browsers, we perform cross-browser testing. 
Picture Credit: BrowserStack
But, here's the thing — it's not always enough to perform just cross-browser testing. Some scenarios require cross-browser testing from different geo-locations. If our apps or website personalize based on the location, for instance. language, currency, etc. — we've got to test our product across various geo-locations.
It’s important to note that some sites display cookie alerts based on locations, and even search results are customized based on geo-location. Since these features might reflect differently across different geo-locations — we must perform cross-browser testing across different geo-locations. This also gives us a clear picture of how our product appears in different countries.
Now that we've understood the importance of cross-browser testing across various locations, let's explore the tools of the trade or the testing tools that'll help us perform cross-browser testing. Apart from validating the cross-browser functionalities, these tools will also help us check the overall UI of our site too. 

Testsigma:

Testsigma is a cloud-based test automation tool that supports cross-browser testing from different geo-locations and it comes with thousands of real devices with various OS and browser combinations.
Apart from that, we can integrate Testsigma with any cloud-based device labs like Hybrid, Sauce Labs, BrowserStack, etc. It’s a cloud-based tool so, it can be accessed from any location, any time and it doesn’t require any set-up time either — a pro-point for remote teams.

Besides, Testsigma is empowered by AI to auto-heal in case of minor changes and to detect corresponding affected resources.
In Testsigma, we can set up geo-location in desired capabilities to perform geolocation-based testing. This tool supports a bunch of locations that we can effortlessly choose while setting up to run the tests. To know how to test your website in various locations using Testsigma, check out this article.
Features
i. Supports CI/CD integration
ii. As it's cloud-based, you can scale it up or down based on the project requirement; this is cost-effective as we pay for what we use.
iii. We can set up geo-location on a real device or GPS to perform geolocation-based testing.
iv. To perform tests, you can choose screen resolutions and devices on the tool itself.
v. Bugs are captured via screenshots and logs; this is reported through email, Slack, Teams, etc.
vi. Tests can be executed parallelly in multiple environments.
Price: $99 upwards (for startups), enterprise solutions involve $249 monthly if billed annually. 
At the moment, Testsigma has a 30-day free trial. Sign up here

BrowserStack:

BrowserStack is a test automation tool that comes with around 2,000 desktop browsers in its cloud. This tool supports real-time debugging and permits running tests on internal dev and staging environments, behind firewalls, etc.
Using this test automation tool, we can test from any location using its geo-targeting feature. From checking how our site is performing SEO-wise to geo-tagging, it offers a bunch of features. 
Picture Credit: BrowserStack
Features
i. Supports CI/CD integrations
ii. Testing design layouts is simple as it comes with a screenshot generation feature.
iii. Supports testing on a range of screen resolutions, for instance, 800×600 to 2048×1536.
iv. It's cloud-based
v. Its native browser experience ensures test results are as accurate as the tests we perform on local browsers.
vi. Supports parallel testing and you can perform various Selenium Webdriver tests simultaneously across various browser, device and OS combinations.
vii. Tests can be run by setting up a real device to any GPS location.
Price: $29 upwards monthly, if billed annually

Geo Screenshot:

Geo Screenshot is a pretty versatile tool for performing cross-browser testing from different geo-locations. This tool lets us test UI, language, currency, and local search rankings for a website. If our product requires multilingual translations — Geo Screenshot can help us tap into that too. Plus, we can check what content or geo-targeted ads are pushed in those locations. 
Picture Credit: Geo Screenshot
Features
i. Supports CI/CD integrations.
ii. Offers emulators and user agents for you to mimic real devices for testing.
iii. It’s fully web-based and does not require any additional configurations or set-ups.
iv. Screenshot comparison to check how the site looks across various locations.
v. Geoscreenshot supports testing across multiple resolutions.
vi. It’s possible to test and compare several results at the same time.
Price: $19 for a basic plan

CrossBrowser Testing:

CrossBrowser Testing is an online automation testing tool by Smart Bear, and it supports manual and live testing on over 2,000 browsers and real mobile devices. We can check the look and feel of the site/app across various geo-locations and this tool also gives us insights on what sort of ads are being pushed on our site based on the location. It also offers native browser debugging tools and consoles.
Picture Credit: CrossBrowser Testing
Features
i. Supports CI/CD integrations.
ii. Takes screenshots, logs across multiple browsers or devices.
iii. It’s cloud-based and offers access to Mozilla Firefox’s earliest browsers such as 12, 13.
iv. Supports screenshot comparison for quick bug fixes.
v. Supports parallel test execution.
vi. Offers access to Automation tests can be run using various frameworks like Appium, Selenium, etc.
vii. Offers a proxy lab in its Local Connection to perform geo-location tests. 
Price: It's $39 upwards monthly for live testing; $169 for unlimited testing. 

GeoPeeker:

GeoPeeker is an online tool that lets us view how our website appears in various geo-locations. This tool renders the appearance across locations on the same page so we can perform a side-by-side comparison of our site's UI.
Using this tool, we can choose the locations and screen resolutions that we want to run tests on. Another important feature is if the site is down in our location, this tool is helpful in discovering other locations where it's down. 
Picture Credit: GeoPeeker
Features
i. GeoPeeker lets us pick and assign screen resolutions, manifest delay, user-agent settings, and peek locations for testing.
ii. It’s a web-based tool and requires no additional setups or configuration.
iii. Generates screenshots for quick comparison.
iv. Offers insights on the ping timings on our website across various geo-locations.
v. Supports parallel geo-testing across various locations.
Price: It begins at $9 monthly
These are the top cross-browser testing tools for testing from across different geo-locations. Which one caught your interest? Let us know in community.

Written by anugrg | Test Automation Geek
Published by HackerNoon on 2021/07/07