Guide to Mobile App Autotesting Tools
Article Summary
Arseny Batyrov from Badoo's QA team built the mobile testing guide he couldn't find anywhere else. After combing the internet for tool comparisons and finding nothing comprehensive, he created this definitive breakdown of the autotesting stack.
This guide classifies mobile app autotesting tools into four categories (drivers, wrappers, frameworks, and combined tools) and compares the most popular options in each. Based on surveys of Russian-speaking QA communities, it reveals which tools dominate the market and provides detailed comparisons to help teams choose the right stack.
Key Takeaways
- Appium leads as most popular wrapper, supporting UIAutomator, Espresso, and XCUITest drivers
- Java dominates mobile testing languages by wide margin over Python and Ruby
- UIAutomator for system testing, Espresso for white-box: each serves distinct purposes
- XCUITest replaced UIAutomation for iOS 9+, requires Objective-C or Swift
- Calabash lost official Xamarin support in 2017, now community-maintained only
The mobile testing landscape centers on official drivers (UIAutomator, Espresso, XCUITest) wrapped by Appium for cross-platform testing, with JUnit and Cucumber dominating the framework layer.
