How Testomato Is Different from Other Testing Services

Since our launch, we received a lot of questions about what exactly Testomato tests. Some of our users find it confusing since there are so many testing applications out there to choose from.

So, what kind of testing tool is Testomato? And what makes us different from other services?

We thought it’d be helpful to pull together a quick guide to help answer these two questions.

Link Checkers

One of the most popular types of testing tools are link checkers. Broken links are not only bad for usability, they’re also important for SEO since user experience can affect how your website fares in search engine rankings.

Link checkers typically crawl a website to validate all the links it contains and make sure they work.

Usually, they can check all standard elements such as:

• Pages
• Images
• Javascript
• CSS files

Websites that have a lot of content (e.g. online magazines or directories) need a lot of maintenance since invalid links can harm how well users are able to share content across the web.

What makes us different: 

The main difference between Testomato and link checkers is the purpose of our tests.

We’re focused on basic website functionality.

Imagine you have an e-shop with 10,000+ products. Testomato will tell you easily whether a shopper can visit a product page instead of whether every page on your site is working.

Although you can use Testomato to check for broken links, you’d have to add most links manually.

SEO Tools

Automated SEO tools to help websites test their on-page ranking factors. Tools like GTmetrix check a variety of factors such as HTML elements, META and TITLE tags, alt image tags, page speed, etc. Usually, they’re made to diagnose a website and identify opportunities for improvement. 

These tools are constantly undergoing changes since SEO itself is continuously evolving. For example, optimization has become more focused on optimizing content for different sources like social media and blogs, in addition to search engines.

What makes us different: 

Simply put, Testomato doesn’t optimize (although we share a common interest in broken elements). We can’t tell you whether your pages and content are following current best practices, and we’re not designed to help you diagnose your website and its ranking.

We’re just there to make sure everything works properly.

Uptime Monitoring Tools

Services like Pingdom or Uptime Robot monitor your website’s uptime and send you notifications if your website goes down.

A quick rundown of monitoring tools:

• Support protocols like HTTP, Ping, TCP, UDP, DNS, SMTP, POP3, and IMAP
• Usually server-based
• Use simple technical processes (i.e. normally ping servers)

Additional features might include string occurrence tests or checks based on geographic location.

What makes us different: 

We’re more than just a ping test. Although Testomato monitors uptime on each page and will send a notification if there’s a problem, we don’t track your overall server uptime and downtime.

If uptime monitoring services focus on the big picture (i.e. the website is accessible), Testomato is able to take a closer look at the details. We’re able to monitor the website flow and more advanced features like forms.

Error & Exception Trackers

Error and exception trackers (we like Airbrake) integrate with an app and gather all the problems found in its logs. Once the app logs a problem, you’ll be alerted. It’s basically an issue-based UI that allows you to manage your incident reports more easily.

What makes us different: 

Think of these tools as a more technical version of Testomato and approach errors through the back-end of a service. We catch and find errors in the UI of a website just like a common user would.

Selenium (Automated Testing Framework)

If you’ve ever explored automated testing, Sauce Labs’ Selenium  testing framework has probably come up as a popular option. Frameworks like Selenium offer a comprehensive testing suite automates real browsers and allows services to a variety of popular programming languages.

However, setting up a framework like Selenium is no easy task and requires teams to write complex scripts that must be maintained over time. Additionally, tests through a framework are time-consuming, often taking minutes to run.

What makes us different: 

Part of the reason we built Testomato was because we realized from Wikidi’s personal experience how difficult (and expensive) it is to set up automated testing.

We’re built to be simple and fast. Our service focuses on keeping tests easy to set up and quick to run. That being said, our test are not as comprehensive as those you might find in an automated testing framework. We’re not able to run tests in real browsers or support full app rendering (JS).

So, where does Testomato fit into the big testing picture?

Here’s how we would describe ourselves:

Testomato is an easy automated functional testing service that doesn’t require advanced technical knowledge. We automatically test your app or website as a normal user would.

Our development mantras include:

• Keep it simple.
• Be fast.
• No gurus needed.

We’ll be honest, we might not be as comprehensive as some of the other services available, but we’re always developing and trying to expand the features we have available.

Have more questions about what makes us different? Don’t be shy!

Share your tips with us here or on Facebook. Or, tweet us directly @testomatocom.