Several reports have highlighted the rapid growth in popularity of mobile apps. With more and more companies releasing mobile apps, users now have the option to choose from millions of apps available on various app stores. Therefore, it has become essential for businesses to attract, impress, and engage users by launching apps that work seamlessly across multiple devices and operating systems.

That is why; QA professional needs to use advanced testing frameworks to assess mobile app appearance, functionality, and performance across multiple devices and platforms faster and more efficiently. Both Appium and Robotium are popular open source mobile test automation tools. But the two widely used mobile testing frameworks differ from each other in terms of features, usability, and performance.

Robotium is designed with features to speed up testing of Android applications. It is compatible with almost all versions and subversions of Google’s mobile operating system. Android’s huge global market share makes it one of the most widely used mobile testing frameworks. Appium, on the other hand, comes with the necessary features for testing cross-platform mobile applications. It supports popular mobile operating systems like Android and iOS, along with Firefox OS. Therefore, testers can use this framework to test applications developed for multiple mobile operating systems.

Robotium focuses solely on Android app testing. Therefore, it only supports one programming language i.e. Java which is what developers use while developing Android apps. But Appium supports several programming languages, including Java. It includes a WebDriver interface that supports several popular programming languages, including Java, C#, PHP, Ruby, Perl, Python, and JavaScript with Node.js. Thus, you can effectively test mobile applications developed using commonly used web technologies and programming languages.

Since Robotium supports only one programming language, it becomes difficult for QA professionals to write platform-independent test scripts. Also, they cannot modify or reuse the test scripts as they are written for the Android platform only. But Appium makes it easy for QA professionals to write platform-independent test scripts in their preferred programming languages. They can even reuse the same test script to test the app on multiple platforms.

Today, businesses have the option of developing native, hybrid, and mobile web applications. Therefore, testers need tools to evaluate different types of mobile apps in a shorter period of time. Since Robotium is only compatible with Android, it can be used to test native and hybrid applications developed for Google’s mobile operating system. On the other hand, Appium can be used to test native, hybrid and mobile web applications. In addition to testing iOS and Android apps, testers can also use Appium to check how the mobile web app works in web browsers like Chrome, Safari, and Firefox.

Both mobile app testing frameworks do not have built-in “record and replay” functionality. But QA professionals have the option of using Robotium Recorder to record unit tests while interacting with the Android device. However, they have to incur additional fees as it is licensed software. The framework still comes with features to help testers write system, function, and acceptance tests. But it requires testers to access the source code during mobile app test automation. Again, it doesn’t allow testers to run tests on multiple devices in parallel. But Appium allows testers to automate their mobile testing efforts without recompiling or modifying mobile apps. So they can test the app as it is shipped or delivered to the client.

Both frameworks are supported by large and active communities. But many professionals feel that Appium community members are more proactive and stronger than the Robotium community. In general, QA professionals can take advantage of the features provided by Robotium to test Android applications thoroughly and effectively. But they have to use Appium to effectively automate cross-platform mobile app testing.

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