Selenium is a powerful name in the testing industry, often used as a synonym for automated testing. Launched in 2002, Selenium has managed to hold a strong place in the market over the last two decades and is still preferred by a majority in the industry. It is the first of its kind and has inspired the launch of many other similar tools. Selenium has reshaped the testing industry and expanded a new array of possibilities to improve the software quality by significantly decreasing time, money, and effort.
Though Selenium is an industry giant and has been ruling the market for many years, it is facing higher competition due to the ever-evolving trends. The new technology in the market such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) enabled test automation solutions are giving a tough time for the Selenium tool. Amidst the changing trend in the testing industry, one of the major questions is will Selenium be relevant in 2022 and beyond?
## Everything to know about Selenium
Before getting to know the relevance of Selenium in the coming years, let’s understand what makes Selenium so popular and what are its drawbacks.
Selenium is a free and open-source testing tool that is compatible with various browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer. It is among one of the top test automation companies offering efficient software testing. It has evolved over the years from offering code-based automated solution to codeless test automation.
The key features of Selenium are:
- No installation required
- Simple commands
- Compatible with multiple browsers
- Supports cross-browser testing
- Supports multiple programming languages
- Works on multiple operating systems
- Works alongside the development process
- Popularly used for unit testing, regression testing, and automated browser testing
## Benefits of using Selenium
In spite of a huge number of test automation tools available today, Selenium is one of the most preferred testing tools worldwide with a loyal customer base. The numerous benefits offered by Selenium is the reason that makes it so popular. The benefits of Selenium are:
Flexible: Selenium is highly flexible in functional testing and regression testing, while providing accurate results.
Free of cost: One of the key reasons for the growing popularity of Selenium is that it is a cost-effective solution, i.e.., it’s free of cost.
Cross-browser testing: Selenium supports cross-browser testing effortlessly. It helps in running the same test case multiple times across different browsers.
Supports multiple languages: One of the key benefits of using Selenium is that it offers multi-language support including Java, Python, C++, etc.
Supports different browsers: A major advantage of Selenium is that it is compatible with various browsers, helping you perform the test efficiently across any browser.
Selenium IDE: Selenium IDE is a powerful version of Selenium series that helps your record, debug, and edit the tests.
Different Versions: Even after 20 years of its launch, Selenium has still managed to make it up to top 10 testing tools recently. One of the reasons for its charm not fading away is having different versions. Various versions help to cater to the individual requirements of the clients.
Challenges of using Selenium
Test scalability: As Selenium can efficiently carry out cross-browser testing, it is to be noted that it performs testing in one particular order. Hence, running automation tests under such scenario gives rise to scalability issues.
Cross-browser testing issues: With the wide range of browsers available, it becomes tedious to conduct testing to run tests on all browsers, their versions, different operating systems, and the different resolutions.
Limited to web browser testing: As the market for mobile apps is increasing, Selenium is still limited to its web browser testing. However, there are many tools in the market that can offer mobile apps testing as well as mobile web application testing.
Limited reporting option: Reporting is an important aspect of testing as it gives a detailed analysis of the testing and offers a scope to improve code design. Though, there are a number of modern test automation tools that give a detailed report, Selenium still lacks reporting capabilities.
Captcha and OTP issues: As captcha and OTP are definite values and cannot be tested based on assumptions it is becoming highly tedious to handle the captcha and OTP issues. Hence, captcha verification and payment gateways testing are still a challenge for Selenium.
## Is Selenium tool still relevant? What is its future?
As the awareness about test automation is increasing, organizations are looking for the right tools that can cater to their individual preferences and requirements. Non-Selenium automation tools are on the rise for the wide range of possibilities they offer. With the new trend of AI and ML incorporation to test automation, intelligent tools will slowly take over the market. However, Selenium will not vanish anytime soon; future updates and intelligent integration may allow the tool to rule the industry for many years to come.