If you are in the field of Software Development and testing, then the web testing tools are not new to you. Probably you have been looking for the best web testing software and came across several options like Selenium, QTP, Winrunner, and several others. However, these are not all the same, and it is important to know the difference so as to determine the best to use depending on your environment and the resources that you have.

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In this regard, let’s spend a few minutes reviewing the most common question that software testers have been trying to answer for a few years now. You have heard about QTP VS Selenium, and the question is usually why Selenium the best and most preferred software testing tool? Here are some of the facts we found out about these two.

Reason #1: Selenium is an open source testing tool whereas QTP is paid for to use.

Why would people go for a paid too, whereas they can make use of the open source software? Therefore, most software testers will prefer using a solution that is free for use and can be downloaded multiple times. With the open source software, you can achieve the desired correct results and therefore it makes sense to go for the readily available tool with unlimited downloads. Secondly, the fact that selenium is free means more people use it. Hence you are likely to find more knowledge base to leverage on when you use a solution that is commonly used.

Reason #2: Selenium supports multiple languages whereas QTP is mostly a VB scripting environment.

With QTP, it supports VB scripting language whereas Selenium offers more power and flexibility. Therefore, those using Java, .net, Python and Ruby can use Selenium since it accommodates all these scripting languages. VB scripting is not as common compared to these other scripting languages, and this makes a major factor as to why web-based software testing is done using Selenium.

Reason #3: Selenium allows you to write one script for any browser.

The biggest advantage of selenium is that you develop your test script for one browser and you can use the same script for all desktops and mobile browsers with very little modification needed. Therefore, this will save more time since you don’t have to write different scripts for a different browser which isn’t the case with QTP testing tool.

Reason #4: Selenium offers software testers more scalability.

With Selenium grid, you have the ability to run as many tests as you want. Further, you can achieve this when you need and in parallel. You will just need a browser so that you can run the test. With QTP testing tool, there is no resource like selenium grid and hence selenium takes preference here.

Reason #5: QTP doesn’t support several browsers.

Selenium supports major browsers, and also enjoys support from Mozilla, Google, and Microsoft too. These browsers will provide APIs for Selenium, and hence this offers an upper hand to Selenium. However, QTP doesn’t enjoy similar support from the browsers.

Conclusion

Based on the above five factors, Selenium will always be preferred over QTP and therefore the reason why it is more common.