Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Browsershots VS Cypress.io

Compare Browsershots VS Cypress.io and see what are their differences

Browsershots logo Browsershots

Browsershots makes screenshots of your web design in different browsers.

Cypress.io logo Cypress.io

Slow, difficult and unreliable testing for anything that runs in a browser. Install Cypress in seconds and take the pain out of front-end testing.
  • Browsershots Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-15
  • Cypress.io Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-17

Browsershots features and specs

  • Wide Browser Coverage
    Browsershots supports a large variety of browsers across different operating systems, making it easier for developers to see how their website looks in multiple scenarios.
  • Free to Use
    The service offers a free version which allows users to test their websites in numerous browsers without any cost.
  • Screenshot Capability
    It provides screenshots of how websites are rendered in different browsers, enabling developers to quickly identify rendering issues.
  • No Installation Required
    As a web-based tool, Browsershots doesn't require any software installation, making it easily accessible from any machine with an internet connection.

Possible disadvantages of Browsershots

  • Limited Interactivity
    Being a screenshot service, it doesn't support interactive testing, such as click events or navigation within the website.
  • Queue Times
    During peak times, there can be significant delays in getting screenshots due to the queuing system, especially for free users.
  • Outdated Browsers
    Some of the browsers offered for testing are outdated, which may not be useful for modern web development needs.
  • No Real-time Testing
    The service does not offer real-time testing capabilities, which means developers cannot debug issues immediately as they would in a local development environment.

Cypress.io features and specs

  • Easy Setup and Configuration
    Cypress.io is known for its straightforward setup process, requiring minimal configuration to get started with writing and running tests, making it very accessible for developers new to end-to-end testing.
  • Real-time Reloads
    Cypress offers real-time reloading of tests, which improves the development experience by allowing instant feedback on test results as code changes are made.
  • Time Travel Debugging
    Cypress provides the ability to 'time travel' through tests by taking snapshots of the application state at different steps, making it easier to debug and understand failures.
  • Automatic Waiting
    Tests in Cypress automatically wait for commands and assertions, eliminating the need for manual waits and helping to avoid flaky tests due to timing issues.
  • Built-in Mocking and Stubbing
    Cypress has built-in capabilities for mocking and stubbing network requests, which simplifies testing of applications that depend on various services and APIs.
  • Rich Documentation and Community Support
    Cypress boasts comprehensive documentation and an active community, providing plenty of resources for learning and troubleshooting.
  • Cross Browser Testing
    Cypress supports testing in multiple browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, and Edge, ensuring compatibility across different environments.

Possible disadvantages of Cypress.io

  • Limited Browser Support
    Although Cypress supports several major browsers, it does not support legacy browsers like Internet Explorer, which can be a disadvantage for projects that require testing across a wider range of browsers.
  • No Native Mobile App Testing
    Cypress does not natively support mobile app testing, limiting its use for projects that need end-to-end testing on mobile platforms.
  • Heavy Memory Usage
    Cypress can consume significant system resources, particularly memory, which may impact performance during large or complex test runs.
  • Limited Parallelism
    By default, Cypress's parallel execution capabilities are limited, which can slow down the test suite execution for larger projects, although this can be mitigated with the Dashboard Service (a paid feature).
  • Learning Curve for Advanced Features
    While basic tests are easy to set up, leveraging advanced features like custom commands, plugins, and complex test setups can require a steeper learning curve.
  • Incompatibility with Some Testing Ecosystems
    Cypress's architecture and testing approach can sometimes cause compatibility issues with certain testing frameworks and libraries, particularly those that are tightly coupled with traditional WebDriver-based tools.

Browsershots videos

Browsershots.org behind the scenes

Cypress.io videos

Introduction to automation testing with Cypress.io (Non-selenium framework)

More videos:

  • Review - Testing Angular with Cypress.io | Joe Eames | AngularConnect 2018

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Browsershots and Cypress.io)
Website Testing
39 39%
61% 61
Automated Testing
15 15%
85% 85
Browser Testing
28 28%
72% 72
Web Browsers
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Browsershots and Cypress.io

Browsershots Reviews

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Cypress.io Reviews

20 Best JavaScript Frameworks For 2023
Cypress is a holistic automation testing framework where the tester can perform unit, integration, end-to-end, and regression testing. Additionally, they may orchestrate and unify outcomes with quality measurements and useful insights that support the agile workplace by leveraging the Cypress cloud.
Top 10 Perfecto alternatives with Zebrunner on top
- is a SaaS web app for easy scaling test runs and debugging failed tests. Pairs with the open source Cypress Test Runner.
Source: zebrunner.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Cypress.io seems to be a lot more popular than Browsershots. While we know about 27 links to Cypress.io, we've tracked only 2 mentions of Browsershots. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Browsershots mentions (2)

Cypress.io mentions (27)

  • Ensuring Web Accessibility with Cypress: A Comprehensive Guide
    Feature: Web Accessibility Tests Feature: Web Accessibility Tests Scenario Outline: Verify all WCAG Violations Given I am on the "" page And Verify all Accessibility Violations Scenario Outline: Verify P1,P2 WCAG Violations Given I am on the "" page And Verify only P1, P2 issues Examples: | url | | https://google.com | | https://amazon.in | | https://agoda.com | |... - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
  • Simulating Internet Outage and Recovery using Cypress
    In this blog post, we'll explore a Cypress test that replicates this scenario, utilizing the powerful intercept command to manipulate network requests and responses. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Scraping a site?
    Maybe something like Cypress is what you're looking for? Cypress.io. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • How to write tests in Django for JavaScript fetch
    You won't be able to test the javascript function itself from within python, but you can exercise the front-end code using something like cypress (https://cypress.io) or the older but still respectable selenium (https://selenium.dev). Source: about 2 years ago
  • What's your CI/CD flow made of?
    How are they run (services (ie. GitHub Action Runners, SauceLabs, Cypress.io, etc.), or self hosted autoscaling infrastructures)? Source: about 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Browsershots and Cypress.io, you can also consider the following products

browserling - Live interactive cross-browser testing from your browser.

Selenium - Selenium automates browsers. That's it! What you do with that power is entirely up to you. Primarily, it is for automating web applications for testing purposes, but is certainly not limited to just that.

Sauce Labs - Test mobile or web apps instantly across 700+ browser/OS/device platform combinations - without infrastructure setup.

Katalon - Built on the top of Selenium and Appium, Katalon Studio is a free and powerful automated testing tool for web testing, mobile testing, and API testing.

BrowserStack - BrowserStack is a software testing platform for developers to comprehensively test websites and mobile applications for quality.

Robot framework - Robot Framework is a generic test automation framework for acceptance testing and acceptance...