Desktop Application Automation Tools

How to choose a "desktop application automation tool" that's best for your specific needs?

Desktop application automation tool selection is not just about the cost of an automation platform. To profitably succeed in desktop application automation, you'll need to take into account the cost of platform setup, customization, maintenance & understand how to execute it with Continuous Integration.

1. Open Source

Open source is what usually comes to mind when most people are getting started with desktop automation. Sometimes an open source tool is what you need but not always.

2. Desktop Application Complexity

Having a desktop automation tool that works for a trivial use case is one thing but setting up a automation platform that can work reliably when you have a set of evolving complex uses cases is an entirely different thing.

3. Implementation Speed

How much time you are willing to spend in setting up and then later enhancing & maintaining your desktop automation scripts is probably the single most important factor to take into account.

Open Source

The most popular open source desktop application automation tool till last year was WinAppDriver. However, its development has been paused and it may not be a good option anymore.

A close second is Winium, a Selenium based tool compatible with many programming languages such as Java, PHP, Python, C# etc. It's a good option if your use cases aren't very complex. The only caution you need to keep in mind is that it's Github library hasn't been updated in years.

Other open source desktop automation tools worth taking a look are: White Framework, AutoIt and Jubula.

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Desktop Application Complexity

What makes desktop application automation complex is - it has multiple moving parts: you need to have separate automation scripts for application's components, automation scripts for the interface through which application interacts with the host environment and thirdly automation for the application's interaction with the user.

And if that wasn't enough, you'll need to ensure that automation works without breaking even when those 3 interaction points change with time.

Making open source tools work for such complex uses cases requires huge upfront investment. A low code enterprise grade paid tool is probably your best shot, if your desktop application is even somewhat complex.

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Implementation Speed

Teams with a lot of free dev resources and sufficient time in hand are better off experimenting with open source tools. For everyone else, you certainly want a desktop automation tool that minimizes implementation time now and maintenance time later.

Essentially, you want to know how your desktop application automation tool fares on following:
1. Does it have a decent library of out-of-the-box automations?
2. Can it easily integrate with your continuous delivery process without too much customization effort?
3. Does it have drag-and-drop features and event-based triggers that you can quickly configure to get your automation up and running?
4. Does it come with powerful & accurate object recognition ability that'll let the automation identify and automate components without any manual intervention when future changes occur.

Sahi Pro was built ground up to minimize the implementation time for desktop automations. It has all the features listed above and many more.

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Minimal effort desktop application automation.

Sahi Pro's product philosophy is to make test automation minimal effort exercise so that testers are empowered with a lot more time for creative testing. When you begin the free trial, it's the first thing that'll strike you.

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Desktop Automation Tools FAQs

What are the top 3 things you should keep in mind while choosing a desktop automation tool?

First of all, don't be in a hurry. A desktop automation tool is not something you can easily replace in future if you realize later that you began with a wrong tool. The tool gets tightly coupled with your desktop application and continues to grow in complexity as your application evolves.

Secondly, look for a tool that supports web, mobile app and other technologies along with desktop applications. Chances are your desktop application wouldn't exist in vacuum. Even if yours is a standalone application, it's likely that it'll eventually need to get some data from web, log something in a mobile app database and/or get some important workflow data from a 3rd party system. The tool you choose should be able to let you manage these integrations easily.

Thirdly, look for a desktop automation tool that can make up for user or application errors without breaking. A tool with powerful object recognition capability will save you hundreds of hours of unnecessary hassles in future.

How different is desktop automation compared to other types of automation?

In a world where everything seems to be on cloud and SaaS is the default, desktop automation requires that the automation tool be installed on a local computer terminal.

This setup has implications on your ability to scale, troubleshoot, generate reports, simulate different operating systems and underlying hardware etc. Other types of automation such as web or browser automation do not have to deal with such complexities.

How to quickly choose the perfect desktop automation tool?

If you are in a hurry, do at least this - choose one open source tool and two paid desktop automation tools for trial. You'll develop true appreciation of both types of tools by trying them first hand. Just reading about opens source vs. paid tools will not give you the kind insights you need to make reliable decisions.

Should you still go for a low-code/no-code tool if you have in-house programmers available for help?

Having programmers available to code desktop automation scripts is a poor excuse for not choosing a low-code/no-code tool.

First of all, your programmers' time is best spent making your application better and secondly on a longer timeframe, automation test scripts never get the kind of attention from programmers they deserve. Maintenance becomes an afterthought and valuable programming resources are prioritized for more pressing needs.

In our opinion, choosing a low-code/no-code tool for desktop automation is a futureproof strategy, and one that you should seriously consider.

Desktop Automation Tools