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If you are interested in an Automation Testing career, having programming skills for writing testing scripts and knowledge of using different automation testing frameworks is essential.
You need to always choose a language that will help you focus on solving test challenges instead of dealing with language complexities. This creates confusion among new automation testers about which language to prefer. Is it the age-old preference for Java or the newcomer simplified Python? While both have unique advantages and limitations, they can work efficiently with testing automation tools like Selenium.
Our guide today will give you an insight into which programming language to choose for your automation testing career.
Python Testing Frameworks
1. PyUnit Frameworks
PyUnit is the default Python testing framework that consists of the in-built Python packages. It is used for unit testing. PyUnit Framework is derived from JUnit Framework, but its popularity isn’t the same.
Key points:
- It doesn’t require the installation of additional modules
- Provides simple and quick test case execution
- Faster generation of test reports
- It uses a function-based test execution model
- It uses the concept of fixtures, which are reusable functions used to set up and clean up the test environment
2. Pytest Framework
Pytest is a popular open-source Python testing framework with a rich plugin architecture that allows you to perform simple unit tests, complex functional tests, and API testing.
The demand for the Pytest framework remains high in comparison to Java testing frameworks Junit5 and Cucumber, according to Stack Overflow Trends.
- Can run multiple tests in parallel, reducing the execution time of the test suite
- Offers a simple and compact test suite
- Highly extensible with several plugins, e.g., the Pytest HTML plugin on your project will print HTML reports with single command-line options
- Has a large community support
- Cover all parameter combinations without rewriting test cases
- These test cases cannot be used in other testing frameworks
3. Robot Framework
Robot Framework is mainly used for acceptance testing. Though Robot Framework has been developed with Python, it can run on .net-based IronPython and Java-based Jython.
The demand for the Robot framework has been on the rise for the last five years in India and globally.
Key points:
- Used for acceptance testing, behavior-driven development (BDD), and acceptance test-driven development (ATDD)
- Compatible with Windows, MacOS, or Linux, and application types like web and mobile apps
- Works on keyword-driven testing and creates readable test cases
- Easy use of test data syntax
- Create easy-to-understand test report data in multiple formats
- Highly extensible with its APIs and rich ecosystem, and integrates smoothly with third-party tools
- Good community support
4. Behave Framework
Behave Framework is similar to Java-based cucumber testing Frameworks used in behavior-driven development (BDD). It allows you to write human-readable test scenarios using Gherkin syntax and then automate the test execution process.
Key points:
- Multiple documentation and tutorials are available for beginners
- Collaborates with popular web frameworks, e.g., Django and Flask
- Tells testers if a program works as it should or not
- Saves time by allowing selective checking of a few certain program sections
- It doesn’t support running tests in parallel
- Mainly designed for black-box testing and doesn’t provide detailed knowledge of the internal codes
- Not suitable for unit testing and regression testing
Java Testing Frameworks
1. JUnit
JUnit is one of the most used Java testing frameworks for discovering and executing unit testing for an application. It establishes a TestEngine API to execute unit tests or test small chunks of codes on the testing framework platform.
Key points:
- Works on multiple IDEs like VSCode and IntelliJ IDEA
- Use JUnit for unit testing and regression testing
- Simpler and efficient testing with assertions and annotations
- Create self-verifying tests
- Exception handling features of JUnit 5 allow users to identify exceptions on time
- It doesn’t support GUI and dependency testing
- It doesn’t deal with a vast number of test suites
2. TestNG
TestNG was built inspired by JUnit, and therefore, they have some similarities, but they have overcome the drawbacks of JUnit with its powerful functionalities and reporting techniques.
Key points:
- Can perform multi-threaded code safe tests for your codes
- Offer data-driven testing support
- Perform multiple tests like unit testing, functional testing, end-to-end testing, integration testing, etc.
- Runtime and logging by default JDK functions
- Depends on annotations to define test methods and test metadata
- Provides built-in support for parallel test execution
- Define dependencies between tests and control the order of test execution
- Can integrate with popular Java tools like Maven and Gradle
3. Mockito
Mockito is a Java-based mocking framework that assists with automated unit testing. It reduces irrelevant interactions with no expect-run-verify libraries and focuses on testing selective behavior.
According to Stack Overflow Trends, the Mockito framework shows steady growth over Cucumber for automation testing.
Key points:
- Creates mock objects as duplicate interfaces to test dummy functionalities in unit testing, enabling focused testing
- Supports mocking interfaces, abstract classes, and concrete classes using annotations
- Validate the interactions between the system under test
- Allow stubbing and mocking in the same API
- Argument matches for flexible verification and create custom matches
- Clean verification error support
- It doesn’t support final and static methods
- Maximize the benefits of test-driven development
4. Cucumber
It’s a BDD or Behaviour-Driven Development testing framework that creates test cases in regular English. Cucumber uses an ordinary language parser called Gherkin to understand plain-text functional scripts.
Key points:
- Code reusability for faster development time
- Used to run automated acceptance testing
- Tests are organized into feature files that describe specific features of the application
- Supports multiple programming languages like Java, Python, Ruby, etc.
- Generates detailed test reports that can be customized and integrated with different reporting tools
- Provides hooks that allow you to execute code before or after specific events
Why use Selenium with Python?
Selenium with Python is popular for web automation testing because of Python’s readability and its vast and active community. Python syntax is clear and concise, which makes writing and understanding Selenium scripts in Python easier than other languages.
The popularity of Python has also grown in the last few years compared to Java. We found this change on the demand curve from Stack Overflow Trends for 2024.
We asked a question on Reddit whether to use Python or Java with Selenium. Everyone had their unique feedback on both languages but it made Python stand out was its simplicity.
There are several other reasons for using Selenium with Python for automation testing.
- They together will use the strengths of AI and ML for various aspects of testing, including smarter test case design, self-healing tests, and improved test reporting
- Whether you need to test a single-page application, a responsive web design, or a complex web component, Selenium with Python can navigate all the complexities
- Python is lightweight and is ideal for microservices and cloud-based selenium testing
- Selenium with Python will enhance performance testing capabilities
Experts on Quora have said that Python with Selenium has a great future and shared a few reasons why you can use this programming language for automation testing.
Why use Selenium with Java
The size of the Java community in India and worldwide is still bigger than Python, preferably because of its long existence in the industry. This makes learning Selenium with Java easy, as you can get support and guidance from the community.
One of the major reasons for using Java with Selenium is that it has vast open-source libraries that can automate your different testing processes, including unit and browser testing.
Also, the stack allocation system of Java allows smooth integration with Selenium WebDriver for websites and web application testing.
Experts on Reddit say you can choose any language between Java and Python with Selenium but the job opportunities for Java with Selenium are more, making it stand out from the competition.
There are multiple other reasons why you can choose Java with Selenium.
- Selenium with Java offers good IDE support like IntelliJ IDEA and Eclipse for easy test scripting and maintenance
- Java libraries like JUnit, TestNG, and Cucumber can be smoothly integrated with selenium, enabling behavior-driven development approaches
- Java’s cross-platform compatibility allows selenium tests to run on different operating systems without significant modifications
- Its just-in-time (JIT) compilation and advanced garbage collection processes allow optimized performance, making it suitable for large-scale automation project
- It ensures parallel test execution control that optimizes speed and resources
- Its object-oriented programming principles and design patterns are suitable for developing complex and scalable automation testing frameworks.
This time we searched on Quora to see what experts are saying on why we should choose Java for Selenium and not Python.
Python vs Java for Automation Testing — a Quick Comparison
| Python for automation testing | Java for automation testing |
| It uses clean and concise syntax, making it easy for beginners to read and write codes | It uses more verbose syntax, which means longer lines of code, making it a little difficult for beginners |
| Test execution is a little slow | Faster test executions with its JIT (Just-In-Time) compiler |
| A rich and growing ecosystem of libraries and frameworks (e.g. PyTest and Robot Framework) enhancing test automation | Extensive libraries and frameworks are available for larger or enterprise-level applications |
| Gaining popularity in the last 3-7 years | It has been in the industry for over 28 years and is largely used by most companies and software developers |
| An active and growing community with extensive online resources for support | Mature and well-established community with extensive documentation and coding support |
You need to build strong programming skills to write and execute multiple test scripts whenever you learn software testing. For example, you can enroll in one-on-one classroom training with Codegnan’s software testing course in Bangalore — which will help you learn all the skills and work on real hands-on projects.
So look out for courses that compile all the necessary knowledge required to become an automated software tester under a single curriculum.
Final takeaway — Which is Better for Automation Testing, Python or JavaScript?
Selenium supports multiple programming languages, including Python, Java, C#, etc. Java has always been the best choice, but Python is suitable for beginners. Python uses simple and concise codes that are easy to understand, but you may not find many jobs available for automated software testers with Python knowledge.
Therefore, you can switch to Java after a few years and find jobs with better opportunities and pay scales.
