BrowserStack Automate vs Selenium
BrowserStack Automate
browserstack.com
Selenium
selenium.devSide by side
| Figure | BrowserStack Automate | Selenium |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $59/mo | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 4 | 1 |
| Spec score · Testing And Qa | 8.7 (#4) | 8.5 (#8) |
| Spec score · GUI Testing Software | 8.7 (#5) | 8.4 (#10) |
| Spec score · Functional Testing Software | 8.7 (#6) | 8.5 (#11) |
| Spec score · Browser Automation Tools | 8.7 (#10) | 8.5 (#14) |
| Spec score · End-to-End Testing Software | 8.7 (#5) | 8.4 (#12) |
| Spec score · Testing Automation Software | 8.7 (#5) | 8.5 (#7) |
| Spec score · Automated Testing | 8.7 (#9) | 8.4 (#14) |
| Spec score · Cross-Browser Testing Software | 8.5 (#7) | 8.4 (#12) |
| Spec score · Regression Testing Software | 8.7 (#9) | 8.5 (#11) |
| Spec score · Browser Testing Software | 8.6 (#11) | 8.4 (#17) |
| Deployment | cloud, self hosted | Grid can run in Standalone, Hub and Node, or Distributed configurations; the downloads page also links to Docker and Kubernetes deployment resources. |
| Purpose | Automate provides a fully managed automation grid for testing across physical desktop, iOS, and Android devices. | Selenium is a suite of tools for automating web browsers, primarily for testing web applications. |
| Security | BrowserStack says it is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant and that its compliance covers its data centers and platform. | The Grid guide warns that Grid must be protected from external access with appropriate firewall permissions because exposure can allow access to infrastructure, internal apps and files, or custom binary execution. |
Plans
BrowserStack Automate
- Chrome$59 a month
- Desktop & Mobile$175 a month
- Desktop & Mobile$175 a month
- Desktop & Mobile Pro$225 a month
In their own words
BrowserStack Automate
BrowserStack Automate provides a managed automation grid for testing websites and apps across physical desktop, iOS and Android devices. It supports more than 3,500 real desktop and mobile browser combinations and lists Selenium, Playwright, Puppeteer, Cypress and JavaScript framework support. Tests can run in parallel across hundreds or thousands of browsers, although the listed plans show one parallel test by default. BrowserStack Local securely connects internal staging environments to BrowserStack Cloud. Reports can include video, screenshots, framework logs, CI console logs, network logs and AI-driven failure analysis. Other listed capabilities include microphone audio injection, network simulation, Apple Pay workflows, localization settings, physical SIM testing and camera image injection. Integrations include Jenkins, Jira, Slack, Appium and multiple CI/CD tools. Deployment options are cloud and self-hosted. There is a free trial but no free plan; the Chrome plan costs $59 a month, billed annually. BrowserStack says its platform is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant and its privacy policy complies with GDPR.
Selenium
Selenium is a free suite of tools for automating web browsers, primarily to test web applications. WebDriver provides language bindings for controlling browsers locally or remotely, and is a W3C Recommendation. The main project supports.NET/C#, Ruby, Java, Python, and JavaScript. Selenium IDE is a browser add-on for recording and replaying interactions in Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. For distributed tests, Selenium Grid spreads work across machines and combinations of browsers and operating systems. Grid offers Standalone, Hub and Node, and Distributed configurations; Docker and Kubernetes deployment resources are also linked. Selenium Manager can discover, download, and cache browser releases and drivers. Documentation covers browser-specific functionality for Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari, and names GitHub Actions and Jenkins as CI/CD examples. Selenium began in 2004 at ThoughtWorks in Chicago. Grid has no authentication by default, and the project advises restricting external access and placing it behind a secure network. The latest Opera driver functionality is not supported, and that driver is officially unsupported. Selenium costs nothing.