Happo vs Needle
Happo
happo.ioNeedle
github.comSide by side
| Figure | Happo | Needle |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $149/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 9 | 1 |
| Spec score · Visual Regression Testing Software | 9.2 (#1) | 8.1 (#9) |
| License | The public Happo integration library and legacy happo.io repository are released under the MIT License. | The package metadata classifies Needle under the OSI-approved BSD License. |
| Security | Happo says data is encrypted in transit and at rest, conducts regular penetration testing, and treats customer screenshots and related data as confidential with account-level access controls. | GitHub reports that the project has no SECURITY.md policy and no published security advisories. |
Plans
Happo
- FreeFree
- FreeFree
- Starter$149 a month
- Starter$149 a month
- Growth$399 a month
- Growth$399 a month
- Pro$749 a month
- Pro$749 a month
- EnterprisePriced on request
In their own words
Happo
Happo checks interface changes with visual and accessibility regression testing. It captures screenshots of component variants in browsers; a snapshot is one variant in one browser, and a run usually occurs once per CI build. Accessibility testing is included on every plan. Framework options include Storybook, Playwright, Cypress, and a generic API. Repository integrations include GitHub, GitHub Enterprise, Bitbucket, Azure DevOps, and GitLab, though GitLab support is experimental. Its CLI detects CI providers such as GitHub Actions, CircleCI, Travis CI, and Azure DevOps. Available browsers vary by plan: the listed options are Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Microsoft Edge, and iOS Safari. The free plan includes 5,000 snapshots per month; once the quota is reached, the account pauses until the next cycle or an upgrade. Paid plans start at $149/mo, with additional snapshots charged on paid tiers. Happo began as a project in 2014, and its commercial product launched in 2017.
Needle
Needle is an open-source Python testing library for checking rendered website visuals and layout. It captures selected page areas and compares them with baseline screenshots, helping identify visual changes in CSS, fonts, images, and SVGs. It also tests calculated CSS values and HTML element positions. Needle works with Selenium and nose, and documentation describes installing it with pip after Selenium. Browser-driver options include remote, PhantomJS, Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Safari; NeedleFirefox is the default. PIL is the default screenshot engine, with PerceptualDiff and ImageMagick available as alternatives. PerceptualDiff and ImageMagick can create a diff PNG when comparisons fail. Tests can set viewport dimensions for responsive-site checks. Screenshot cleanup after successful tests is optional and disabled by default, while failed-comparison screenshots remain available. Package metadata describes the project as operating-system independent and for developers, while the listed platform is Linux. The repository uses a BSD license. PyPI lists version 0.5.0, released April 2, 2017, as the latest release. Needle is free and has no paid plan.