IE NetRenderer vs Selenium
IE NetRenderer
netrenderer.com
Selenium
selenium.devSide by side
| Figure | IE NetRenderer | Selenium |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 1 |
| Spec score · Cross-Browser Testing Software | 8.6 (#6) | 8.4 (#12) |
| Purpose | Checks how a website renders in Internet Explorer versions 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, and 5.5. | Selenium is a suite of tools for automating web browsers, primarily for testing web applications. |
| What it does | IE NetRenderer renders a submitted webpage as screenshots in Internet Explorer versions 5.5 through 11. | Selenium is a collection of tools and libraries for controlling web browsers and automating web applications. |
Plans
In their own words
IE NetRenderer
IE NetRenderer is a free web service and extension for checking how pages render in Internet Explorer 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6 and 5.5. It runs capture jobs in parallel and in real time, using a separate virtual Windows environment for each browser version. Mixed Overlay and Difference Mode compare screenshots between versions. Screenshots remain at their original size, with a ruler showing usable widths for 800x600 and 1024x768 displays. You can set a vertical pixel offset to capture a lower page section and optionally allow extra loading time for scripts and page objects. Java and ActiveX are blocked, while JavaScript is enabled. The Firefox extension sends the current page from browser menus or toolbar icons. The maker says images and URLs are private, images are deleted after viewing, and visited sites do not receive identifying browser details. The rendering server is in Germany.
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.