Steel vs TestCafe
Steel
steel.dev
TestCafe
testcafe.ioSide by side
| Figure | Steel | TestCafe |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $250/mo | $20/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 5 | 4 |
| Spec score · Browser Automation Tools | 8.2 (#21) | 8.8 (#6) |
| Integrations | Puppeteer, Playwright, Selenium, Python, Node.js, Browser Use, OpenAI Computer Use, Claude Computer Use | The CI guide lists AppVeyor, Azure DevOps, Bitbucket Pipelines, CircleCI, GitHub Actions, GitLab, Jenkins, TeamCity, Travis, BrowserStack, LambdaTest, and Sauce Labs. |
| Support | Launch and Scale include email and community support, Scale includes a dedicated Slack channel, and Enterprise includes a 911 email and support and uptime SLAs. | The Personal plan has community support only, while the Team plan includes dedicated support. |
Plans
Steel
- LaunchFree
- Scale$250 a month
- LaunchFree
- Scale$250 a month
- EnterprisePriced on request
TestCafe
- TestCafe frameworkFree
- Personal$20 a month
- Team$50 a month
- EnterprisePriced on request
In their own words
TestCafe
TestCafe is a free, open-source test runner and end-to-end framework for web testing. Tests can be written in JavaScript or TypeScript, or recorded in a browser with TestCafe Studio. The runner works in modern browsers locally or remotely and supports concurrent runs across browsers. It can also switch between iframes and multiple browser windows to cover interactions across those contexts.
The framework includes server-side API testing tools for standalone API tests or functional tests. Other capabilities include automated waiting, authentication roles, hooks, request mocking, and debugging mode. Its CI guide lists services including GitHub Actions, GitLab, Jenkins, Azure DevOps, and CircleCI, plus BrowserStack, LambdaTest, and Sauce Labs. Installation is available through npm, with a Docker image for CI/CD pipelines. After each run, TestCafe says it deletes browser cookies, clears storage, and reloads the page; parallel runs use separate sandboxed environments. The framework is MIT-licensed. Paid Dashboard plans have test-run quotas, but those do not limit the open-source runner.