Global Internet statistics by Statcounter shows that 550,000 new websites are launched each day. All web developers and designers pour immense concentration and effort to bring their designs to the Internet. But, how many of these hundreds of thousand websites are compatible with all browsers and platforms?
With the advance in technology, sophisticated software, and hardware, and mostly due to the presence of various device screen sizes, all websites, when launched, need to be tested on the most popular platforms and browsers. The testing is needed to analyze their compatibility and the user experience. Often, certain platforms are overlooked, leading to a shaky user experience of the website and poor conversion rates. It’s alarming to know that 88% of web visitors do not return to a website if they have a bad experience, making website testing on all browsers and even more critical task.
If you are doing testing on your own on all available platforms, it takes a lot of time and effort to do thorough testing. Luckily, you can save time and eradicate compatibility issues by using Browserling – a multi-purpose cross-browser testing service. Here is our Browserling review so you get to see more of it in detail and learn more about cross-browser testing.
Company information
Browserling is a California-based company and it was started in 2010. It’s one of the first companies to join the world’s largest startup network Hackers and Founders (with 130,000 members) and it’s also part of Microsoft’s BizSpark startup program. Browserling’s mission is to help solve cross-browser testing problems for developers and creating new and innovative solutions to make web development more accessible to the masses.
The company has made a good name for itself among its customers as the team is still small and the customer service response times are exceptionally fast. The current focus of the company is to bring more platforms available for testing and to provide universal cross-browser testing experience.
Features and services
Interactive testing:
Browserling is an interactive cross-browser testing service. Unlike other testing services that offer just screenshots (such as Browsershots), Browserling goes a step forward by not only showing you how your website looks on different platforms but it also allows you to interact with your website in any browser that you select.
You can resize browsers, change resolutions to do responsive testing, and take screenshots of bugs. What’s more, you don’t need to install browsers yourself as Browserling has installed them on their computers.
Authentic testing using real browsers:
Instead of browser emulators, Browserling runs real browsers on their computers and you get to use a real and authentic browser. The technology used is a virtual machine that has different operating systems installed and in these operating systems various browser versions are installed. With this approach, you can be sure that what you test matches the experience of your users. Any issues that come up in Browserling will also come up to the website visitors.
Test all the latest updates:
With newer browser versions launching each couple of months and several minor updates released every few weeks, it’s hard to keep track of browser versions. Your website visitors don’t always update to latest browser versions, so it’s important to test in several previous releases, too. To take the workload off you of downloading all the latest versions of browsers to test your website, you can just use Browserling as they always install the browser versions as they are released.
Multi-platform access:
Browserling stays up to date not just with the latest browser updates but also platform updates as well. The current available desktop platforms are Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10. The mobile platforms are all Android versions, and coming soon you will also be able to test in MacOS and iPhone. It’s possible that Linux platform will be added as well as according to online statistics by Statcounter, Linux is now used by over 3% of all Internet users.
Local testing with SSH:
Usually, the all-website development is done on your local computer. You finish your work and upload it to production. One step is missing here. How do you test your local code in multiple browsers? The answer is using Browserling’s SSH tunnels that create a reverse-proxy from a Browserling browser to your localhost, and this way you can test apps that have not been yet launched on the Internet and are still in the production stages.
Secure browsing:
Security and protection of information and data is a significant concern while developing and launching websites. Often, this makes testing websites a lot more difficult as confidential information can leak to the public Internet. With Browserling the connection between your computer and a browser is secured and no information can leak your yet growing websites or even launched web apps are easy to test, and browsing is kept secure. Also, browsers run in a private infrastructure of Browserling and no one except you can see what you are doing.
Ease of use:
Apart from giving access to many browsers, Browserling is also very easy to use. You don’t have to enable any plugins or download special applications. All service run just on JavaScript, HTML5, and web sockets and there is no installation step at all! Once you go to Browserling’s homepage, you are immediately presented with a selection box where you can enter the website that you will be testing. This idea is borrowed from Google that only has search box on their website.
Furthermore, you can install the Browserling’s extension that lets you run a browser compatibility test from your browser with one click. Also, you can bookmark all your preferred browsers and run a test by simply clicking on a bookmark.
Pricing:
The service is offered via three plans. The free plan allows you to run tests for three minutes and it limits access to just Internet Explorer running on Windows 7. The developer plan is available for $19 per month and it’s a single user license with no time limit that allows you to access all browsers and available OS platforms. Finally, the team plan is a multi-user plan for $29 per month that offers two or more people from the same team to perform testing at the same time.
Final thoughts:
Browserling presently is the top-tier service in its industry with revolutionary concepts for cross-browser testing. You no longer need to install browsers yourself but you can use them in the cloud. Its pricing is affordable, too, and the features help to get all the work done. With the ease of use and security assured, it’s a must-have for web developers!
