Introduction to Katalon
Katalon has a complete suite of solutions targeted for web, mobile, and desktop application testing. The Katalon Studio is their flagship test automation IDE. It also supports API testing for ensuring robust testing for functional as well as several non-functional test scenarios.
The API testing solution provided by Katalon encompasses various test scenarios ranging from the usual validation and functional testing to UI, security, load testing, and more. With the enterprise edition of Katalon, you also get the complete Katalon TestOps suite to manage your end-to-end automation platform.
Katalon Feature Analysis
| Protocol Support (List of protocols supported by Katalon for API testing) | Katalon API Testing solution supports REST and SOAP along with OAuth1.0 and 2.0 |
| Test Management (Brief description of the various features related to test management, test frameworks, structuring of the test cases, team access, and enterprise features) | Katalon supports project and team-based management features for testing along with multiple levels of test artifacts like test suite, test case, and test object. |
| Non-Functional Testing (Brief description of the various non-functional testing capabilities, such as performance, scalability, etc.) | Katalon supports an extensive range of non-functional tests like security testing, load testing, penetration testing, fuzz testing, and runtime error detection. |
| Dynamic Testing (Brief description of the various capabilities for dynamic tests based on API responses, env parameters, external data, etc.) | Katalon has intelligent features for dynamic testing based on data-driven object parameterization and behavior-driven test modeling. |
| Reporting and Monitoring (Brief description of various reporting and monitoring features) | Katalon provides a very extensive set of reports for quality, coverage analysis, test flakiness, and dashboards to report various metrics and test execution result comparisons. |
| Hosting Options (Hosting options provided by the Katalon testing solution, either cloud-hosted or desktop software, or any other options available) | Katalon Studio is desktop software. |
| Integrations (Webhooks, connectors, and integrations supported by the Katalon testing solution for triggering operations or external workflows) | Katalon supports integration with a lot of popular platforms such as Jira, Slack, Jenkins, and more. |
| CI/CD Support (Brief description of how the Katalon testing tool allows CI/CD of API deployment) | Katalon supports a runtime engine that executes test cases in CLI mode and integrates with CI/CD platforms. |
| Alerts (Support for alerts and notifications in the Katalon testing solution for sending test-related events) | Katalon supports Email notifications. |
| Pricing Model (Brief description of how the Katalon testing tool is priced along with options for free or freemium trials) | Katalon Studio is offered free however the enterprise version starts with $759 per license for a year. |
Top Alternatives to Katalon
1: RapidAPI Testing
RapidAPI Testing is one of the latest entrants in the API Testing space. Part of RapidAPI, which is the world’s largest API marketplace, the RapidAPI Testing adds to their existing suite of API management offering, called the Enterprise Hub.
RapidAPI Testing is a fully cloud-based API testing software. It seamlessly integrates with existing APIs on RapidAPI’s API Marketplace / Enterprise Hub, creating one central location for all API tests and eliminating the need to add APIs for testing manually.
Pros:
- It is a fully cloud-hosted API testing platform.
- It is quick to launch and create, execute test cases with an intuitive web-based UI.
- It supports Functional testing, performance testing, automated testing, and API Monitoring all in one product / SKU.
- It has native integrations to RapidAPI Marketplace and RapidAPI Enterprise Hub (and now Paw/RapidAPI Design).
- It provides CI/CD Integration to GitHub, Jenkins, CircleCI, Travis, GitLab, and more.
- It supports real-time alerts, including SMS, email, and integrations to incident management systems.
Cons
- It is a new product, so adoption is less.
- It does not provide a desktop version.
2: Postman
Postman is one of the most widely used and popular API testing tools. It is a collaborative API development platform that offers API design and mock endpoints, API client, in addition to automated testing.
Postman’s API testing features the Postman collection to organize API requests and enables testers to run and automate them using the Newman tool.
Pros
- It runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, and Chrome Apps
- It has an easy and intuitive UI for functional API testing.
- It is well suited for testing REST APIs in a semi-autonomous environment.
Cons:
- The enterprise edition lacks detailed admin and user management features.
- It is not well suited for SOAP APIs, but it can be used with limited testing scope for SOAP.
- The automation framework is not granular enough to support highly complex test scenarios.
- It lacks well-defined integrations with external services.
Browse Postman alternatives
3: API Fortress
API Fortress is a robust, enterprise-grade API testing suite from SauceLabs. It is well suited for testing web services built on REST, as well as GraphQL and SOAP. It also features advanced testing features such as data-driven functional API testing and API load and performance testing.
With API Fortress, you can write smarter tests with their API testing tool (the Composer) for true consumer-driven tests. API Fortress can facilitate automated testing in any CI/CD pipeline.
Pros
- It is an enterprise-ready, cloud-native platform for API testing.
- It has extensive support for non-functional tests spanning end-to-end load, performance, and stress testing, as well as complete coverage and defect analysis.
- It provides direct integration with any CI/CD platform of choice.
Cons
- The price point is towards the higher side since it is an API testing product targeted for the enterprise.
- Sometimes it may appear to respond slower than normal due to a lot of features packed into it.
Browse API Fortress Alternatives
4: Apache JMeter
And finally, we have the old warhorse of testing, the Apache JMeter. As one of the most popular and the oldest open-source testing tools, JMeter has been around for over 20 years. From humble beginnings as an application load tester, Apache JMeter now boasts of many testing capabilities, including web protocols, such as HTTP/HTTPS, FTP, SMTP, and web services based on REST and SOAP.
JMeter also comes with its own Java API for programmatically building test plans.
Pros:
- It is an open-source tool, so it can be extended and customized.
- It has programmable Java APIs for building test suites.
- It supports detailed test reports and visualization capabilities.
- It has a large and thriving community with many active discussions on forums such as StackOverflow and Gitter.
Cons
- Being an open-source tool, JMeter documentation is not as good as others in terms of the information architecture.
- Higher learning curve. It also requires programming knowledge in Java and Beanshell for building complex test plans.
- It is based on Java, so it runs only on JVM.
Summary: Katalon vs. RapidAPI vs. Postman vs. API Fortress vs. Apache JMeter
| Katalon | RapidAPI Testing | Postman | API Fortress | Apache JMeter | |
| Protocol Support | REST, SOAP | REST, SOAP, GraphQL | REST, SOAP, GraphQL | REST, SOAP, GraphQL | REST, SOAP, GraphQL |
| Level of Support for AdvancedTest Management Features | High | Medium | Low to Medium | High | Medium |
| Support for Non-Functional Testing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Level of Dynamic Testing Capabilities | High | Medium | Medium | High | Medium |
| Level of Reporting and Monitoring | High | Medium | Medium | High | Medium |
| Hosting Options | Desktop Software | Cloud-based | Desktop software | Cloud and On-Prem | Desktop Software running on JVM |
| Level of Supported Integrations | High | High | Medium | High | None |
| CI/CD Support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Supported Alerting Mechanisms | Email / SMS | Email, SMS | None | ||
| Pricing Model | Katalon Studio is Free. Enterprise version starts at $759/license/year | RapidAPI Testing Basic plan is free, and paid plans start from $59/month | Postman offers a free plan, and paid plans start from $15 per user/month. | 30 days free trial offered on hosted cloud. Pricing details not published. | Free |
Katalon Studio is a software test automation tool that supports API testing and web, mobile, and desktop application testing. You can download the Katalon Studio for free and start building test cases to validate the various functional and non-functional aspects of your software. Katalon Studio is an easy to use tool for building test cases and managing test automation projects. With built-in project templates, you can quickly set up a test project and create end-to-end API tests for API validation, API functionality, UI, and security. Katalon also supports load, penetration, runtime, error-detection, and fuzz testing on APIs and web services. RapidAPI Testing is one of the upcoming, feature-rich API testing platforms. If you are looking for a cloud-native alternative to Katalon, then RapidAPI Testing is your best bet. You can sign up for a free basic plan of RapidAPI Testing and start building your test cases with flexible test management and execution features, advanced reporting, alerts for test results, and complete integration with CI/CD pipelines.What is Katalon Studio?
What are the API testing features of Katalon Studio?
What are the alternatives to Katalon Studio?
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