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Add to SafariWhen comparing Ghostlab vs BrowserStack, the Slant community recommends BrowserStack for most people. In the question“What are the best cloud-based cross-browser testing services?” BrowserStack is ranked 1st while Ghostlab is ranked 4th. The most important reason people chose BrowserStack is:
IE, FF, Safari, Chrome and Opera come with additional web development browser extensions installed, such as Firebug or YSlow.
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Can be used without additional software on any browser
Doesn't need any additional software or browser extensions to be installed on any device. If every device is pointed to the IP address that it provides it will automatically reload that page on every file change.
Pro Testing page preset with a lot of useful information
Ghostlab offers a testing page which when opened displays a lot of useful information. Such as, but not limited to: viewport width and height, user agent string, pixel ratio etc...
Pro Synchronizes scrolls, clicks, reloads and form input across all connected clients
Every time the page is reloaded on a device, it's automatically reloaded on every other device connected. It also registers scrolls, form inputs and clicks across different devices and automatically synchronizes them to each connected device.
Pro Cross-browser and cross-device live reloading
Ghostlab offers developers the opportunity to test their site in multiple browsers and devices at the same time. Once the Ghostlab server is deployed, it offers an IP address running on port 8080 which automatically reloads on every file change.
Pro Easy setup
Setting up GhostLab is very easy, by simply dragging a URL or a local folder it creates automatically a new site entry and is ready to work.
It can then be named or choose the specified file extensions that need to be watched.
Pro Remote inspection of code on different devices.
Ghostlab utilizes weinre, an open-source remote debugger to remotely inspect the code on different devices. By double clicking the device name that needs to be inspected, and clicking the 'Debug' button, Ghostlab opens a Chrome inspector which can inspect any item in the page of the device and manipulate the CSS and HTML.
Pro Good selection of developer tools
IE, FF, Safari, Chrome and Opera come with additional web development browser extensions installed, such as Firebug or YSlow.
Pro Easy to use UI
Pro Huge variety of OSs, browsers and devices
There are over 200 desktop/mobile/tablet browser-platform combinations possible.
Pro Integration with CI services
Pro Get screenshots across many devices
Can request screenshots from many devices for comparison.
Pro I can easily test websites on my local development
Pro Free JS unit tests for open-source projects
Developers are advised to use the contact form. The JavaScript API is free for open source projects. Unclear whether automated testing with Selenium is also free - apparently not?
Pro Selenium automation integration
Pro Run concurrent tests in parallel
Open source project accounts are limited to at most two concurrent VMs.
Pro Might be able to test on real iOS devices
It's not very clear if real iOS devices are available for automated testing.
On one hand, https://www.browserstack.com/mobile-browser-emulator is all about emulators for both Android and iOS.
On the other, https://www.browserstack.com/automate says
"Test across real iOS devices and Android mobile emulators"
Then again, https://www.browserstack.com/list-of-browsers-and-platforms?product=automate lists "real iOS devices".
Cons
Con No Linux version
Ghostlab is available only for Windows and Mac, there is no Linux version. At least for the time being.
Con Not free
Ghostlab is proprietary and not free. It costs $49. Though there is a free 7-days trial.
Con Sessions are rejected instead of queued up when all VMs are in use
Con Security incident in 2014
Con Real Apple devices are unreliable as of August 2015
Real Apple devices are a new feature that BrowserStack has introduced. At the moment (August 2015) there are unreliable. Excerpt from an email reply from BrowserStack support:
we provide real iOS devices (Beta) and iOS simulators for Selenium browser testing on Automate. Since these devices are in beta, you might encounter a few problems while running tests on them.
To avoid this issue, we would suggest you try running your tests on iOS simulators.
Con No Linux support
Con Uses Android emulators for mobile testing
Con May be unreliable
The same test may succeed for some users and fails for others. Apparently there are problems with the test client running on Windows.
Con No longer free for CodePen projects
Con Re-use of VMs across different customers
