Add to Chrome
Add to Edge
Add to Firefox
Add to Opera
Add to Brave
Add to SafariWhen comparing Ghostlab vs CrossBrowserTesting, the Slant community recommends CrossBrowserTesting for most people. In the question“What are the best cloud-based cross-browser testing services?” CrossBrowserTesting is ranked 2nd while Ghostlab is ranked 4th. The most important reason people chose CrossBrowserTesting is:
Can automate tests for Chrome and Firefox extensions using Selenium.
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 Automate browser *extension* testing
Can automate tests for Chrome and Firefox extensions using Selenium.
Pro Free manual testing for CodePen projects
Put your code on CodePen and you can manually test it with CBT from the "Choose a View menu".
Pro Uses real browsers, not emulators
CBT uses real, physical devices for live (manual tests). Check the pictures on their blog post.
Automated tests use real Android devices (Nexus, Galaxy) and iPad and iPhone simulators.
Pro Community / forum
Only 350 users, likely because the Forum isn't linked prominently in the top nav menu and because it uses a crappy engine.
Pro Record videos
Record videos of a URL in the browser/OS combination manually or automatically via the API.
Pro Screenshot comparisons
Automated screenshot comparisons report differences in layout. Manual side-by-side comparison also available.
Pro Selenium testing
Selenium automation for mobile and desktop browsers, using scripts easily recoded with Selenium Builder.
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 Slow and unstable
Con Not a sponsor of the Selenium project
Con Typos in the documentation
"relavent", "retreive"
Con Can't change physical iOS device orientation
All iOS devices are physical and arranged in portrait mode. Emulators/simulators and Android devices can change their orientation via a button or keyboard combination.
Con Very slightly misleading Selenium examples / documentation
The Selenium WebDriver script examples, by default, don't explain what to put in browser_api_name and os_api_name. This leads to an UnknownError: Invalid browser_api_name / os_api_name combination specified error, if you just copy and paste the script.
Instead, first select an OS and browser combination, and the script wizard will fill in the '?'s for you.
