Top Browsershots Alternative: Find Your Ideal Web Testing Tool
Browsershots, a free and open-source online service created by Johann C. Rocholl, has long been a go-to for web designers needing screenshots of their web designs across various browsers. While a valuable tool, web development and testing needs have evolved. If you're looking for more robust features, broader browser support, or a different licensing model, exploring a reliable Browsershots alternative is essential. This guide will help you discover the best options available.
Top Browsershots Alternatives
Whether you're a freelance developer, part of a large QA team, or simply maintaining a personal website, the right cross-browser testing tool can save you countless hours. Here's a curated list of top alternatives that offer diverse features, platforms, and pricing structures to meet your specific requirements.
BrowserStack
BrowserStack is a powerful commercial online tool that allows users to test their website across a vast range of browsers, including various versions of Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Safari, even beta versions. It's an excellent Browsershots alternative for comprehensive cross-browser testing, debugging, and web development with features like Flash, CSS, and Java testing.
LambdaTest
LambdaTest is a scalable cloud-based freemium SaaS platform offering extensive cross-browser testing capabilities, supporting over 2000 combinations of desktop and mobile browsers. As a robust Browsershots alternative, it provides manual, visual, and automated testing, real-time testing, Selenium integration, and numerous integrations with tools like Slack, GitHub, Jira, and WordPress, making it ideal for comprehensive web app testing on various platforms including Web and Chrome.
Comparium
Comparium is a convenient, free, and open-source web application designed for cross-browser testing. It allows users to test any website on virtually any operating system and browser combination, making it a straightforward and cost-effective Browsershots alternative for basic cross-browser checks.
Browserling
Browserling is a freemium web-based tool that provides live access to virtual machines running popular browsers like Internet Explorer, Chrome, Safari, Opera, and Firefox. It's a strong Browsershots alternative for quick cross-browser testing without registration, offering features like Google Chrome extensions and virtual machine access for direct interaction with browsers.
CrossBrowserTesting
CrossBrowserTesting is a comprehensive commercial web-based platform for manual, visual, and automated web testing. It supports over 1500 different desktop and mobile browser configurations, including Safari, Internet Explorer, Android, and iOS. This Browsershots alternative excels with native debugging tools for HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, and automated screenshot comparison features.
MultiBrowser
MultiBrowser (Multi-Browser Viewer) is a commercial cross-browser and functional web testing software tool for Windows platforms (including Windows 7, 8, 10). Unlike emulators, it uses REAL standalone browsers and an accurate mobile emulator, seamlessly integrating with Visual Studio and Selenium for automated testing. It's a solid Browsershots alternative for those needing true browser environments for testing responsive design and automated workflows.
Blisk
Blisk is a freemium browser designed specifically for web developers on Mac and Windows, offering a comprehensive toolbox for development, debugging, and testing. As a modern Browsershots alternative, it provides emulated phones and tablets, URL and scroll synchronization between desktop and mobile views, automatic page refresh on file changes, DevTools integration, and multi-device support for responsive design testing.
CutyCapt
CutyCapt is a free and open-source cross-platform command-line utility for Windows that captures WebKit's rendering of a web page into various vector and bitmap formats (SVG, PDF, PS, PNG, JPEG, TIFF, GIF, BMP). For users who appreciated Browsershots' screenshot generation capabilities and prefer a command-line interface, CutyCapt is an effective alternative for programmatic screenshot tools.
microlink.io
microlink.io is a freemium and open-source SaaS service focused on extracting structured information and providing fancy link previews from any URL, including screenshots. While not a direct cross-browser testing tool like Browsershots, its screenshot capabilities and API for data mining, converting URLs to PDF, and live/image previews make it an interesting alternative for programmatic content capture and visual scraping.
khtml2png
khtml2png is a free and open-source command-line program for Linux that creates screenshots of webpages using libkhtml (the library used in KDE's Konqueror browser). It supports JavaScript execution and Flash, making it a valuable Browsershots alternative for Linux users who require a command-line interface for generating web page screenshots, similar to CutyCapt but for the Linux environment.
Choosing the best Browsershots alternative depends entirely on your specific needs, budget, and workflow. From comprehensive cloud-based testing platforms to simple command-line tools, there's an option for everyone. Explore these alternatives to find the perfect fit for your web development and testing requirements, ensuring your websites look flawless across all browsers and devices.