Web Automation vs Manual Testing

Developers should learn web automation for automating repetitive web-based tasks, such as end-to-end testing of web applications to ensure functionality and reliability across browsers meets developers should learn manual testing to gain a user-centric perspective on software quality, catch edge cases early in development, and perform exploratory testing where automation is impractical. Here's our take.

Web Automation

Nice Pick

Developers should learn web automation for automating repetitive web-based tasks, such as end-to-end testing of web applications to ensure functionality and reliability across browsers

Pros

• It is essential for data scraping projects where extracting structured data from websites is needed for analysis or integration
• Related to: selenium, puppeteer

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

Manual Testing

Developers should learn manual testing to gain a user-centric perspective on software quality, catch edge cases early in development, and perform exploratory testing where automation is impractical

Pros

• It's particularly valuable for usability testing, ad-hoc bug hunting, and validating new features before investing in automation scripts, helping ensure software meets real-world expectations and reducing post-release issues
• Related to: test-planning, bug-reporting

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

The Verdict

These tools serve different purposes. Web Automation is a tool while Manual Testing is a methodology. We picked Web Automation based on overall popularity, but your choice depends on what you're building.

The Bottom Line

Web Automation wins

Based on overall popularity. Web Automation is more widely used, but Manual Testing excels in its own space.