Whether you are experienced web programmer or you are in the beginning of the journey, you have most probably had experience with the cross – browser compatibility issues. Testing whatever you create in as many browsers as possible is crucial to turning out a great and professional product.
The old-school way to test code required access to a bunch of different computers, different combinations of browsers and operating systems and quite some time to kill. Fortunately, nowadays there are far more effective ways to do website testing across browsers, using either free or commercial Web services and software. Let’s see 7 useful tools that could possibly help you to easily and quickly solve all cross-browser compatibility issues you might have.
This tool is a free cross-browser compatibility tool that shows screenshots of your website as seen by several different environments such as Firefox 3.0 on Windows XP and OS X, Internet Explorer 7.0 on Windows XP, and Safari 3.0 on OS X. You can change which browsers you’d like to test under “Browser Sets.”
You can have a full-page view in a single browser, as well as side-by-side comparisons of browsers and an onion skin view. The service can access dynamic pages across the web, or viewed locally via Firebug or Adobe Dreamweaver CS5. The ability to create pre-defined browser sets is also useful, in case you don’t need to test on older browsers.
It is a free cross-browser tool that captures screenshots of the website in different browsers. It lets you choose your screen size, color depth, JavaScript and Flash settings. It can be a great free option for glimpsing multiple browsers.
Some say it is the best known and the oldest cross-browser tool used by developers. Browser Shots are one of the few services that offer testing on Linux and BSD.
However, the tool has come under criticism lately for being too slow and too hard to use compared to the other tools.
In fact the free version is the one that is rather slow due to the volume of users, but they offer nearly instantaneous results with an upgrade to a monthly service.
The Super Preview download for Internet Explorer allows you to check your site in multiple versions of Internet Explorer. You can view your pages in multiple browsers simultaneously or view how a page renders in a browser and compare it to a comp or mock-up image of a page. Side-by-side viewing options stack horizontally or vertically. There’s also an overlay option to let you work out minute layout differences. Rulers, guides and other toys ease the burden of compatibility tweaks.
Beyond screenshots, Litmus lets you check your site in multiple browsers, track bugs, and create reports to dazzle friends and family. This tool also works on password-protected sites, a unique feature among a screenshot-dominated market. This tool has risen in popularity to become one of the most favored cross-browser testing tools on the market today. The free tool is limited to 50 tests per month, Explorer 7 and Firefox 2. The paid version of their app is robust, and allows testing in dozens of browsers and even email clients.
A very sleek, and fast tool that enables you to test pages live in Safari, Chrome, IE, Firefox. One click opens a new window with your preferred browser.
This tool requires a plug-in download, but the process is very fast and seamless afterwards.
- Android Browser
- Chrome Google 5 to 8
- Dillo 0.8.6-i18n
- Firefox 1.0 to 4 Beta
- Internet Explorer 5.0 to 9 Beta
- Mobile Safari
- Mozilla 1.7
- Opera
A fantastic tool for cross-browser checks. With Cloud Testing you are able to record and archive much of the experimentation you perform and catalog this into your very own account. Moreover the tool doesn’t require you to store each archive within their servers. The admin panel allows you to export the data in PDF format and share this within your team, or just save each file on your own record.
7. Browsera
Browsera is a tool that tests the cross-browser layout of your website. You will see the differences and errors on your site.
The tool features are the following:
- Discovering cross – browser layout problems automatically
- Locate JavaScript errors
- Easily test entire sites
- Test pages requiring a Login
- No installation required
- Test dynamic pages
Check this link to see real examples of problems Browsera finds.
Hopefully the tools and links we provided in the text above will help you in solving your cross – browser compatibility issues. If you have any other tool you would like to recommend, please share it in the comments section.