AI

AI is a rapidly developing tech, so we will look at cutting-edge tech rather than the baseline. Here’s what you should expect from an AI-powered test management solution:

Analyse your workspace to get QA context
Create test cases, defects, and even requirements from a plain text description
Complete test case drafts
Prioritise tests
Remove duplicate tests and defects

aqua utilises OpenAI's GPT language model to generate entire tests and complete drafts. ChatGPT could do that too, but it doesn’t know the context of your software project and can’t analyse your existing tests. Kualitee does not have AI testing functionality.

Auto-train AI Copilot with your tests	No AI capabilities
Generate entire tests with AI	No AI capabilities
Complete test drafts	No AI capabilities
Prioritise tests	No AI capabilities
Remove duplicates	No AI capabilities


Auto-train AI Copilot with your tests
Generate entire tests with AI
Complete test drafts
Prioritise tests
Remove duplicates


No AI capabilities
No AI capabilities
No AI capabilities
No AI capabilities
No AI capabilities

Test management

Test management is the main reason we are looking at these two tools. You should consider various aspects of handling test cases as well as traceability-minded features. These include:

Create, execute, share, and manage test cases in the workspace
Group tests into test scenarios, segment them into folders, assign labels
Quickly navigate the test suite, apply filters, use individual and shared views
See the entire execution history for a test case
Store a full log of changes for compliance
Visualise requirements coverage and dependencies between requirements, test cases, and defects

aqua and Kualitee are both strong test management solutions. Kualitee, however, lacks some essential time-savers for organising QA work. It also does not have workspace-wide logging. This functionality is valuable for any company that cares about transparency and traceability, and it is essential for companies in heavily regulated industries.


Test cases, test scenarios, bulk test edits, custom fields Execution history Quick navigation, filters, views Item change history


Test cases, test scenarios, bulk test edits, custom fields Execution history Quick navigation, filters, views Item change history

Logging	Not available
Item change reversal	Not available
Workflows	Not available
Shared views	Not available


Logging
Item change reversal
Workflows
Shared views


Not available
Not available
Not available
Not available

Verdict: aqua wins by complete logging and workflows

Integrations

Most tools rely on automation via common third-party tools that QA specialists have been using for over a decade. The experience is much better when your test management solution has native integrations for industry-leading tools. REST API support is a must if you do not want to be at the vendor’s mercy for integrations.

First-party framework automation or third-party integrations with test automation tools
Native third-party integrations: Selenium, Jenkins, JMeter, SoapUI, Ranorex
Jira integration and/or Jira plugin
REST API support for integrating any tool

aqua and Kualitee both rely on third-party solutions for automation. Kualitee has a dedicated section for tests powered by Selenium scripts. aqua, on the other hand, acts like a hub to help you run and store tests from 10 test automation tools.


REST API Jira integration


REST API Jira integration

Jira real-time project sync	Not available
Selenium, Jenkins, UFT, JMeter, SoapUI, Ranorex, Database MSSQL, Database Oracle for test automation	Selenium
Bug reporting tool Capture	No native bug recording integration
Not available	Linear, Teamwork, CircleCI


Jira real-time project sync
Selenium, Jenkins, UFT, JMeter, SoapUI, Ranorex, Database MSSQL, Database Oracle for test automation
Bug reporting tool Capture
Not available


Not available
Selenium
No native bug recording integration
Linear, Teamwork, CircleCI

Verdict: aqua wins by extra native QA integrations

Pricing flexibility

Tools differ in how much money they request upfront and what scaling looks like. Some criteria here are:

Monthly or annual billing
Free licences for browsing or even executing tests
High setup costs
Dependency on paying for other tools

Kualitee and aqua are a close match here. The biggest difference comes in subsidised licences. aqua offers free licences for manual QA, while Kualitee merely charges a reduced fee for Viewer licences.

Monthly billing	Monthly billing
Free licences for manual testers	Viewer licences at $7/month+VAT
Custom Enterprise plan	Not available


Monthly billing
Free licences for manual testers
Custom Enterprise plan


Monthly billing
Viewer licences at $7/month+VAT
Not available

Deployment Models

On-Premise deployment is a must in many industries, yet vendors won’t explicitly say if they don’t offer it. Depending on your security policies and scale, deploying in a non-vendor Cloud is a beneficial option too.

Vendor Cloud
External Cloud: AWS, Azure, etc.
On-Premise

aqua and Kualitee support On-Premise and Cloud deployment to suit your company’s needs. Both companies sell On-Premise versions as a service rather than offer perpetual licences. The upside is that On-Premise does not carry a hefty five-figure price tag for setup or absurd maintenance fees found in old solutions.

Kualitee, however, does not offer the option of deploying a Cloud workspace on some other server. This option (supported by aqua) strikes a nice balance between security and convenience, and most European companies can’t just host their data in the US. This is a major consideration for a Cloud deployment comparison of aqua and Kualitee testing tools.

On-Premise	On-Premise
GDPR-compliant aqua-hosted German Cloud	Kualitee-hosted US Cloud
Isolated Enterprise Custom Cloud (Any Azure data centre)	Not available


On-Premise
GDPR-compliant aqua-hosted German Cloud
Isolated Enterprise Custom Cloud (Any Azure data centre)


On-Premise
Kualitee-hosted US Cloud
Not available

Verdict: aqua wins by offering Custom Cloud

Dashboards

QA dashboards serve two vital purposes. They help the QA team track their progress, but they also make other teams aware of potential bottlenecks. At a minimum, you should be able to include any data and share dashboards with the team.

Use all data of the workspace
Create private and shared dashboards
Choose between various types of graphs
Set up KPI/values alerts that arrive as email/app notifications

Dashboards have long been a weak point of Kualitee. They improved that in early 2023 by adding new graph types and offering filters to quickly look through data. aqua, however, still has an advantage with better customisation and KPI Alerts that automatically look for anomalies and alert key QA stakeholders.

Any data	15 key slices
Pie, bar, stacked bar chart, table charts	Pie chart, line graph
KPI alerts	No KPI Alerts


Any data
Pie, bar, stacked bar chart, table charts
KPI alerts


15 key slices
Pie chart, line graph
No KPI Alerts

Verdict: aqua wins by customisation and KPI Alerts

Reporting

Reporting is important for both internal and external stakeholders. The goal here is to get what you need with as little or as much effort as possible. When a tool offers both a template library and rich customisation, that is a good start.

Access vendor-provided template library
Create custom layouts and save them
Use and transform any data
Apply text & image formatting
Add external data and imagery
Employ scripts and parametrisation to auto-update reports

Unlike dashboards, reports have seen little progress in Kualitee. You are still restricted to several report types with no customisation at all. The basic reports don’t even make full use of all the data available in Kualitee. aqua has a similar template library but offers full customisation, including adding and manipulating external data.


Template library Diagrams


Template library Diagrams

Custom reports	Not available
Using any data	Not available
Text & image formatting	Not available
Drag-and-drop	Not available
External text & imagery	Not available
Diagrams	Not available
Pivot tables	Not available
Scripts	Not available
Parametrisation	Not available


Custom reports
Using any data
Text & image formatting
Drag-and-drop
External text & imagery
Diagrams
Pivot tables
Scripts
Parametrisation


Not available
Not available
Not available
Not available
Not available
Not available
Not available
Not available
Not available

Verdict: aqua wins by offering actual custom reports

User management

Precise user management is essential when working on multiple projects and/or working with external specialists. It will also save you a lot of pain from running crowd testing in the same test management solution.

Set default roles
Create custom roles
Apply per-user permissions
Authenticate users via SSO

Granular user management is useful even if security is not the biggest concern for your project. Both tools are solid here, but aqua offers per-user permission that Kualitee does not.


SSO Default user roles Custom roles


SSO Default user roles Custom roles

Individual permissions

Role permissions only


Individual permissions


Role permissions only

Verdict: aqua wins by individual role permissions

ALM

This is not a hard requirement, but you may be interested in a test management solution that also handles the entire product lifecycle. This is a great money saver as you need licences from fewer vendors, and the synergy should save you some hours as well.

Test case management
Requirements management
Defect management
Project management

aqua is a QA-first solution, but it can also be used to handle the entire lifecycle of your product. Kualitee does test management and defect management only: you will need to pay for something else to handle requirements and manage project timelines.


Test case management Defect management


Test case management Defect management

Requirements management	Not available
Project management	Not available


Requirements management
Project management


Not available
Not available

Verdict: aqua wins by offering 4 tools at the price of 1

What people say

Here are a few things people like and dislike about both tools.

“I was surprised to find such a comprehensive and mature tool for test management in the German market without having taken it seriously beforehand.”

Jörg Großmann

Head of Development at Bank 11

“The reporting is meaningful and provides a good basis for decisions. After the employees have used aqua, they recognize the added value very quickly.”

Thomas Haeske

Head of Organisation/IT at Berlin Hyp

“Manual test cases are easily automated with aqua. Seamless integration with test automation tools helps here.”

Jörn-Hendrick Sörensen

Test Manager at KBA

“The user interface is not friendly, but the features are very good. Sometimes it takes time to load, and the page is not responsive. It would be great if adding test cases into the test execution cycle was faster.”

Marcello M.

Research Assistant at a small business (<50 emp.)

“Not user friendly, it's confusing and not always helpful. The audit trail for each defect doesn't do a good job of recording past history and hence, data becomes hard to analyse.”

Mirza Usama B.

Associate Software Engineer (50-1000 emp.)

“I like Defect Management, User Management, and Global Dashboards.

I dislike the slowness of the application. Sometimes, it gets slower than the expected behaviour for applications of this kind. “

Kashif S.

Principal Software Engineer at a small business (<50 emp.)

Final verdict

aqua is an Enterprise-grade solution that excels in traditional testing, but brings much more. It has AI testing functionality, manages the entire product lifecycle, and comes with advanced reporting. Kualitee holds its own in testing and advertises an attractive price tag, but a QA team would actually pay the same to aqua for a much bigger feature set.


Bleeding-edge AI-powered testing	Traditional QA only
10+ testing integrations & REST API	1 native testing integration + REST API
Individual permissions	Role permissions only
Full logging	Not available
Custom Cloud	Not available
4 tools at the price of 1	2 tools at the price of 1


Traditional QA only
1 native testing integration + REST API
Role permissions only
Not available
Not available
2 tools at the price of 1

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Which modern test management solution is better?

Key differences between aqua and Kualitee

How we compare

AI

Verdict: aqua wins (Kualitee has no AI testing)