Deployment models
aqua and Kualitee both provide Cloud and On-Premise offerings. The latter make these tools suitable for heavily regulated domains, such as banking and government agencies.
aqua deployment models
One major difference between the tools is that aqua provides a private cloud option while Kualitee lacks it. Private cloud is a solid option if you want to be independent from the vendor’s server infrastructure but don’t need the hassle or extra costs of going On-Premise.
Vendor Cloud
Private Cloud
On-Premise
User Management
Flexible user management is a great asset even if you work outside of heavily regulated industries. For example, it’s not uncommon for young B2C startups to find QA solace in crowd testing. You, however, wouldn’t want eager individuals to do something on your server that they shouldn’t, especially when working in ALM. In that sense, individual user permissions are better than presets.
Kualitee’s user management
aqua’s permission editor
Default user roles
Custom roles
Permissions for roles
Individual permissions
Lower user limit
SSO
Test Management
Both tools offer solid test management functionality. Kualitee, however, is lacking when it comes to some efficiency-minded features, e.g. nested test cases and labels. It also doesn’t store a history of changes to the test case — a serious violation of traceability requirements found in some industries.
Bulk editing in Kualitee
Test management with aqua
Test cases
Test scenarios
Test reports
Execution history
Nested test cases
Bulk edits
Scripts
Release planning
Labelling
Custom fields
Parametrisation
Filters
Folders
Views
Shared views
Workflows
Logging
Item change history
Change reversal
Comments
Attachments
Mentions
Email nudging
Integrations & Automated Testing
Kualitee and aqua both cultivate the third-approach for automation testing. They enable you to connect the industry’s best automation tools either out-of-the-box or via REST API. The latter makes both solutions future-proof, as you can hook external tools even if Kualitee or aqua stop active development.
aqua also brings a unique integration among test management solutions — a Chrome extension to run tests and immediately document them. aqua Test Recorder enables you to record interactions, edit captured data, leave comments, annotate screenshots, and then send everything to your company’s aqua server. This approach saves time on all the tab switching, and immediate documentation ensures the QA specialists share everything they observed.
For context, virtually all aqua competitors lack a first-party Chrome extension. They have to rely on third-party solutions that often cost extra money and lack native integrations with test management solutions.
Chrome extension
Management Integrations
Automation integrations
First-party automation
REST API
External versioning
Auto-translation in workspace
Misc. integrations
Full list of aqua integrations
Dashboards
Dashboards are a great tool for testers. Lead testers can see the progress of their team, while the other QA specialists can identify trends, e.g. certain automated tests flopping too much. There’s also value in visualized high-level overview for developers and the product team, too.
Both aqua and Kualitee offer solid dashboards with some nice-to-haves. The embedded filter functionality is a nice touch from Kualitee, while aqua is much more flexible regarding displayed data.
Kualitee’s multi-project dashboard
aqua dashboard with KPI Alert at work
Dashboards
Data
Custom fields data
Graph types
KPI Alerts
KPI Alerts are a major time saver for any scale. Once you set up dashboards, you don’t have to look at them ever again unless aqua notifies you there is a problem. One less routine to worry about, more hours to do something innovative.
Create dashboards that auto-notify you about issues
Reporting
Kualitee’s reporting functionality is quite restrictive. You can pick between one of the six report types which, while covering the bases, can’t be customised any further. In fact, you can’t even add anything other than the data from the test management solution (and not all of it).
Kualitee test case traceability report
aqua report example
Template library
Custom reports
Pulling any data
Custom layout
External text & imagery
Drag-and-drop
Custom bands
Text formatting
Image formatting
Diagrams
Pivot tables
Scripts
Parametrisation
ALM
Both tools have Application Lifecycle Management features. While aqua is a test management solution that can be used as ALM, Kualitee advertises itself as an “ALM alternative”. It is perhaps a good way to describe the tool’s limited project management functionality. Kualitee won’t let you to natively apply popular software development methodology, such as Agile. aqua also comes out ahead with the workflow functionality that defines the ticket lifecycle across the server or within a project.
Test case management
Requirements management
Defect management
Software dev. methodology
Workflow
Project management
Kualitee’s build manager
Kualitee’s requirements manager
aqua project plan
aqua workflow
Setting up
Kualitee matches aqua’s offering of first-party migration tool for a free transition. Both solutions are pretty simple when it comes to getting started with the Cloud version. On-premise, however, is a much more time- and money-consuming endeavour with Kualitee.
Quick Cloud set up
Owned migration tool
On-Premise set up
On-Premise installation cost
On-Premise rental
On-Premise one-time purchase
Misc.
Let’s look at everything else that didn’t quite fit other categories.
No-hassle trial
Free licences for browsing
Customer support response
Conclusion
aqua has a small lead on Kualitee when it comes to test management features and dashboards. Kualitee, however, is seriously behind on reporting, user management, integrations & automated testing, and project management. Kualitee’s migration & setup are a red flag for on-premise clients: you pay a setup fee to wait a month before you can use a tool that you don’t even own.
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