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Does more money mean more features?

aqua and PractiTest are both established test management solutions that preach good integrations and QA visibility. PractiTest, however, comes at a noticeable premium. Does it mean that you get more value? The answer may surprise you.

Key differences between aqua and Practitest

aqua offers free AI-powered testing

aqua has On-Premise version

aqua has cheaper & free licences

How we compare

Key differences between aqua and Practitest

AI

AI is a rapidly developing tech, so we will look at cutting-edge tech rather than the baseline. Hereā€™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

Artificial intelligence is most helpful when you scale up while maintaining your standards. aqua achieves that by leveraging the GPT language model to generate new tests and complete your drafts. The model considers the context of your requirements and test suite when making suggestions, something that ChatGPT does not offer.

Auto-train AI Copilot with your tests
Not available
Generate entire tests with AI
Not available
Complete test drafts
Not available
Update tests for a changed requirement
Not available
Remove duplicates
Not available
Auto-train AI Copilot with your tests
Generate entire tests with AI
Complete test drafts
Update tests for a changed requirement
Remove duplicates
Not available
Not available
Not available
Not available
Not available

Verdict: aqua wins (PractiTest has no AI-powered testing)

Try aqua AI

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

Test management is the bread and butter for QA solutions, and we are happy to say that the dough is great in both tools. You can create tests, organise them into scenarios, execute tests, and store results. Both tools also pass traceability requirements. aqua, however, has a few notable advantages. You can preconfigure views and even let others access them rather than just select individual filters. Workflows are also a major aid in automatically requesting and validating input on each step of the ticketā€™s lifecycle.

  • Test cases, test scenarios, bulk test edits
  • Execution history
  • Quick navigation & filters
  • Timestamped item history for compliance
  • Nested test cases
  • Release planning
  • Tampering-proof project logging
  • Item change reversal
Workflows
Not available
Views
Not available
Shared views
Not available
  • Test cases, test scenarios, bulk test edits
  • Execution history
  • Quick navigation & filters
  • Timestamped item history for compliance
  • Nested test cases
  • Release planning
  • Tampering-proof project logging
  • Item change reversal
Workflows
Views
Shared views
Not available
Not available
Not available
Verdict: aqua wins by workflows and views

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 vendorā€™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

Integrations are an apple-to-orange comparison here. aqua uses the third-party approach, providing native integrations with leading test automation tools and REST API support to connect anything else. PractiTest takes the first-party route, strongly suggesting that you just write xBase framework tests right in your workspace.

  • Jira integration & real-time project sync
  • Selenium, Jenkins for test automation
  • REST API
UFT, JMeter, SoapUI, Ranorex, Database MSSQL, Database Oracle for test automation
xBase test automation framework
Bug reporting tool Capture
Not available
Not available
Third-party bug trackers, Zapier
  • Jira integration & real-time project sync
  • Selenium, Jenkins for test automation
  • REST API
UFT, JMeter, SoapUI, Ranorex, Database MSSQL, Database Oracle for test automation
Bug reporting tool Capture
Not available
xBase test automation framework
Not available
Third-party bug trackers, Zapier
Details verdict icon: Tie
Verdict: Tie

Pricing flexibility

Pricing can vary a lot; you will find small differences that make no sense but also high fees that are completely justified. Here are some factors to consider:

  • Extra functionality beyond test management
  • Transparent pricing without locking essential features behind the most expensive plans
  • Custom enterprise plan
  • Price-to-volume scaling that suits your team size
  • No exorbitant setup and/or maintenance fee
  • Free licences for guests / non-tech specialists / manual testers

Both tools have flexible pricing that depends on the number of users. Furthermore, aquaā€™s plentiful free licences are feature-rich enough to perform manual testing. Both tools offer custom Enterprise plans, but aqua does not lock a regular, non-Enterprise feature behind a custom quote.

  • Free setup
Unlimited free licences for manual testers
5 read-only licences
API attachments in regular plan
API attachments in Enterprise only
  • Free setup
Unlimited free licences for manual testers
API attachments in regular plan
5 read-only licences
API attachments in Enterprise only

Verdict: aqua wins by lower pricing and stronger free licences

Try aqua for free

Deployment Models

On-Premise deployment is a must in many industries, yet vendors wonā€™t explicitly say if they donā€™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 has been actively supporting the on-premise version for over 10 years, as reflected by a portfolio of Banking, Insurance, and Government clients. PractiTest, on the other hand, offers cloud deployment only. The company believes that their regular traceability functionality is suitable enough, but regulators in a good number of countries would disagree.

On-Premise
No On-Premise support
GDPR-compliant aqua-hosted German Cloud
PractiTest-hosted Cloud
Isolated Enterprise Custom Cloud (Any Azure data centre)
Custom Cloud
On-Premise
GDPR-compliant aqua-hosted German Cloud
Isolated Enterprise Custom Cloud (Any Azure data centre)
No On-Premise support
PractiTest-hosted Cloud
Custom Cloud
Verdict: aqua wins by offering On-Premise

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

Both tools offer solid dashboard experience. You can use any data, organise it into different widgets, and share complete dashboards both internally and externally. The major difference lies in how you interact with dashboards. PractiTest requires you to manually check them, while aqua offers the KPI alerts functionality to notify you when a metric goes out of the ordinary.

  • All data including custom fields
  • Pie, bar, stacked bar, table charts
  • External dashboard sharing
KPI alerts
No KPI alerts
  • All data including custom fields
  • Pie, bar, stacked bar, table charts
  • External dashboard sharing
KPI alerts
No KPI alerts
Verdict: aqua wins by offering 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

From intuitive templates to complex custom scenarios, reports are aquaā€™s strong suit. PractiTest offers little customisation, as you can only choose between 5 templates and canā€™t add external data.

  • Template library
  • Diagrams
  • Parametrisation
  • Pivot tables
  • Drag-and-drop
Custom reports
Not available
Any data
Not available
External data & imagery
Not available
Text & image formatting
Not available
Custom layout
Not available
Scripts
Not available
  • Template library
  • Diagrams
  • Parametrisation
  • Pivot tables
  • Drag-and-drop
Custom reports
Any data
External data & imagery
Text & image formatting
Custom layout
Scripts
Not available
Not available
Not available
Not available
Not available
Not available
Verdict: aqua wins by powerful customisation

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

Both solutions offer a number of default roles to quickly limit users from doing or accessing too much. You can also create custom roles and assign them to users. PractiTest, however, lacks the functionality to edit permissions on a per user basis.

  • SSO
  • Default user roles
  • Custom roles
Individual permissions
Role permissions only
  • SSO
  • Default user roles
  • Custom roles
Individual permissions
Role permissions only
Verdict: aqua wins by individual permissions and custom roles

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

Coming back to the value conversation, both tools are essentially 4-in-1. You can use either aqua or PractiTest for test case, defect, requirements, and project management. This eliminates the need to pay for dedicated tools that can go out of budget really fast.

  • Test case management
  • Defect management
  • Requirements management
  • Project management
  • Test case management
  • Defect management
  • Requirements management
  • Project management
Details verdict icon: Tie
Verdict: Tie

What people say

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

star star star star star

ā€œI was surprised to find such a comprehensive and mature tool for test management in the German market without having taken it seriously beforehand.ā€

Jƶrg GroƟmann

Head of Development at Bank 11

star star star

ā€œPractiTest has good customer service. They have some helpful reporting and clean UI compared to other test management tools available in the market. Their pricing model isn't the worst. Functional changes haven't been made in years. We talked to the agents, but they weren't accommodating. Instead, we were asked to provide the in-house scripts we wrote to automate and make our life easier using PractiTest. PractiTest is a UI with filters and tags that make everything tedious instead of making test management tasks more manageableā€.

Pahuni A.

Software Engineer at an SMB company

star star star star star

ā€œThe reporting is meaningful and provides a good basis for decisions. After the employees have used aqua, they recognize the added value very quickly.ā€

Thomas Haeske

Head of Organisation/IT at Berlin Hyp

star star star

ā€œI think the whole UX/design is very out of date. It could use a makeoverā€.

Frederik C.

QA Specialist at an SMB company

star star star star star

ā€œManual test cases are easily automated with aqua. Seamless integration with test automation tools helps here.ā€

Jƶrn-Hendrick Sƶrensen

Test Manager at KBA

star star star

ā€œI found it can be a little difficult tracking the testing that gets done outside of PractiTest, just a lot of moving around different screens can be a little annoyingā€.

A G2 Reviewer

Hospital & Healthcare Enterprise

star star star star star

ā€œI was surprised to find such a comprehensive and mature tool for test management in the German market without having taken it seriously beforehand.ā€

Jƶrg GroƟmann

Head of Development at Bank 11

star star star star star

ā€œThe reporting is meaningful and provides a good basis for decisions. After the employees have used aqua, they recognize the added value very quickly.ā€

Thomas Haeske

Head of Organisation/IT at Berlin Hyp

star star star star star

ā€œManual test cases are easily automated with aqua. Seamless integration with test automation tools helps here.ā€

Jƶrn-Hendrick Sƶrensen

Test Manager at KBA

star star star

ā€œPractiTest has good customer service. They have some helpful reporting and clean UI compared to other test management tools available in the market. Their pricing model isn't the worst. Functional changes haven't been made in years. We talked to the agents, but they weren't accommodating. Instead, we were asked to provide the in-house scripts we wrote to automate and make our life easier using PractiTest. PractiTest is a UI with filters and tags that make everything tedious instead of making test management tasks more manageableā€.

Pahuni A.

Software Engineer at an SMB company

star star star

ā€œI think the whole UX/design is very out of date. It could use a makeoverā€.

Frederik C.

QA Specialist at an SMB company

star star star

ā€œI found it can be a little difficult tracking the testing that gets done outside of PractiTest, just a lot of moving around different screens can be a little annoyingā€.

A G2 Reviewer

Hospital & Healthcare Enterprise

Final verdict

aqua and PractiTest are both competent test management systems that can also handle the entire product lifecycle. aqua, however, has a much stronger AI suite, offers on-premise deployment, and comes much cheaper. Custom reports and more frequent feature updates are a nice bonus, too.

Weekly feature updates
Monthly feature updates
Custom workflows
Manual implementation of handbook
Bleeding-edge AI testing functionality
AI prioritisation only
On-Premise & Cloud
Cloud only
Custom reports
Template-based reporting only
100 free licences for manual testers
5 read-only licences
Weekly feature updates
Custom workflows
Bleeding-edge AI testing functionality
On-Premise & Cloud
Custom reports
100 free licences for manual testers
Monthly feature updates
Manual implementation of handbook
AI prioritisation only
Cloud only
Template-based reporting only
5 read-only licences

Winner

Try aqua for free
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