BROWSER TESTING SERVICES
updated 1/23/2012
adobe browserlab
Screenshots only. A new service… (introduced mid 2009; still free – until april 2012 although they keep extending the free period). This is really impressive – my new main tool and it’s free. I wish it had a better interface – some simple buttons to allow browsing through one shot after another would save alot of clicking. This is only for screenshots but it’s got a useful onionskin feature for comparing different browers one on top of another for that pixel-perfect situation.
crossbrowsertesting.com
Screenshots + virtual environment live testing. Their service allows for full control of a remote computer. They have a full range of platforms and browser versions. The best part is you can get 5 min free for a quick test. (update: no more free, now you pay by the minute based on a monthly miniumum subscription). The interface is not as slick as litmusapp but has many more features and now supports mobile browsers. Free trial.
litmusapp.com
Screenshots only; includes email testing. Although they seem to be having growing pains now this is one of the best services for my needs (update: I have not used them since early 2010). They offer unlimited tests — starts at $50/month. One advanced feature they have is being able to share a set of tests by publishing it live. That sets up a convenient way to dialog with clients. Only covers 8 web browsers – it seems they are changing their focus to just be on email testing – they have spam testing and other email-specific features. Free account allows for ie7 testing only – but not sure if that’s only for existing accounts that have expired their monthly subscriptions (like me…). Free trial.
browsershots.org
Similar as above but free. I found it to be slow but it’s still really useful.
browsercam.com
Screenshots + virtual environment live testing. More like litmus – a fully featured offering.
2012 UPDATE:
browserstack.com
virtual environment live testing only: This is for VPS but not for screenshots. They’ll give you an hour of free testing for signing up so try it. I found it to be very very fast so that was great.
If you just want a screenshot of what you can see on your own screen check out this great (but older) list. Or this list of browser testing services.
BROWSER TESTING APPS
BrowserSeal
A PC app that has all the major browsers in it.
IETester
A free app for PC that has all the IE versions within it. Even IE9 preview.
EMAIL CLIENT TESTING
The other email client testing I’ve used is the Inbox Inspector from MailChimp. But you have to pay for each test — $13. Overall, MailChimp offers a great service and lots of really useful (free) articles on email marketing.
Other useful articles:
- http://ipinfo.info
- http://www.creativetechs.com (they have a great newsletter too)
- great list (often updated) of HTML best practices and additional testing services from ReachCustomers
ARI’S HARD-WON TESTING NOTES FOR HTML EMAIL CLIENTS
Why fight with display inconsistencies when you can just take it from me? These were mostly learned form testing at Litmusapp.
- Lotus does not like <br> tags to be lower case. keep it <BR>
- Gmail wants every bit of CSS to be inline – it will ignore your body tag and your declared CSS styles
7 Comments
You should also check out http://www.emailonacid.com – its a free email client testing service. Currently they support 15 clients and they do a code analysis so it’s easy to identify what is not supported in each client!
Looks promising. I’ll check it out.
I usually don’t post on Blogs but ya forced me to, great info.. excellent! … I’ll add a backlink and bookmark your site.
The Adobe Labs product is great, very fast and unlimited tests, so good for switching back and forth when tweaking design issues.
Great article. I’m not a big fan of Litmus, I do find it a little overpriced.
Don’t forget Netrenderer! It’s usually what I end up using, though it’s mostly browser based
http://ipinfo.info/netrenderer/
netrenderer is a great, free service. But it’s got a big limitation – it only shows the top of a page. and the interface on it is very limiting.
The only problem I see with Litmus is that it looks at browsers and EMPs separately. What we find is that problems are often caused (especially with text) by the intersection of a given browser with a given email provider — IE9 and Yahoo or Chrome and Hotmail, to explain what I mean.
Is there a tester (other than me opening 7 browsers with 4 different EMPs — what I’m doing now) that explores this intersection?
By the way, there is an Air app called Mobilizer that is pretty good at rendering on one of four phones — EVO, iPhone 4, Blackberry Storm and Palm Pre. Helpful for mobile versions of emails and landing/ty pages.