Below are the advantages and disadvantages of using Selenium Grid:

Advantages of Selenium Grid

  1. Open Browser: Selenium is a publicly accessible automation framework and is free, with no upfront costs. So, you can save bucks here and use them for other good causes.
  2. Support Multiple Browsers: Chrome, Firefox, IE etc. 
  3. Support Multiple OS and Architecture: Windows, Linux, Mac OS, UNIX, etc.
  4. Speeds up the Test Execution Time: It speeds up the test suite completion time as it is capable of running multiple tests in parallel. For example, if we have 5 nodes and we need to execute a test suite of 50 tests then it is going to take 5 times lesser time than a single machine that runs this test suit without Selenium Grid. When a node is free , it automatically picks up the test case waiting in the execution queue.
  5. Cloud Based Execution: Availability, Reliability, Save Hardware and Software Maintenance Cost 
  6. Language and Framework Support: It supports all major languages like Java, Python, JavaScript, C#, Ruby, and Perl programming languages for software test automation.

Disadvantages of Selenium Grid

  1. Cost: Extra cost to project as it requires additional machines as Nodes.
  2. Poor Scalability: it has relatively poor scalability compared with many modern applications. It certainly is unable to scale up or down on demand. 
  3. Reconfiguration: it is pretty static. Each server is configured in advance with a subset of the required browser instances available. If you want to vary this, you have to reconfigure.
  4. Require skilled engineers: Selenium Grid depends on skilled engineers to create and maintain it, as well as IT approval. 
  5. Less Secure compare to cloud-based labs: it is less secure than more flexible and powerful cloud-based labs.  
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Selenium Grid
Selenium