How do you define a responsive website? As a minimum, it should display correctly on any browser, device or operating system. Therefore, it must take into account the diverse habits of end users across a large range of platforms, browsers, and screen resolutions To address any failures, companies should test their websites on thousands of real and virtual devices. But if you don’t have that kind of budget, you would need what is called “a cross-browser testing solution.”
Comparium brands itself as an automatic visual testing service which “shows you the most inconspicuous differences” in site versions. It is a part of Electronic Team, Inc. based in Alexandria, Virginia. In this review of Comparium, we examine its most important features and available customizations.
Note: This is a sponsored article and was made possible by Comparium of Electronic Team, Inc. The actual contents and opinions are the sole views of the author who maintains editorial independence, even when a post is sponsored.
Account and Web App Details
From the website, you can create an account and log in directly. You can also sign in with your Google account.
Once you’re logged in, a simple interface greets you. You just have to insert the URL address into the search box and select the required combination of browsers, operating systems, and screen resolutions. There are two kinds of user accounts: Guest and Pro. Each supports unlimited screenshots for your review.
How to Cross-Test Your Website Using Comparium
Once you enter a website into the search bar, you will initially get a list of previews for all the selections made. You can choose any screen resolution width ranging from 500 px to 1920 px (full HD) for Linux, Windows 7, macOS, and macOS dark mode. Currently, Comparium supports Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, and Opera browsers.
For a detailed comparison, simply select two or more screens and click “Compare” on the right side. Here we compare Windows Chrome version 80.0 with Windows Firefox version 68.0.
The side-by-side comparison opens by default in full screen. Using a synchronized scroll option, you can review the website’s rendering across multiple browsers and different operating systems. You can scale to fit based on height, width, and size.
Comparium has built-in support for parallel-screen creation within the same interface, giving a bird’s eye view of the website. There are “four” comparison modes: “side by side,” “overlay,” “slider,” and “find differences.” The last one is quite amazing, as it helps you automatically zero in on any undetectable errors.
The “Find Difference” mode lets you know the placement of the menu icons and font selection across both platforms. If there is too much deviation, you will have to change the design code to resolve the differences.
Likewise, an “overlay” mode puts the two configurations on top of each other to visually display any significant deviations.
In summary, with such an elaborate screenshot comparison feature by Comparium, you can compare the different operating systems and resolutions easily. Once you are done with the analysis, you can delete all the screens from the main window.
Other Features and Benefits
The main benefits of Comparium for web developers are greater accuracy in visual validation and mobile version support, as you can scale the device size to 500 px range. It has offline reports to detect any automatic incompatibilities and an important “Live testing” feature on Linux for various browsers. Windows 7 and macOS Catalina support for Live Testing is slated to be rolled out soon.
The Live testing mode helps you gain a real-time analysis of how responsive the website changes are. While the earlier visual inspection using the comparison tools gives you a perspective on noticeable errors, the Live testing feature tests out the website in a real environment, making it launch-ready.
Comparium has a beautiful roadmap where many new powerful features, such as bulk URL tests, internal tests, support for different aspect ratios, and low-speed connection imitation will be added. You can compare the features and benefits with other cross-browser testing tools on the market. Comparium scores pretty well because of the automation capability in website error detection.
There are a few minor disadvantages with Comparium. Currently, the platform does not support screenshots on Windows 10, but the customer team has assured us that it is very much on the roadmap. It also does not support other browsers like Slimjet, Yandex, etc. However the current list of browsers supported offer good approximation of how to simulate for different devices and operating systems.
Billing and Price Details
As discussed earlier, Comparium supports a free “guest” mode and a paid “pro” mode at $15 per month. A detailed comparison of guest and pro plans can be found at this link.
The free guest account restricts you to just a few browsers, such as Firefox 75 and Chrome 81 for Windows 7, and adapts to a screen resolution of 1024 px only. However, there are no restrictions of live testing minutes and the number of screenshots generated, which is wonderful. The app allows you to test as many times as you want within the limits before you are comfortable to migrate to a Pro plan. Considering there are a lot of other exciting features in the roadmap, your website can scale with the solution.
Our Verdict
In today’s times, you simply cannot launch a website without catering to the varied tastes, screen sizes, and browsers at the end user level. Comparium is a promising app which does not disappoint in measuring your website’s responsiveness with regard to real-world simulations. With a range of exciting features in the pipeline, you will have a powerful cross-testing tool at hand as a web developer.
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