I can't recommend Karate enough. It's really transformed the way my organization tackles API projects, and enabled our QA engineers to focus more on what they do best -- ensure quality in our products -- and less on learning to become Java developers.

Karate is well documented and well supported. [sensitive content hidden] is all over Stack Overflow, so if you run into an issue, chances are he's already answered your question, or will have an answer for you within hours. But the DSL is so simple to learn, chances are you won't have any issues getting up and running with it. And unlike other solutions, Karate offers a full range of automation capabilities: client-side assertions for API, UI & desktop testing, server-side mocks/simulators, and even performance testing (executed by Gatling).

This is hard to answer, as Karate's Java interop capabilities make calling Java code incredibly easy, which means if Karate doesn't offer something "out of the box," you can simply spin up a custom Java class that accomplishes what you need it to. That said, it would be nice if Karate offered some built-in Kafka capabilities (e.g. the ability to write to and read from a specified topic using a REST endpoint).

This solution is easy to teach to people without a lot of coding experience, but it is capable of being extended by those with a deeper skillset. Because Karate also uses Scenarios in Feature files, teams who are using a Cucumber framework can create Karate tests which live alongside legacy Cucumber tests, enabling a team to increase productivity by developing tests which are faster and more stable, while continuing to run their legacy tests. Both tests can exist side-by-side, in the same repository, so the team doesn't have to switch all at once. As Cucumber tests are rewritten in Karate, tags can be adjusted to coordinate which tests are run by which framework.

Karate is an excellent solution for API testing and works well for UI testing as well. I have used it with both Selenium and Playwright for browser automation. It has an extensive set of features with lots of useful capabilities built-in. When more advanced, custom capabilities are needed, the built-in functionality can be augmented using Java and/or JavaScript. We can easily make use of any available Java library and we can manipulate Java objects while debugging in a way which is not typical when working with Java. New code can be written and executed at runtime, while debugging, which makes for very quick development in a very productive, interactive workflow. The framework is very well documented.

There are some aspects of working with Karate that take some getting used to. For instance, it is a bit odd at first for one scenario to call another scenario as if it were a function, but once you learn how it works, it is easy to work with.

I am a very happy customer of karate labs especially because of Low No-code with bdd feature helping even capability building for manual test engineers towards automation.

Simple & Ease of useEase of Onboarding (project and engineers)ReportingBDD

Performance testing scripts if that can be in Java instead of Scala, Same tech stack could help maintenance.

Karate DSL is seriously mind-blowing for test automation, especially when it comes to API testing. Brace yourself for multi thread parallel execution, reusable tests, crazy and powerful assertions, jaw-dropping reports with detailed logs , easy customization, immediate support on social platforms like Stackoverflow and lightning-fast onboarding. I mean, in less than a month, I had over 120 API services automated with Karate for my first project and after that, Karate became essential tool in my further assignments up until now. It's legit one of the best decisions I've made in my life. And guess what? Karate rocks not only at API testing but also performance testing with integration to Gatling. Yeah, you heard it right. Same code, double the power. Don't even think twice-Karate DSL is the ultimate choice for the next-gen testers out there. Go for it, You won't regret it, trust me.

If you're not familiar with programming, you might hit a bit of a learning curve. Yeah, the syntax and structure can be a tad daunting for newbies or those shifting from non-technical backgrounds.

When I started using Karate I barely knew any programming. Seven years later I've landed jobs to work on advanced automation projects. I owe it to the great mentors I've had along the way, one of those being Karate. The product, the creators, and the community have helped make my career the success it is today.

The framework makes it possible for none technical people to learn automation and contribute to testing efforts as they go. It's a framework that was built not on buzzwords or industry trends, but on solid quality assurance fundamentals.It's the only framework I'm aware of that can bring unskilled and highly skilled QA automation folks together, without imposing rigid UI's, and without requiring in-depth knowledge of a programming language.Karate also has the best customer support of any open source framework I've used. Responses to questions are quick, and there is an openness to improve and enhance the framework that has led to many of it's best features.

For more advanced users, having to be constrained by the DSL can be a bit difficult. Also the lack of a built in reporting tool that works across all major CI companies means you may have to write your own. If your a JS shop, I believe node support is still in the early stages.

Karate has made it a whole lot easier to solve some very complex testing scenarios that involve initializing third-party components, setting up test data, running API tests, followed by web and desktop UI tests, sometimes even combining them within one feature file. It also greatly simplified the post-execution steps for capturing test runs for compliance purposes. I have onboarded several engineers to use Karate and observed their proficiency in the framework grow very rapidly. Karate is truly a breath of fresh air when it comes to often daunting and complex world of test automation!

I've been using Karate for 4+ years now and it's been a great experience all around! First off, the documentation is very comprehensive and includes great examples. As a low-code framework, it is relatively easy to adopt for programmers of all levels. Its VS Code plugin enhances development and debugging experience. One of my most favorite features is its support of variety of different types of testing - API, web UI, desktop UI, performance, etc. The framework comes with a highly detailed test execution report, which can be very handy for debugging.

It's hard to think of any downsides of Karate, really. My only slight gripe that comes to mind has to do with error messages. Specifically those thrown by the JS engine, which can be ambiguous and sometimes hard to decipher.

I am using karate to automate the API testing and end-to-end of a number of core microservices as well as Redis and Kafka.

Karate is easy to write tests once then duplicate or re-create for other teams purpose and scope. I also love the fact that almost no development or code is required to get started. This makes handing over and teaching how to write automated tests for my team a simple task.I also love the speed and accuracy with which test logic and assertions can occur. And the framework is very flexible for integration

It would be nice to know if there is a clear frontrunner to use gradle or maven to base the build off. Likewise it would be good to have one 'preferred' http client.

We had Karate Labs training workshops by [sensitive content hidden] to teach developers how to maximise the benefits of Karate. [sensitive content hidden] is very approachable and the Karate Open Source community is very active too. In fact, I see more and more developers outside my company become Karate converts.

The product is easy to use, easy to teach and suitable for professional developers and citizen developers. The debugger in IntellJ is good to use. Karate allows UI Hybrid tests. We don't need to use selenium. You can use it to do API, UI, UI Hybrid End to End tests together using one testing framework. Supporting multiple frameworks can be expensive. This means cost effectiveness.

I would like to see more mobile app support on Karate Labs so it doesn't focus only on API, UI. I like hybrid tests for more efficient software development time and mobile app developers can work closer with api developers to write End to End tests together using one testing framework.

I've been doing automation since the days of IBM Rational Robot and QTP. For all this years, automation was a high effort/low result exercise. After we adopted an of the shelf tool in the last year, and due to it's high price I had to migrate all tests to Karate. It took me just 1 month to develop the whole suite from selenium based mess to karate.

- Can be adopted fast even by non QAs- GIT- Full control of your suite- API, but more importantly WEB UI testing - so easy- Docker the tests! Just find some random linux machine as your executor, no VMS, no AWS - just a linux console- Complete control of automating APIs - we use it for monitoring, to slack a report, to do the API tests- Good support- Easy to understand

- Support, but I know that it will be improved in the future

Karate is very easy to use, integration was straight forward and simple to integrate we our project

I wish there is builtin integration for testing kafka and databases

How to use a mock tool to provide hands on information and experience on travel API sequences. Communicating workflow on the 10s of thousands on travel APIs published is a nightmare and a huge cost driver. Having a more uniform approach for all travel companies to explain how their APIs actually work and in what order can make a huge difference. Karate can make this simple and cheap.

They listen. Pretty simple act but most tool vendors don't listen. They think they already know your problem and their product is of course the soliton. The Karate team actually listened to understand what we really needed and worked to meet the need.

It's not a dislike, just noting they are a small organization. Hoping with success they grow to be able to meet even more challenges. They have a good culture to build on.