Waldo vs XCUITest
Feature checklists rarely decide anything. What decides it is the pricing metric, who has to write the tests, and which limitation you can live with.
Entry price
Quote on request
Quote onlyFree
FreeWhat drives the bill
The metric that actually scales your invoice.
No longer priced as Waldo — it is part of a Tricentis Mobile quote, which is an enterprise sales conversation rather than the self-serve signup Waldo once had.
Free with Xcode, but requires macOS hardware for every CI runner — that is the real cost.
Free tier
Free trial.
Included with Xcode.
Open source
Self-hostable
No-code authoring
Languages
Platforms
Fits teams
Adoption
Emerging
Tricentis (formerly Waldo) · since 2019
Category standard
Apple · since 2015
Strengths
- No SDK and no code — a designer or PM can record a regression flow.
- Self-healing keeps recorded flows working across releases.
- Runs on every build without device lab management.
- Fastest and most reliable option on iOS, with no third-party layer to break.
- Native accessibility-hierarchy access and built-in test recording.
- Guaranteed to keep working with each iOS release.
Limitations
- You can no longer buy Waldo as such — it is a component of Tricentis Mobile, sold on an enterprise contract.
- Limited support for complex logic or data-driven scenarios.
- Cloud-only.
- iOS and macOS only, and Swift only.
- Requires macOS CI runners, which are expensive to rent or own.
- Element queries are less expressive than modern web locators.
Best for
Tricentis customers extending into mobile. Small teams that wanted Waldo's self-serve simplicity should look at Maestro instead.
iOS teams that ship native and want first-party reliability.
Pricing last reviewed August 2026 and is indicative only — confirm on each vendor’s own page.