Appium

Name: Appium
Author: OpenJS Foundation

The cross-platform standard for native, hybrid and mobile-web automation.

Mobile TestingOpen sourceSelf-hostable

What it is

Appium exposes Apple's XCUITest and Google's Espresso/UiAutomator through one WebDriver-compatible API, so a single test suite can target iOS and Android in any language with a WebDriver client. Version 2 restructured everything around installable drivers and plugins, extending it to Windows, macOS and even TV platforms.

Best for

Teams that must cover iOS and Android from a single suite and can absorb the setup cost.

Product tour

See Appium in action

Explore the interface before you make an account. Screenshots come from official product materials and may change as the tool evolves.

Session inspector

Inspect the live device screen, accessibility hierarchy, selectors and element attributes side by side.

Source: Appium Inspector repositoryApache-2.0 license

Where it is strong

One API and one test suite for both platforms, in the language you already use.
Every device cloud supports it, so you stay portable.
No modification to the app under test — you test the same binary you ship.

Where it falls short

Notoriously slow and flaky compared to the native frameworks it wraps.
Setup is a genuine project: drivers, Xcode, provisioning, Android SDK, versions.
Debugging failures across the Appium/driver/device layers takes real expertise.