Diffy vs Visualping
Visualping is a visual monitoring tool that specializes in detecting changes to website content.
Overview
| Visualping | Diffy | |
|---|---|---|
| Screenshot quality | Issues with floating elements, loading content | Screenshots generated properly |
| Tools to stabilize screenshots | Delay, block ads/cookie banners, disable JavaScript | Superior toolset to deal with false positives |
| Comparison | Pixel perfect (a lot of noise) | Custom solution that recognizes vertical shifts (way less noise) |
| Notifications | Email, Slack, webhook, n8n, Google Sheets, Teams, Discord | Email, Slack, webhook |
| Unique features | Hourly monitoring, Proxy (including residential), Actions, AI to identify changes | Configurable breakpoints, mock content, screenshots as logged-in user |
Screenshots quality
Running a test on a site with a floating header was partly successful. The header is rendered, but is in the middle of the page. In a second test, on a few runs, not all the content got loaded, which triggered visual changes.
Tools to stabilize screenshots
Visualping allows setting up a delay (options up to 7s).
Another similar feature to Diffy is the ability to block ads and cookie banners. This is a great feature for reducing visual noise.
It is also possible to switch to a mobile breakpoint (but it is not specified to which width).
There is a feature of disabling JavaScript. But this is more useful for tracking content changes rather than the full visual appearance of the site.
Unique Visualping features
Proxy. Visualping allows you to visit sites from different countries and even use a residential proxy.
Actions. It is possible to set up certain actions to be performed (click an element, fill out a form, wait X seconds, etc.) on the site before taking the screenshot. This is a great feature for testing things like the checkout process.
Use AI for identifying changes. Visualping analyzes page content with AI and lets you select the type of changes you are looking for. For example, you can check whether the price on a product page changed or whether a new press release was published.
Notifications
Visualping has a large list of integrations to send notifications: email, text, webhook, Slack are the same as in Diffy, but it also has n8n, Google Sheets, Teams, and Discord.
Comparison
Visualping relies on AI to describe page changes and does not offer visual highlighting. So it will be pretty difficult to catch slight visual regressions caused by code changes.
Conclusion
Visualping is a great, mature product. It is great for monitoring websites and notifying you of content changes, but it falls short in terms of the features developers need. It is critically important for visual regression testing to stabilize website screenshots, and this is where Diffy has a big advantage.