Traditional Web UI Testing: Drawbacks

Traditional Web UI Testing tools differentiate you on the basis of language. Means almost all the testing tools are using one or the other language. So if you are having knowledge of some “X” language and the tool uses “Y” then you are left with two options
1. Devote some time and learn the language.
2. Don’t use that tool and go for other for which will cost you more.
On the other way of classification we can see that there are two main classes of Web application testing tools:
§ Tools that simulate browsers ("Web protocol rivers") by implementing the HTTP request/response protocol and by parsing the resulting HTML.Examples of such tools are HttpUnit(Java), WWW::mechanize (Perl), and mechanize and webunit (Python).
§ Tools that automate browsers ("Web browser drivers”) by driving them, for example, via COM calls in the case of Internet Explorer. Examples of such tools are Watir (Ruby), Samie (Perl), Pamie (Python), and JSSh (Mozilla extension).

The main difference between Selenium and other HTTP test tools is that Selenium uses an actual browser driven via JavaScript to play back testing scripts. This means that Selenium has someunique features not available in any other Web test tool:
§ It can test client-side functionality implemented in JavaScript.
§ It can be used cross-platform and cross-browser, which makes it a perfect tool for browser compatibility testing.

Last but not the least point is the money. Almost all the testing tools with some good features also come with a good price tag, which any company wants to avoid.