Kinds of tester: is there a real difference?

Using social media and messaging apps, or simply browsing, you have surely seen advertisements offering courses for website testers, game testers and so on. That is because the need for such specialists has grown considerably: every digital product has to be tested before it reaches the market. Job boards and aggregators always carry postings along the lines of "iOS tester wanted", "mobile application tester needed, remote", "UI tester wanted on staff". There are also postings for game testers with no experience, remote website testers and junior-level specialists, along with requests for analysts, manual and automation testers and more. When choosing your own road, it matters to understand the particulars and go through the kinds of tester so as to pick the right training for you.

So what kinds of tester are there? To work it out, let's go through the profession's main components point by point:

• What it is and what characterises it.
• The levels of tester by accumulated experience.
• The kinds of tester by specialism.
• The employment prospects.
• Who a web testing course and other kinds of training suit.

Whatever their specialism, a tester of applications and software works on defects — finds them in digital products and thereby helps improve their quality. That bears directly on the reputation of the developers and the company and on what a project earns, which is why every category of tester is in demand.

What does a web tester do?

A web tester looks for defects and shortcomings in various digital products. The main kinds of tester are distinguished by the type of product:

• Website tester.
• Interface tester.
• Application tester.
• Software tester.
• Computer game tester, and so on.

Note that testers of mobile and web applications, sites and other software only find defects; they do not fix them. They write bug reports from which analysts and developers then repair the problem areas. A QA specialist may work to their own method, but more often they are given test cases — step-by-step procedures for checking a particular product, covering several different tests. Thanks to that, an application tester with no experience and no programming language can work perfectly well after finishing the relevant course. That is what attracts people to the profession.

Levels and kinds of tester

By accumulated experience, a web tester can be at one of four levels: QA analyst, QA engineer, QA automation and SDET. Let's look at each in turn.

QA analyst is the entry level, where a specialist has all the knowledge and skills needed for basic testing. Their work covers:

• Manual testing.
• Running test cases.
• Writing defect reports.

A specialist stays at this level from a few months to one to three years, gaining experience and deepening their knowledge in whichever direction they favour. The average salary even at the start of a career is above what most people in other fields earn. As of 2023 a website tester with no experience could earn from $50,000 a year.

The second level is QA engineer. Alongside the core responsibilities come new tasks:

• Checking that the product's requirements, the specification and the functionality built in all match.
• Assessing risk.
• Building a plan for the test cases.
• Developing ideas for improving the product's quality.
• Analysing the results of testing.
• Improving how the work runs.
• Working with clients and business analysts.

At this level no programming languages or database analysis are required. The average income is around $75,000–80,000 a year. Taking courses, raising your qualifications and broadening your skills is worthwhile if you want to earn more.

QA automation is the third level of professional development. Such a specialist works many times faster and can cover far more ground in the same period. You can train directly for this specialism, learning programming languages such as Python, Java and C++ along the way. A software tester at this level also needs to be able to analyse databases, plan the work and write software that finds defects and runs test cases itself, quickly and correctly. This is already a narrow specialism, and employers are willing to pay around $100,000–120,000 a year for it.

An SDET is the highest level of all. They know several programming languages, understand the finest details of the project under test, have enormous experience and can mentor other QA specialists. Reaching this level takes four to six years of work, and in 2023 the salary averaged $200,000 worldwide.

Testers of iOS, Android and other applications

Mobile application testers, experienced or not, and web testers are the most sought-after QA specialisms on the job market. The digital products they check are built in enormous numbers every day, and none of them can ship untested.

A web application tester can work not only from a computer but from a phone, which gives a slight advantage at the start of a career.

The mobile application tester

Mobile testers check applications for mobile devices built for the most varied fields: sales, advertising, services, entertainment, trackers and so on.

At the start of a career a mobile tester works with test cases, writes bug reports and can follow instructions on the first versions of software — alpha and beta.

Getting hired

Mobile testers are very much in demand, so finding work is usually no trouble. At entry level a mobile application tester can expect $30–40 an hour.

The web application tester

Web applications differ from ordinary ones in that they launch and run in a browser. They have an interface people interact with and a server side, and a web application tester has to check both.

They also differ from ordinary websites. Building and testing such applications is considered moderately demanding, so a tester needs broader skills and knowledge.

Where mobile testers can find work at companies of every size, web application specialists tend to work at larger ones.

The website tester

An online presence matters a great deal to specialists and companies, so most have a website and sometimes several. Their quality determines how comfortable users are and what impression they take away of the business. Before launch, therefore, a website tester has to check thoroughly. Only that way can you build a digital product with good engagement and a high conversion rate.

A website tester with no experience starts with narrower tasks. Growing gradually, they can pick up more skills for harder work.

Starting with checks on small sites, a website tester can grow into testing the portals of large international corporations — and the salary grows with it.

Note that training as a website tester takes about two months, and the barrier to entry is low.

The database tester

Database testing is a demanding specialism, since it means working with large volumes of information. A knowledge of SQL is essential. A database tester's work covers:

• Testing — structural, functional and non-functional.
• Checking that the information displayed is correct.
• Updating records in the database.
• Checking the ACID properties, data security and the database's conformity to the project's requirements.

A database tester needs not only professional knowledge and skills but a mathematical turn of mind.

The game tester

Working as a game tester from home is one of the main goals of people starting out in tech. The work looks undemanding, but in fact it requires attention, persistence and professionalism. Game testing is not gaming but painstaking work aimed at finding defects. So judge the profession soberly and do not count on easy money.

Bear in mind that PC game testing and mobile game testing are two different branches of the same field.

At first a specialist checks small games for PC or mobile devices. There may even be a narrow specialism: an Android tester, for instance, looks for defects only in products for that operating system.

Online products occupy a particular place in the gaming world. They are updated regularly and keep gaining new content, so defects appear constantly. An online game tester helps minimise the number users meet and takes part in fixing the ones already there.

A separate direction is testing game scenarios. Such a tester checks how well the various scenarios have been implemented against the original intention, whether they contain any errors of meaning, whether the logic is clear to the player and so on.

Game testing is a newer branch of the profession, but a promising and sought-after one.

The interface tester

Users interact with a digital product through its interface — every window, menu, icon, button and widget. An interface tester checks:

• how well each element works;
• whether the elements are visualised sensibly (will a user understand what an icon is for?);
• how clear the user's path through a given task is.

An interface tester assesses the usability of fonts, colours, shapes and styling and how well they fit the brand's identity.

Why a UI tester is needed

A software tester working on interfaces brings a great deal to a digital product:

• They improve the user experience.
• They raise the product's quality.
• They make the interface more accessible to people with disabilities.
• They reduce what fixing defects will cost later.

The software tester

Software testing is the broadest direction of all. Software is any digital product built from code — applications, games, sites and desktop software alike. A "software tester" vacancy therefore needs clarifying before the interview. If a company is looking for a generalist, the pay should reflect that.

Testing training at PASV

How do you become a tester of games, applications, databases, websites and other digital products? You can study free material on your own, but it will take a great deal of time and be hard and confusing. The better answer is training at the PASV testing school. We offer not only working instructors and a curriculum matching what QA specialists are actually asked for, but practice at real US companies, which opens up good employment prospects. A PASV course is the first step on a tester's road, even with no experience at all.