Some sad news was brought to me attention early this morning as I checked my emails and noticed some mentions regarding the shutting down of Adobe’s BrowserLab. So I headed over to the Adobe blog, and lo-and-behold the top post read BrowserLab is Shutting Down. To be honest – it’s probably a smart move for Adobe. BrowserLab was first launched back in 2009 – and since then the Internet has changed drastically with the introduction of HTML5, responsive design, and the huge increase in mobile and tablet use. Adobe seems to agree too. To quote from their blog:
When we originally launched BrowserLab as a free service back in 2009, our customers were struggling with testing their web content across desktop browsers and platforms. Since then with the growth of the importance of mobile devices and tablets, the landscape has changed dramatically. Because of this shift, we have seen the usage of BrowserLab drop over the past year while at the same time our engineering team has been focusing on solving this new challenge with new solutions. Due to this, we will be shutting down the Adobe BrowserLab Service effective immediately.
As alternatives – BrowserStack and Sauce Labs are still very much alive. In fact, Sauce Labs are welcoming BrowserLab users with a special offer:
- 10 hours (600 minutes) of free manual testing time (with no expiration) for up to two concurrent open browsers
- Once you’ve used those 600 minutes, your account will revert to a free account which includes 30 minutes per month of free manual browser testing
- This limited time offer will remain valid for 30 days from the date of this blog post