QTP/UFT vs Selenium vs Selenium (Webdriver)

1. Licence type

QTP/UFT - Commercial software (Concurrent and per user licence)
Selenium - Open source.
Webdriver - Open source.

2. Software size
QTP/UFT - Around 1.5GB
Selenium - Set of Libraries, around 20MB (Need to include other supporting software)
Webdriver - Set of Libraries, around 20MB (Need to include other supporting software)

3. Software Support
QTP/UFT - From HP
Selenium - Saucelabs.com, Element34 , Commercial Support
Webdriver - Same as Selenium

4. Identifying objects.
QTP/UFT -  Object properties, Repository objects
Selenium - Html ID, xPath, CSS, DOM, Link text
Webdriver - Html ID, xPath, CSS, DOM, Partial Link text, Class Name

5. Spying object

QTP/UFT - GUI Spy/API Spy
Selenium - There is no option, can record script in Selenium IDE, can spy objects using IE developer tool bar, FireBug and also using http://saucelabs.com/builder
Webdriver - Same as Selenium, there is no option of recording the scripts. With the introduction of built in developer tool bar from IE8 made thing easy for IE.

6. Scripting language
QTP/UFT - VB Script, C#(UFT API tests)
Selenium - Any language HTTP library (Java, C#, Python, Ruby...)
Webdriver - Java, .Net, Python, Ruby, Node JS

7. Environment.
QTP /UFT- Windows, MacOs
Selenium - Windows, OS X, Linux, Solaris.
Webdriver - Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android

8. Browsers supported

QTP/UFT - IE, Firefox (Run scripts),safari,Chrome
Selenium - IE, Firefox, Safari, Opera
WebDriver - IE, Firefox, Safari, Opera, Chrome, Android, iPhone

11. Identifying objects
QTP/UFT - Browser.Page.Object.Method for each step.
Selenium - Directly execute methods, no browser page reference required.
WebDriver - Directly execute methods, no browser page reference required.

12. Debugging code (Setting breakpoints in the code)
QTP/UFT - Yes
Selenium - No (Need to read logs and understand the error)
Webdriver - No (Write wrapper around webdriver listener to read logs, from 2.15 it is automatically generating logs)

13. Control Opened browsers (Attach to running browsers)
QTP/UFT - Yes (Opened after QTP program)
Selenium - No (Session information is lost) .
Webdriver - No (Fix in Progress)

14. Supporting Applications
QTP - Web applications, SAP, Activex, VB, Windows...(Support provided using Addins)
Selenium - Only Web application.
Webdriver - Only Web application.

15. As performance testing tool
QTP/UFT - No, you can run one QTP application in one CPU.
Selenium - It can open many many browsers using GRID, many companies line PushToTest, BrowserMob, Gomez use selenium technology for running load test.
Webdriver - Same as Selenium, now we have GRID2.

16. Current Version
QTP/UFT – 12.5(July 2015)
Selenium - 2.0
Webdriver - 2.48

17. Object not found timeout
QTP/UFT - It will wait till the timeout happen.
Selenium - If browser status is Done, it will through exception. In some cases it will wait for time out.
Webdriver - Same as Selenium, It has implicit and explicit timeouts.

18. Execute JavaScript
QTP/UFT - Yes
Selenium - Yes
Webdriver - Yes

19. Access page DOM
QTP/UFT - Yes
Selenium - Yes
Webdriver - Yes

20. Flex objects
QTP/UFT - Yes
Selenium - Yes  Selenium Flex
Webdriver - Yes  Selenium Flex

21. Scripting complexity
QTP/UFT - Simple, but implementing framework is complex.
Selenium -Simple, but implementing framework is complex.
Webdriver - Simple, but implementing page objects is slightly complex.

22. Cost
QTP - 9K USD per user (Approx) + Annual maintenance charges.
Selenium - FREE (Any number of users...)
Webdriver - FREE (Any number of users...)

23. IDE
QTP/UFT - Own IDE
Selenium - Any IDE (I prefer Eclipse)
Webdriver - Any IDE (I prefer Eclipse)

24. Flavors
QTP/UFT – QTP/UFT with different Add-in's

Selenium - Selenium core, Selenium IDE, Selenium RC, Selenium GRID.
Webdriver - Webdriver, GRID2.

25. Extendability
QTP/UFT - No
Selenium - Yes, you can customize and implement for new browsers.
Webdriver - Same as Selenium.

26. Exception Handling
QTP/UFT - Need to handle manually. Using .Exist, On error resume next, recovery scenarios. Script would stop in the middle by throwing run-time error if not handled properly. Programmer should have complete understanding where to use exception handling, else he suppress real errors.
Selenium - Handled automatically when used with TestNG, it will automatically move to next test case and user can implement Try...Catch to handle specific exceptions.
Webdriver - Same as Selenium. It has some extra exceptions like NoElementFound where code can be handled in a better way.

27. Reporting and Assertions(Checkpoints)
QTP/UFT - Reporting and checkpoints are built in the same package.
Selenium - Need to depend on testing frameworks like TestNG or Junit.
Webdriver - Same as Selenium.

28. Recording the script
QTP/UFT - Built in recorder that can generate script on IE.
Selenium - Selenium IDE as Firefox add on.
Webdriver - No

29. Script Execution
QTP/UFT - Just hit Run button.
Selenium - Need to run Selenium Server and it opens a separate window apart from the browser.
Webdriver - Just hit play button.

30. Page synchronization
QTP/UFT - Use .Sync method  to check the page load for every page navigation.
Selenium - Use Wait for page load. 
Webdriver - It is handle automatically, no method is required. 

 31. Handle AJAX calls
QTP/UFT - Manual
Selenium - Manual
Webdriber - Manual

32. XPath Support (Awesome technique to locate elements when there is no id or name)
QTP/UFT - Yes
Selenium - Yes (Very slow on IE)
Webdriver - Yes

33. Accessing windows objects (Folders, Excel, Notepad)
QTP/UFT - Easy (As it is developed in VB script native windows script. I hope this is one of the reason why qtp selected VB Script)
Selenium - Not so easy, need to depend on open APIs.
Webdriver - Same as selenium.

34. Code base
QTP/UFT - Huge, storing Actions occupy lot of space and more number of files. I prefer creating code in function libraries only (.vbs, .txt, .qfl)
Selenium - Small, text file with .java extension. Suitable with any configuration management tools.
Webdriver - Same as selenium.

35. Executing test on different systems
QTP/UFT - Need to setup QTP/UFT and copy the code execute it.
Selenium - Using ANT it is possible to compile into standalone jar file, so that it is easily executed from the command prompt.
Webdriver - Same as selenium.

36. APIs
QTP/UFT - Each object has methods and properties. QTP classified the objects into (WebEdit[Textbox], WebButton, WebList, WebRadio Button....). Objects are classified into Windows, Web, People soft, SAP, Visual Basic, Activex...., need to add extra licensed programs called Addin for supporting of the corresponding objects. Addin program can help QTP/UFT to identify the properties in specific environment. To identify an object on the screen, need to provide properties. Properties are classified into Mandate, Assistive and ordinal properties.

Selenium - Directory based API, all methods exist in one class. It is a table based API that contain 3 columns
Note: Browser, Page details are not required; its reference is automatically handled by Selenium session.
Webdriver - Complete OOPs.

37. Number of Methods
QTP/UFT - Each object has certain methods, most of the methods are unique like Set, Click, Select...
Selenium - Few methods.
Webdriver - You can complete most of the script using click and SendKeys.

38. Object Repository (Object information is stored separately during recording and can be edited if required)
QTP/UFT - Yes. Also provide option to define objects at code level called descriptive programming (DP).
Selenium - NO, only through code.
Webdriver - NO, only through code.

39. Page Objects Implementation
QTP/UFT - VB script don't supports complete OOPs, but can be achieved with Dual-Function Framework.
Selenium- I think no, it is not possible to move Selenium session from one class to another, but methods can be grouped as per the page by extending the Selenium interface.
Webdriver - Yes, support complete OOPs. (Planning to write a new post on this with an example).

40. Synthesizing events on the page
QTP/UFT - Synthesize events on DOM.
Selenium - Synthesize events on DOM.
Webdriver - Type looks very realistic as though real user is typing. I think they are sending the events to IE instance message queue. (Need to understand the technique used)

Over all comparison:

QTP -
Browsers - (IE/Firefox)
OS - (Windows)
Scripting - (VB Script)
Licence - ($8000 per user)

Webdriver -
Browsers - (IE, Firefox, Safari, Opera, Chrome, Android, iPhone),
OS - (Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android)
Scripting - (Java, .Net, Python, Ruby, Node JS)
Licence - Free