How a popular SaaS set up test automation without engineers

In brief:

• Brand24 is a popular SaaS media monitoring platform

• They use BugBug to check every hour if their website works properly

• The Product Manager implemented the test automation all by himself, without software developers

• The cost of implementation was significantly lower than Selenium

• BugBug has already detected more than 5 real issues and alerted the Brand24 team
  
  

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Challenge:
Brand24 needed a reliable way to ensure their website always works properly

Brand24 is a Software-as-a-Service startup that provides a platform for online reputation management & media monitoring. They have clients in more than 110 countries, including Intel, Stanford University, and Twitch. They rely heavily on web technologies.

Bugs that are detected too late are a waste of time and money

"Each minute of our website being down costs us not only money but also reputation," - says Krzysztof Studniarek, Product Owner/Manager of Brand24. Imagine spending money on a marketing campaign that leads to your blog: if the blog is down, you just waste your budget and lose a potential customer.

Traditional WWW monitoring? Not good enough

Brand24 has already tried a classic SEO monitoring tool that checks if specific URLs work. "These tools didn't detect real issues, for example, when the page loads partially, without CSS. We wanted to ensure that the complete user paths are working correctly."

Selenium? Too expensive

Brand24 also considered using Selenium. However, it requires coding skills and the involvement of software developers. "We realized that setting up Selenium would not be profitable. We needed to find an alternative."

Solution:
Automated browser tests with BugBug, executed every hour

Fast implementation

Brand24 created their first automated tests using BugBug in a matter of minutes without having to write any code. "I used BugBug tests recording, and it worked surprisingly well," says Krzysztof, the Product Manager. "Since April 2021, we run these tests every hour to check if the Brand24 website works as it should."

Reduced costs

Compared to Selenium, BugBug showed a dramatically lower overall cost. Brand24 implemented hourly monitoring without the involvement of the IT department. Krzysztof, the Product Manager with a technical background, simply did it by himself!

Productive collaboration

BugBug allowed Brand24 to share responsibilities on test maintenance with other team members. They currently have 8 active users who receive hourly notifications about the website status.

Cost-efficient maintenance

Since the initial setup, the only recurring cost for Brand24 is the monthly premium subscription fee (see pricing). The maintenance is also simple, thanks to BugBug's priority customer support. "BugBug experts proactively help me with fixing tests. They also provide tips on how to make them more stable."

Impact:
BugBug successfully detected several critical issues and immediately notified Brand24

Since April 2021, BugBug has run the hourly monitoring more than 100,000 times and detected the following issues:

1. Prevented slow page loading caused by a third-party plugin
   BugBug Support noticed that some tests began to work slower than expected. After the investigation, it turned out that an analytics library caused a significant lag on the website. In consequence, Brand24 removed the library.

2. Detected issues with login after a failed release
   BugBug detected that Brand24 users could not log in after a failed release

3. Detected that the website is down
   Brand24 received an alert from BugBug that multiple automated tests failed. They quickly reacted and fixed the problem in a matter of minutes.

4. Detected that the pricing page is empty
   BugBug notified Brand24 that the pricing page has an issue. BugBug took a screenshot that the page was blank.

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BugBug provided a meaningful business value without complexity and high costs. If you want to learn more how BugBug can help your business, start a free trial or book a demo.