Our QA team needs a reliable mobile cloud provider for real device testing — both for web and native/hybrid apps. We want to move away from BrowserStack (or don’t want to use it), so we’re exploring other mobile device farms that:
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Provide a wide range of real iOS and Android devices
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Support automated testing (Appium, Selenium, WebDriver, etc.)
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Allow parallel execution to speed up test cycles
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Offer debugging tools (video, logs, network)
We want to pick a solid provider that fits both our manual exploratory testing and our automated test suite.
LambdaTest Real Device Cloud
Offers access to thousands of real Android and iOS devices.
Supports automation using Appium, Selenium, Playwright, and more.
Provides parallel test execution and detailed logs (network, device, console) plus video recording.
From an automation point of view, this is the most robust alternative: you can run large-scale mobile test suites without running your own device lab.
Example Appium (Python) on a LambdaTest device:
from appium import webdriver
caps = {
“platformName”: “iOS”,
“deviceName”: “iPhone 14”,
“platformVersion”: “17”,
“automationName”: “XCUITest”,
“app”: “lt://”,
“build”: “Mobile Test Build”,
“name”: “Login Test on iPhone”
}
driver = webdriver.Remote(
command_executor=“https://YOUR_USERNAME:YOUR_ACCESS_KEY@hub.lambdatest.com/wd/hub”,
desired_capabilities=caps
)
driver.quit()
pCloudy Real Device Cloud
Provides thousands of real mobile devices (Android & iOS) for testing.
Supports both manual interactive testing and automated tests via Appium or WebDriver.
Offers device performance metrics, device logs, video recordings, and the ability to test under different network conditions (2G, 3G, 4G).
For QA teams doing exploratory testing or validating UX, pCloudy gives a very realistic device-in-hand feel, with reliable access to a broad device pool.
Kobiton Mobile Device Cloud
Vast range of real Android and iOS devices for real-world mobile testing.
Enables parallel automation testing using Appium or WebDriver.
Unique “virtual USB” feature lets you interact with cloud devices as if they were physically connected to your machine — great for debugging, inspecting logs, and using DevTools.
From a leadership perspective, this is a cost-effective choice to scale testing without investing in a physical device lab; it also helps remote QA engineers collaborate on real devices easily.