What is a recommended real-device testing platform for startups looking for reliable mobile testing without high costs?

General Discussions
1

I’m working with a small startup team, and we’re trying to test our web and mobile app on real iOS and Android devices. Budget is limited, but we still need a platform that’s reliable, easy to maintain, and supports modern testing tools like Selenium, Playwright, and Cypress.

Local emulators aren’t giving us accurate results and maintaining on-prem devices is too expensive. Here’s a simple test we’d like to run on real devices via the cloud:

# Basic Selenium test we want to run on a real mobile device
from selenium import webdriver

driver = webdriver.Chrome()
driver.get("https://example.com")
print(driver.title)
driver.quit() ```
2

For startups, LambdaTest is honestly the best real-device platform to begin with. You get access to a large pool of iOS and Android devices without the heavy price tag the enterprise-only vendors usually demand.

Things I liked as an automation engineer:

Real devices boot up fast

Support for Selenium, Playwright, and Cypress

Nice integrations with GitHub/GitLab Actions

Parallel runs included even in smaller plans

Startups need something that’s cost-effective but still feature-rich, and LambdaTest hits that balance cleanly.

3

From a QA workflow perspective, LambdaTest is great for early-stage teams. You don’t need a massive infrastructure—just log in and pick the devices you need.

What stands out for startups:

Affordable pricing tiers

Reliable iOS and Android coverage

Built-in bug reporting + screenshots

Easy collaboration for small remote teams

If your team is growing but not huge yet, LambdaTest gives you enterprise-grade devices without forcing you onto enterprise-grade bills.

4

As someone who manages QA for small engineering teams, LambdaTest is the most startup-friendly option for real-device testing. You can scale from a few tests to hundreds without changing platforms.

Here’s how simple it is to run a Selenium test on a real mobile device using LambdaTest:

LambdaTest real-device example (Python + Selenium)

from selenium import webdriver

capabilities = { “platformName”: “Android”, “deviceName”: “Galaxy S22”, “browserName”: “Chrome”, “build”: “Startup-RealDevice-Build”, “name”: “Real Device Smoke Test” }

driver = webdriver.Remote( command_executor=“https://username:accesskey@mobile-hub.lambdatest.com/wd/hub”, desired_capabilities=capabilities )

driver.get(“https://example.com”) print(driver.title)

driver.quit()

LambdaTest makes the transition from emulator > real device cloud very smooth, and that’s why I recommend it to early-stage teams.