Top 10 differences between Alpha and Beta Testing

Alpha Testing	Beta Testing
It is conducted at developer’s site by developer or tester or end user	It is conducted by the end user (customer) or third party testers know as Beta testers at their site
Developer is performed in presence of developers	It is performed in absence of developers
It is conducted in Virtual environment	It is conducted in Real time environment
It is a combination of both white box and Black box testing	It is a completely a Black box testing
It is performed within the developing organization	It is performed outside the developing organization
It is known as User Acceptance Testing (UAT) at developers site	It is known as User Acceptance Testing (UAT) at customers site or Field Testing
It is not open to market and public	It is always open to market and public
It is the final testing within the development company before it is delivered to the customer	The application is tested for the first time within the customer’s environment when it is delivered and deployed
Any defects found during this testing, the same can be rectified immediately as the application is not yet delivered to customer	Immediate defect rectification is not possible

User Acceptance Testing

 User Acceptance Testing (UAT) is the testing of application from end users perspective. UAT can be done by customer or can done by testing team on behalf of the customer.

User Acceptance Testing is a final level of testing in which once can perform testing on the application within the presence of customer.

User Acceptance Testing is a black box testing technique. It plays a crucial role in project or software delivery to client. After successful completion of User Acceptance Testing, software or application is deployed to customer.

Entry Criteria for UAT:

System or System Integration testing of modules should be completed successfully and all the defects encountered should be closed.

Exit criteria for UAT:

After successful completion of user acceptance testing the technical team will deploy the same piece of code into the production environment.

There are two types or approaches of User Acceptance testing:

Alpha Testing:

It is conducted at developer’s site by end-users and is conducted in a controlled environment.

It is the final testing within the development company before it is delivered to the customer.

If any defects are found during this testing, the same can be rectified immediately as the application is not yet delivered to customer.

Beta Testing:

It is conducted at customers sites in customers environment. Developers are not generally present whereas in Alpha testing developer’s presence is there.The application is tested for the first time within the customer’s environment when it is delivered and deployed.

Beta testing is done by customer or third party testers know as Beta testers.

Beta test is a live application of the software in an environment that cannot be controlled by developer. The end-user keeps record of all problems that are encountered during this phase of testing and reports these to the developers at regular intervals. The developers make modifications on these problems and then prepare for release to the entire customer base.

The disadvantage of beta testing is that if there are any defects immediately rectification is not possible.