Which language has more libraries and bindings for Selenium WebDriver? Java or Python?

Question

This question might sound repeated. I have searched Stack exchange and found many questions by users who ask mainly on which language they should choose for Selenium WD: Java or Python?

But their question mainly relates to ease of use for the end user: as in which language is easier to learn.

My question is on capabilities: Which language has greater capability / more functionality for use with Selenium WebDriver? Java or Python? Are they equal?

I know of some awesome frameworks which use Selenium Bindings with Java such as Serenity BDD which has awesome reporting capabilities.

Which language is better suited for Selenium WebDriver in terms of capabilities and functionality?

Answer 1

From the official page of Selenium:

• The core language-specific client drivers are:
  • Ruby
  • JavaScript
  • Java
  • Python
  • C#

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However as per Selenium Official Home Page language bindings for other languages does exist but those projects are not supported, maintained, hosted, or endorsed by the Selenium project, which are as follows:

• Selenium [Language: Go]
• hs-webdriver [Language: Haskell]
• wd [Language: JavaScript]
• Selenium-Remote-Driver [Language: Perl]
• php-webdriver [Language: PHP]
• RSelenium [Language: R]
• webdriver.dart [Language: Dart]

Now the selenium specific libraries can be installed through the following approaches:

• Java: Installation of Selenium libraries for Java can be done using Maven. Add the selenium-java dependency in your project pom.xml:

  <dependency>
    <groupId>org.seleniumhq.selenium</groupId>
    <artifactId>selenium-java</artifactId>
    <version>3.141.59</version>
  </dependency>
  

• Python: Installation of Selenium libraries for Python can be done using pip:

  pip install selenium
  

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Finally, Selenium is not just one tool or API but it composes many tools and all the functionalities are implemented through both the java and python clients and are updated kept updated in sync with the WebDriver W3C Specification. You can find the complete details in:

• Java:
  • Source Code
  • Tests
• Python:
  • Source Code
  • Tests

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Conclusion

Selenium isn't about the volume of libraries but about how the different clients implements the features optimally as per the WebDriver W3C Specifications. Selenium isn't about more libraries but about the Test Architecture that best fits into your organizational requirements.