QA glossary
What is cross-browser testing?
Cross-browser testing checks that a website or web app looks and works the same for users on different browsers, browser versions, operating systems and screen sizes. It catches the defects that show up in only one rendering engine, such as a layout that breaks in Safari or a form that will not submit in Firefox.
An example from QA practice
A checkout page passes every test in Chrome on the developers' laptops. On an older iPhone, the sticky order summary slides over the Pay button, so the button cannot be tapped. Desktop numbers look normal while mobile orders drop. One run of the checkout flow on iPhone Safari before release would have caught it.
Choosing what to cover
Nobody can test every browser on every device, so start from your own analytics: the browsers and devices that make up most real visits, plus anything a contract names. Then cover the three engines that matter: Chromium (Chrome, Edge and most others), Gecko (Firefox) and WebKit (Safari). On iPhone, browsers outside the EU must still use WebKit, so Chrome on iOS usually behaves like Safari.
Automate the stable journeys such as sign-up, search and checkout, and run them on each engine. Keep manual checks on real devices for layout, touch and anything visual, where scripts miss what a person notices at once.
How BetterQA does it
Our engineers record key user journeys once in Flows, the test automation tool we built. When a redesign changes a selector, the tests repair themselves, and they export to Playwright, Cypress and Selenium, so the suite stays yours. A defect that appears on only one browser goes into BugBoard with a screenshot or video.
Related terms
Common problems across browsers and how to handle edge cases.