Let’s discuss the difference between WebDriver vs RC in Selenium Automation Testing.
| Web Driver | RC |
| Selenium WebDriver is the advance version of RC. It overcome the limitations of the RC with some new features. | Selenium RC is the older version of WebDriver. It is called Remote control because |
| In Selenium WebDriver. You can directly interact with the browsers | In Selenium RC, you do not need to directly interact with the Browser. With HTTP proxy, you can connect to browser remotely. |
| Architecture of the WebDriver is simple | Architecture of Selenium RC is complex |
| WebDriver has a driver for each browser. e.g. if you want to run the test in Firefox then WebDriver will use Firefox Driver to run the automated test. | Server which is written in java acts as a HTTP Proxy in Selenium RC.The server translates the command received over HTTP into JavaScript and ‘injected’ JavaScript functions into the browser. |
| WebDriver supports HtmlUnit driver which can run Test Script in headless mode. | RC needs real browsers to run the test scripts. |
| Web driver cannot readily support new browsers since a driver code for new browser needs to be written to provide support | RC can support any browsers easily. |
| Addition to web application, WebDriver supports iPhone, android. | RC supports only Web Application. |
| WebDriver has a big support community to support | RC has limited support team. |
| WebDriver connects the browsers using built-in support of browsers. | RC injects JavaScript into browsers at the time of page load. |
| As WebDriver connects browsers directly then it behaves more like a user interaction | Though RC injects JavaScript to connect to browsers. It acts almost similar manner. |
| WebDriver is Faster | RC is slower as compared to WebDriver |
| You do not need to start server to execute the script in case of WebDriver | You need to run the Selenium RC server to execute the program |
| By default, WebDriver maintains page synchronization | RC does not support this feature |
| WebDriver APIs are more concise than RC | WebDriver APIs are more concise than RC |
| By default, WebDriver maximize the browsers | RC does not maximize the browsers by default. |
| WebDriver hides command history window | RC always shows the command history window. |
In this section, we have discussed about WebDriver vs RC. In next section we will understand the Webdriver installation in our system.