Difference Between Selenium 3 and Selenium 4

Difference Between Selenium 3 and Selenium 4

Selenium is one of the most popular tools for web automation testing. With the release of Selenium 4, many new features and improvements were introduced.

So, how is Selenium 4 different from Selenium 3?

Let’s break it down in simple words.

📌 1. W3C WebDriver Standard Support

🟡 Selenium 3

  • Used its own WebDriver implementation

  • Communication between the browser and test script wasn’t standardized

🟢 Selenium 4

  • Fully supports W3C WebDriver Protocol

  • More stable and faster browser interactions

  • Better compatibility with modern browsers

✅ Benefit: Fewer bugs and better performance across Chrome, Firefox, etc.

📌 2. No Need for DesiredCapabilities

🟡 Selenium 3

  • Used DesiredCapabilities to set browser-specific settings

🟢 Selenium 4

  • Introduces Options classes like ChromeOptions, FirefoxOptions

  • These are now preferred and easier to use

✅ Benefit: Cleaner, more readable code

📌 3. Improved Selenium Grid

🟡 Selenium 3

  • Complicated setup with Hub and Node

  • Hard to scale or manage

🟢 Selenium 4

  • Comes with a new Selenium Grid architecture

  • Supports Docker, Kubernetes, and distributed mode

  • Has a built-in UI dashboard

✅ Benefit: Easier to manage and scale tests across machines

📌 4. New Relative Locators

🟡 Selenium 3

  • Could find elements only by ID, name, XPath, CSS, etc.

🟢 Selenium 4

  • Adds relative locators (e.g., above, below, near, toLeftOf, toRightOf)

WebElement label = driver.findElement(RelativeLocator.with(By.tagName("input")).below(header));

✅ Benefit: More human-like and readable element selection

📌 5. Enhanced DevTools Integration

🟡 Selenium 3

  • No direct access to browser developer tools

🟢 Selenium 4

  • Adds support for Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP)

  • Allows network tracking, console logs, geolocation, device emulation, etc.

✅ Benefit: Powerful testing features like performance analysis, blocking requests, capturing logs

📌 6. Better Documentation and UI Changes

🟡 Selenium 3

  • Outdated documentation

  • Old-style Selenium Grid UI

🟢 Selenium 4

  • New and improved documentation

  • Fresh and modern Selenium Grid dashboard

✅ Benefit: Easier to learn and navigate

📌 7. Improved Actions Class for Interactions

🟡 Selenium 3

  • Limited support for complex user gestures

🟢 Selenium 4

  • Better control for actions like drag & drop, zoom, multi-touch gestures

✅ Benefit: More reliable interaction testing

📌 8. Native Support for WebDriverManager (Optional)

While not part of core Selenium, Selenium 4 plays better with tools like WebDriverManager (to auto-download browser drivers), making test setup easier.

✅ Summary Table

FeatureSelenium 3Selenium 4
W3C Standard SupportPartialFull support (stable)
Relative Locators❌ No✅ Yes (above, below, near)
DevTools Access❌ No✅ Yes (CDP integration)
Selenium GridBasic, harder to manageModern, scalable, Docker-friendly
Locating ElementsXPath, CSS, ID onlyXPath, CSS, ID + relative locators
Browser CapabilitiesDesiredCapabilitiesOptions classes preferred
Documentation & UIOld-styleNew and improved
User Interaction SupportBasicAdvanced actions (drag, zoom, etc.)

🧠 Final Thoughts

Selenium 4 is a major upgrade that brings:

  • Better speed and stability

  • Smarter ways to find elements

  • Easier test environment setup

  • More power for browser automation

If you’re still using Selenium 3, it’s a great time to switch to Selenium 4 and enjoy the new features.


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