Alpha Testing Vs Beta Testing

Alpha Testing

Alpha testing is a type of User acceptance testing. It is performed to identify all possible bugs before releasing the product into the market or public. The main moto of this testing is to simulate real users by using blackbox and whitebox techniques. The aim is to carry out the tasks that a typical user might perform and verify whether everything is working according to the requirement or not. Alpha testing is carried out in a lab environment and usually the testers are internal employees of the organization. To put it as simple as possible, this kind of testing is called alpha only because Alpha testing is done at the end of the development of the software, and before beta testing.

Beta Testing

Beta Testing of a product is performed by "real users" of the software application in a "real environment" and can be considered as a form of external user acceptance testing. Beta version of the software is released to a limited number of end-users of the product to obtain feedback on the product quality. Once the beta testing is done if users find any defects they get escalated and solved. Beta testing reduces product failure risks and provides increased quality of the product through customer validation. It is the final test before shipping a product to the customers. Direct feedback from customers is a major advantage of Beta Testing. This testing helps to tests the product in real time environment.

Types of Beta Testing

There are different types of Beta tests, and they are as follows:

Traditional Beta testing:

In traditional Beta testing, the organization selects a market and releases the product in that particular market only. Product is distributed to the target market, and related data is gathered in all aspects. This data can be used for Product improvement.

Public Beta Testing:

Product is publicly released to the outside world via online channels and data can be gathered from anyone. Based on feedback, product improvements can be done. For example, Microsoft conducted the largest of all Beta Tests for its OS Windows 8 before officially releasing it.

Technical Beta Testing: 

Firstly Product is released to the internal group of an organization and gather feedback/data from the employees of the organization.

Focused Beta: 

Product is released to the market for gathering feedback on specific features of the program. For example, important functionality of the software.

Post release Beta:

Product is released to the market and data is gathered to make improvements for the future release of the product.

Alpha Testing Vs Beta Testing

Alpha Testing	Beta Testing (Field Testing)
It is always performed by the developers at the software development site.	It is always performed by the customers at their own site.
Sometimes it is also performed by Independent Testing Team.	It is not performed by Independent Testing Team.
Alpha Testing is not open to the market and public	Beta Testing is always open to the market and public.
It is conducted for the software application and project.	It is usually conducted for software product.
It is always performed in Virtual Environment.	It is performed in Real Time Environment.
It is always performed within the organization.	It is always performed outside the organization.
Alpha Testing is definitely performed and carried out at the organizations itself with the involvement of developers.	Beta Testing (field testing) is performed and carried out by users or you can say people at their own locations and site using customer data.
It comes under the category of both White Box Testing and Black Box Testing.	It is only a kind of Black Box Testing. It is also known as Field Testing
Alpha Testing is always performed at the time of Acceptance Testing when developers test the product and project to check whether it meets the user requirements or not.	Beta Testing is always performed at the time when software product and project are  released into the market.