Does your site prioritize mobile users? If not, you should start making the move.
Google is putting more significance on the mobile-friendliness of a site. This forces every website today to make sure that it is displaying correctly on smartphones, as well as on tablets and other internet devices.
The ability of a website to adapt and fit into the different screen sizes is what we call responsiveness.
If you want to have a higher chance of appearing on the top search results, it pays to make sure that your website is responsive in most, if not all, devices. A website tool tester comes in handy if you want to see how responsive your site is.
Take a look at the tools below to see which one has the features you need.
Responsinator is a free browser-based web tester that comes with no complexities. It lets you test your website’s responsiveness without fuss – you simply type in your URL, press enter, and then the tool renders the website in common screen sizes.
It includes the screen sizes of iPhones, Android Nexus devices, and iPad devices. It also lets you view the webpage in both portrait and landscape modes.
It also lets you interact with the page, so you can see how it would respond on different screens. Tap on a link, enter a search term on the search field, browse the whole page, and so on.
Screenfly also lets you test your web page on various screen sizes, including smartphones and tablets. It has the added benefit of letting you test on television and computer desktop screen sizes, too.
Like in Responsinator, you’ll be able to interact with the page, such as opening menus, typing into the search field, and all that stuff. Screenfly also includes the pixel measurements of the screen, which enables you to preview the page on custom screen sizes as well.
It’s completely free, and it has other functions, like letting you choose between static or scrolling pages, using a proxy server, rotating the screen, and such.
If you’re looking for something more advanced, BrowserStack is the one you need. With this web responsiveness tool, you’ll be able to test your web page in over 1,200 mobile and browser screens. You won’t need your virtual machines and devices anymore.
The full-featured product lets you test live on real devices and test private servers and local folders. Big international companies even subscribe to their services. You’ve probably heard of Microsoft, Mastercard, Volvo, Walt Disney, and National Geographic among others.
Note that this is not a free app, although it will give you limited free access to its services when you sign up. This is a great way to get a feel of how BrowserStack works and if it’s the right one for you. Once your free access is up, you’ll have to subscribe to their various monthly plans.
Need to do a quick check on your web page? Check out the Responsive Design Checker, which has various pre-determined screen sizes to test your website on. It includes the screens of iPads, Kindle Fire, Nexus tablets, iPhones, Sony Xperia phones, and so on. The list isn’t as inclusive as the preceding tool, but it also gives you the option to customize a screen size.
Aside from it being free, the good thing about it is that it supports large screen sizes. It resizes the preview pane according to the ratio of your chosen size, and not on the pixel width. This means that it displays your web page on large sizes rather well even if you’re using a smaller monitor.
This one has a limited function. You can’t even preview how your website works on mobile devices. It only gives you a screenshot.
When you enter your website’s URL, the Google tool analyzes if the site is mobile-friendly or not. You only get either a pass or a fail, but what’s good about this is that it tells you of any issues it encountered while trying to load it. It also offers tips on how you can tweak the other elements in your web page that need improving.
This is important to pass since searches coming from mobile phones take up a huge chunk of overall Google searches.
Am I Responsive? is another free browser-based tool that displays your website simultaneously on four devices: a computer, a laptop, a tablet, and a smartphone. It even lets you interact on the web pages within the screens of these devices.
Note that the display is not to scale, but the rendering is accurate. It also runs localhost addresses so you can preview the projects you’re currently building.
It’s not an all-inclusive resource as well, but if ever you wanted to take a screenshot of your webpage running simultaneously on all four devices, which all look like Apple products, Am I Responsive is a cool tool for that.
This one is a cross-browser testing cloud that includes support for over 1,400 desktop and mobile browsers. With this tool, you can ensure what your audience sees based on their device, browser, operating system, screen size, and resolution.
It also allows you to test your web apps live on real machines and devices, and it offers smart visual regression testing that identifies bugs and makes sure that there are no visual deviations.
You’ll also have access to automated screenshot testing, collaboration tools, locally hosted pages testing, debugging on the go, and other functions. With all these features, it obviously comes with a monthly subscription plan. However, it has a Lite Plan that gives you access to such features for a limited time per month for free.
Before you go ahead and use a website tool tester, you have to design your website first.
Visit our blog for some web design tips to help you bring your ideas to the screen. Check it out for some inspiration and for tips on the best tools that can help you design your responsive website.
Did you know that the eCommerce market size was valued at 9.09 trillion in the…
Every day, around 500,000 new websites launch. That's a colossal number, and it tells us that…
A recent study found that over 60% of businesses have experienced some form of cyber…
Every business, no matter how big or small, has one thing in common - limited…
Communication is essential in any business. It enables organizations to become profitable and grow. Quality…
Did you know that there are 57 million freelance bloggers in the United States who…