Software Testing Market Statistics – Key Trends & Figures For 2024

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Software testing is a crucial component of today’s digital technology industry. The market has undergone significant transformations in the last few years, resulting from tech advancements, regulatory changes, and ever-changing business requirements.

The main reasons for the industry’s and market’s growth include the adoption of automated testing tools that expedite time to market and the early implementation of testing protocols.

This post discusses the market’s size, key markets and industries, tools, and key players. We’ll also explore software testing automation and forecast possible future trends in the software testing market. Let’s dive in.

Key Software Testing Market Statistics

Software Testing Market Size & Forecast

According to an April 2024 report by Techavio, the software testing market is expected to reach $15.94 billion by 2027 at a CAGR of 9.22%.

The most significant drivers of this growth include the following:

We previously covered the DevOps market statistics and saw that this methodology is gaining popularity, especially in application security testing.

We also saw that other methodologies, such as Agile, play a big role in IT. Regarding software testing specifically, Agile is forecast to be big in software testing automation – something we’ll cover in more detail later in this post. 

Key Software Testing Markets

In this section, we’ll look at the key software testing markets: the key industries impacted by software testing, the largest regional markets, and software testers themselves.

Industries

Tech, Fortune 500 companies and the finance industry were the areas most software testers worked in 2021.

Given the significant need for secure and robust software solutions, banking, insurance, and finance industries (BFSI) have a 28.5% share in the European software testing market. Other major industries are healthcare and life sciences, retail, and telecom and IT.

The BFSI sees a lot of security, compliance, and performance testing. Below is an overview of the most prevalent types of software testing across different industries.

Regions

Unsurprisingly, the North American software testing market is the largest, given that most IT providers are headquartered there.

The constant investment in R&D and digital technology in the US isn’t hurting growth, either. According to Techavio, North America contributes 40% to the software testing market.

Europe isn’t far behind, being the second-largest software testing market in the world. On the other hand, the Asia-Pacific software testing market reportedly has the highest CAGR. China’s market is forecast to grow at a 4.5% CAGR and Japan by 4.1% by the end of 2023.

For instance, Europe’s software market revenue is forecast to reach almost $200 billion by 2028, up from $157 billion in 2024.

Software Tester Statistics

But what about the people behind software testing?

Ireland has the highest number of software testers per 100,000 people (61.2%), while the US and Canada have almost half as many (37.1%). 

Regarding salaries, software testers earn a reasonable living in many countries:

As for demographics, it’s estimated that in 2021, 62% of software testers in the US were men, and 38% were women. The number of women has grown by almost 15% since 2017.

An average software tester in the US is in their early forties. Only 9% were under 30 in 2021. 

Software Testing Automation & Technical Statistics

In this section, we look into the technical aspects of software testing and highlight automation statistics. After all, automation is a priority for many testers today – as many as 30%.

Types of Software Tests

In 2023, unit testing was the most common type of software test. It involves testing the smallest functional segment, or unit, of code. In 2023, it was used in 63% of all software projects.

Functional software testing, which essentially determines that ‘everything works as it’s supposed to, is another common type of software testing. In 2023, it was used in 62% of projects – 10% less than in 2022.

Other common types of software testing are performance, regression, and acceptance testing. The latter, which tests whether the software has met the requirements of a contract or specification, saw the biggest drop in popularity.

Mobile testing is becoming increasingly popular, as more software providers embrace mobile technologies. Perfecto reports that 34% of organizations consider mobile software testing highly important.

Automated Testing

Software tests can be performed manually or automated. However, automation is all the rage right now, and the software testing market is no exception. 

PractiTest reports that in 2024, 30% of testers reported that automation had replaced 50% of their manual testing – 6% more than in 2023.

In 2024, automation replaced 75% or more of manual work for 19% of testers. Only 9% of software testers had no automation in 2023 and 2024. 

Conversely, only 2% of testers say that automation has fully replaced manual testing. That signifies that despite many advancements, full automation of software testing isn’t a reality.

Nonetheless, lack of automation is the second-highest concern for testing teams, as 47% expressed frustration with their lack of resources to create test automation.

Automation skills are in demand in 2023–2024, with around 50% of enterprises reporting the need for test automation skills. Other in-demand skills in 2024 are AI/ML testing – 21% of enterprises require it this year, up from 7% last year.

API testing was automated by the largest share of testers in 2023 – 84%. User interface testing was automated by 52% of testers, and desktop tests by 16%. 40% of testers automate testing continuously and 38% at set milestones.

Software Testing Tools & Key Players Statistics

A PractiTest report states that Jira is one of the most popular software testing tools in 2024, followed by Selenium and Postman. In 2020, JUnit and Selenium’s Web Driver were the most popular testing frameworks. 

Future of Software Testing

In this final section, we consider the possible future trends impacting the software testing market and analyze the extent to which they’re having an impact.

Increased Adoption of Agile and DevOps

Agile and DevOps are the most popular software development and testing frameworks in 2024. That’s no surprise, as they’re very effective at reducing time to market and helping IT organizations operate more effectively.

In the future, we expect Agile and DevOps principles to be adopted even more widely among software teams, blurring the lines between developers and testers.

This can only be a good thing, as it allows significant upskilling for both types of professionals and facilitates end-to-end software delivery.

Accessibility Testing

The issue of accessibility is significant in today’s society, and software testing is rising to the challenge.

It’s great to see that in 2024, 33% of software testing teams invest in accessibility testing.

With the makeup of decision-makers becoming increasingly diverse around the world, we welcome the improvements to the user experience they’re driving – not only to meet specific legal requirements but to improve the experience of all people around the world.

AI Use in Software Testing

Like other markets, advancements in AI are impacting software testing. Although 60% of testers don’t yet use AI for testing, 25% use it to create test cases, and 23% to optimize testing.

Over 50% of testers believe that AI will improve the efficiency of test automation and 41% foresee AI will be able to provide more complex test cases, ensuring better-made software.

Concluding Thoughts

This guide explored the software testing market, relevant statistics, and possible future trends. We saw that the market is witnessing significant growth, and the Agile and DevOps methodologies are important drivers of it.

Although many software testers work in the tech industry, banking and finance have a 28.5% share in the European software testing market. Other prominent industries for software testing are healthcare, retail, and education. In terms of market size, the North American market is the largest one.

We put a significant emphasis on automation in software testing because it’s getting increasingly prominent in the field. It replaced 50% of manual software testing for 30% of testers in 2024 and is on track to make the lives of many more software testers much easier.

So, we’re convinced that automation and AI are going to be the future of software testing, penetrating most, if not all, of the manual testing market. We look forward to seeing how they can optimize the work and improve bug squashing.

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