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Testing · head to head

Applitools vs Garden

Applitools logo

Applitools

Testing

AI-based visual regression testing, priced on component and page checkpoint volume

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Garden logo

Garden

Developer Tools

Kubernetes development and testing automation with shared caching, now owned by Incredibuild

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Garden has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Applitools the entry tier alone costs 667 US dollars a month on annual billing, a genuinely high floor compared to Percy's tiers or a plain screenshot-diffing open source approach.; Garden incredibuild acquired Garden in November 2024 and the pricing page now redirects to documentation, so there is no public commercial offer and no published roadmap for a team betting a platform on it.
  • They diverge on capability: Applitools covers Visual AI comparison, Garden covers Action graph.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Applitools and Garden actually diverge.

Attributes where Applitools and Garden differ
AttributeApplitoolsGarden
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelPer month by checkpoint volumeOpen source, no licence fee
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, iOS, AndroidLinux, macOS, Windows, Kubernetes
CategoryTestingDeveloper Tools

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Applitools

  • Visual AI comparison
  • Storybook component testing
  • Figma design comparison
  • Cross-browser and device visual testing
  • Accessibility testing
  • NLP-based test authoring

Only in Garden

  • Action graph
  • Shared result caching
  • Remote Kubernetes environments
  • In-cluster builds
  • Same config everywhere
  • Hot reload sync
  • Helm and Kustomize support
  • Templating

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Applitools

  • A team that abandoned pixel-diffing visual regression testing because of false-positive fatigue and wants a lower-noise alternativenot Garden
  • A design system team wanting component-level visual testing against Storybook rather than only full-page checksnot Garden
  • An organisation wanting automated verification that shipped UI matches its Figma source designnot Garden
  • A team wanting NLP-based visual test authoring to reduce the coding overhead of writing visual test scripts, available at Professional tiernot Garden

Garden

  • A platform team whose integration test suite takes longer than the coffee break and needs caching to cut the loopnot Applitools
  • An organisation with thirty or more services on Kubernetes where docker-compose no longer approximates productionnot Applitools
  • Giving every developer an ephemeral namespace instead of queuing for one shared staging environmentnot Applitools
  • Running the identical build and test definition locally and in CI so failures reproduce on a laptopnot Applitools

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Applitools

  • The entry tier alone costs 667 US dollars a month on annual billing, a genuinely high floor compared to Percy's tiers or a plain screenshot-diffing open source approach.
  • Professional and Enterprise tiers, which hold the more advanced authoring and unlimited execution features, are quote-only, removing pricing transparency exactly where a large buyer most needs it.
  • Visual AI still occasionally flags false positives on genuinely novel layouts or animation-heavy interfaces, so a baseline review process is still needed, not eliminated.
  • Checkpoint-based pricing means cost is directly tied to test suite size and coverage breadth, so expanding visual test coverage has a direct, compounding cost impact unlike time-based or seat-based pricing models.
  • Teams migrating from a simpler pixel-diffing tool face real setup and baseline migration work to establish Applitools baselines correctly across a large existing UI.

Garden

  • Incredibuild acquired Garden in November 2024 and the pricing page now redirects to documentation, so there is no public commercial offer and no published roadmap for a team betting a platform on it.
  • It is tightly bound to Kubernetes, so teams running on ECS, Nomad, plain VMs or serverless get little from it and would need a different tool entirely.
  • The YAML action graph is a real configuration surface: a large monorepo needs someone to own and maintain Garden config as a first-class artefact, which is a standing platform-engineering cost.
  • Shared remote environments mean every developer needs cluster access and a cost allocation model, so cloud spend rises and namespace sprawl becomes a thing you have to police.
  • Caching correctness depends on declaring dependencies accurately; an under-declared action will serve a stale cached pass and hide a genuine test failure, which is a hard class of bug to notice.

Pricing, plan by plan

Applitools

On request
  • Starter$667/month
    • Billed annually
    • 100,000 component checkpoints or 1,000 page checkpoints
    • Visual AI, Storybook and Figma integration, accessibility testing
  • Professional$undefined/month
    • Custom quote, starting around 150 active pages or 1,500 components
    • Unlimited executions, NLP-based test authoring
    • Priority support with a dedicated Slack channel
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Custom quote, starting around 350 active pages or 1,500 components
    • SSO and dedicated or private cloud
    • Custom SLAs and a weekly account manager

Garden

Free
  • Garden open sourceFree
    • Apache 2.0 licensed CLI
    • Full action graph and caching
    • Self-managed clusters
  • Commercial tier$undefined/year
    • Hosted caching and team features
    • Support and onboarding
    • Pricing no longer published since the Incredibuild acquisition

Which should you pick?

Choose Applitools if

  • You need visual ai comparison.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want storybook component testing.
Applitools review

Choose Garden if

  • You need action graph.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Windows, Kubernetes.
  • You also want shared result caching.
Garden review

Questions people ask

Is Applitools or Garden better?
Neither clearly leads. Applitools starts at On request and Garden at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Applitools or Garden?
Garden has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Applitools and Free for Garden.
Does Applitools or Garden run on more platforms?
Applitools runs on Web, iOS, Android. Garden runs on Linux, macOS, Windows, Kubernetes.
Can I use Garden for free?
Yes. Garden has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Applitools starts at On request.
What is Applitools best used for?
Applitools is most often used for a team that abandoned pixel-diffing visual regression testing because of false-positive fatigue and wants a lower-noise alternative, a design system team wanting component-level visual testing against storybook rather than only full-page checks, an organisation wanting automated verification that shipped ui matches its figma source design, a team wanting nlp-based visual test authoring to reduce the coding overhead of writing visual test scripts, available at professional tier. Of those, a team that abandoned pixel-diffing visual regression testing because of false-positive fatigue and wants a lower-noise alternative and a design system team wanting component-level visual testing against storybook rather than only full-page checks are not what Garden is typically brought in for.
What can Applitools do that Garden cannot?
Applitools covers Visual AI comparison, Storybook component testing, Figma design comparison, Cross-browser and device visual testing. Garden covers Action graph, Shared result caching, Remote Kubernetes environments, In-cluster builds.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Applitools: How is Applitools priced?

By checkpoint volume, component or page-level screenshot comparisons, with the entry Starter tier at 667 US dollars a month for 100,000 component or 1,000 page checkpoints.

Garden: Is Garden still maintained?

The open source project remains on GitHub under Incredibuild ownership, but the commercial pricing page redirects to the docs and there is no public paid offer.

Applitools: How is it different from Percy?

Applitools uses an AI-based perceptual comparison model designed to reduce false positives from rendering noise; Percy is generally pixel-diffing based and lower cost per screenshot.

Garden: Do I need Kubernetes?

Effectively yes. Garden is built around Kubernetes environments and offers little to teams on other runtimes.

Applitools: Does it test individual components or only full pages?

Both; Storybook integration allows component-level visual testing in addition to full-page checks.

Garden: Does it replace my CI system?

No. It runs inside GitHub Actions, GitLab CI or similar and speeds up what those pipelines execute.

Garden: What is the actual saving?

It comes from skipping builds and tests whose inputs have not changed, so the benefit scales with how many services you have and how often only a few change.

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