How do you check the site appearance in different browsers? You can use special online services for the test purposes which show a screenshot of your site in different browsers, or you can use local browsers. In this set of articles I would tell you pluses and minuses of every method.

In this article, we will deal with online services which allows you to test your site on different browsers. Here are the recommended services:

http://browsershots.org/ – “Browsershots makes screenshots of your web design in different operating systems and browsers. It is a free open-source online web application providing developers a convenient way to test their website’s browser compatibility in one place. When you submit your web address, it will be added to the job queue. A number of distributed computers will open your website in their browser. Then they will make screenshots and upload them to our central dedicated servers for your review. ”

This system has multilanguage interface. Request duration is set to 30 minutes but you can elongate it. All requested screenshots will be provided to a webmaster in the appropriate service section. Screenshots are available in ZIP format.

http://www.iecapture.com/ – “A screenshot is worth 1,000 words. Integrate thumbnails into your website or iOS product simply and quickly using our screenshot API. ”

http://danvine.com/icapture – allows viewing of a site in Safari browser from Mac OS X package.

http://www.browsercam.com/ – “BrowserCam’s Screen Capture Service lets you submit single or multiple URL’s, choose the browsers and operating systems you want to see, and screen captures of your webpage are loaded in the different browsers and operating systems you selected.

You may take an unlimited number of our traditional single-frame screen captures during your subscription period. Our screen capture service also offers Full Page Captures, which will take a full length screen capture up to 8 pages long.

These capture limits refer only to the number of Full Page Captures that you may have in your account at any given time. So for instance, if you have a Super-Saver plan and you’ve reached your 250 FPC limit, all you have to do is delete some or all of your existing FPCs if you’d like to take more. ”

http://www.browserpool.de/kc/wob/portal.jsp – paid BrowserPool service, can make screenshots in many OS and browsers. It costs 29.99 EU per month. You can get free test account to try it.

http://ipinfo.info/netrenderer/ – this service can do screenshots in different IE versions (from 5.5 to 8 beta) and works very fast. It also can combine screenshots which were made in IE 6 and IE 7 so you can see the difference. Free service.

http://www.browsrcamp.com/ – makes screenshots for Mac OS X browsers only. And you can perform free tests in Safari only. It is possible to adjust format and quality of an output image.

Summary

Although online services seems to be the appropriate tool to test your site, they have an essential disadvantage if you use them quite a bit. They could make a hash of site traffic statistics and increase data of access counters.