Best TestLink Alternatives (2026)
You inherited a TestLink instance. The PHP server runs on a box somebody set up years ago, the database needs patching, and the person who knew how it was configured has moved teams. Every so often someone asks whether you can just keep it running, and nobody is sure of the answer. If you are searching for a TestLink alternative, you are probably at that point.
The short answer: TestLink's 1.9.x line has been declared finished, so the maintenance burden will not get lighter. The realistic replacements fall into three groups. Stay self-hosted with an open-source tool such as Kiwi TCMS or Squash TM. Pay per seat for a cloud tool such as TestRail, Qase or Testiny. Or pay a flat or banded fee, as Testmo and Squash TM's commercial editions do. Which road fits depends less on feature lists than on how each vendor bills you and whether your test cases can move with you. This article covers six alternatives, the pricing shape of each, and where each falls short, with Quash (our product) listed after them.
What actually happened to TestLink
The TestLink repository README carries a notice: "IMPORTANT NOTICE 1.9.20 will be the last version of the 1.9.x family." That closes the 1.9.x line. It does not say the project is abandoned.
The same README describes a planned 2.x with a new user interface, and a maintainer note dated 2025-12-06 says he is "still working on it." There is no dated release schedule and nothing labelled 2.x has shipped. Treat it as stated intent, not a roadmap you can plan around.
The most recent dated item is a Git tag, 1.9.20-20251208, dated Dec 8, 2025, with the commit message "Partially tested with 8.5.0, with Smarty 3.x." That is a PHP compatibility pass, and the maintainer's word "partially" matters. GitHub's Releases page states "There aren't any releases here." The project website names 1.9.20 as stable; its footer reads 2013/2018, which is a copyright line, not a last-updated date.
For an existing install: expect no further 1.9.x maintenance, and expect to handle PHP compatibility yourself. TestLink's documented requirements list MySQL, MariaDB and PostgreSQL, so your database choice does not limit where you can go next. Whether to leave is a separate decision, and the rest of this article is about making it.
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How to choose: three roads out of TestLink
Sort your options by road before you compare products, because the road sets the cost structure.
1. Stay self-hosted and free. You keep your own server, database and upgrades. The licence costs nothing; the hours someone spends maintaining it do. Kiwi TCMS and Squash TM's Community edition are the open-source options here.
2. Buy per-seat cloud. You pay for each user monthly or yearly and the vendor runs the infrastructure. TestRail, Qase and Testiny sell this way, with different seat types and discounts. Your bill grows with headcount unless volume pricing softens it.
3. Buy banded or flat-rate. You pay a fee tied to a headcount band or seat allowance. Testmo charges a flat monthly fee with included users. Squash TM's commercial editions are priced annually by headcount band.
Ranking these by per-user-per-month figure will mislead you. The shape of the bill is the decision variable, so the table puts shape beside price.
TestLink alternatives at a glance
Prices are as shown on each vendor's own pricing page on 2026-11-11. Pricing changes; confirm on the vendor page before you budget.
Tool | What it is | Hosting | Free tier | Entry paid price (vendor's own figure) | Pricing shape | Best for |
TestRail | Commercial test management | Cloud; on-premise on Professional and Enterprise | None; 30-day trial | Essentials $22/user/mo billed annually, cloud only, max 5 users | Per seat per month | Teams that want a mature paid tool and accept per-seat cost |
Kiwi TCMS | Open-source test management | Self-hosted, container-first | Free to self-host | No published price for paid support | Free software plus optional paid support | Teams staying self-hosted that can run Docker |
Squash TM | Open-source test and requirements management | Self-hosted Community; commercial self-hosted or hosted Cloud | Community edition free | Annual bands by headcount | Banded annual fee | Teams that need requirements traceability |
Qase | Cloud test management | Cloud | $0/user/mo, up to 2 projects | Teams $35/user/mo billed yearly | Per seat, cheaper collaborator seats | Small teams that want a free start and a documented TestLink import |
Testiny | Cloud test management with a self-hosted option | Cloud or Testiny Server | Up to 3 users | Starter $15.42/user/mo billed yearly | Per seat, volume discounts, viewer seats | Teams that want per-seat pricing with a self-hosted path |
Testmo | Cloud test management and reporting | Cloud only | Trial only | Team $59/mo with 5 users included | Flat monthly with seat allowance | Teams that want a monthly fee with included users and accept cloud |
1. TestRail
What it is. TestRail is a commercial test management system for manual and automated cases, runs and reporting. Plans are Essentials, Professional and Enterprise, and the vendor says every plan includes AI features.
Who it suits. Teams that want a mature paid tool and can budget per seat. For a broader comparison, see our TestRail vs alternatives post.
Pricing. There is no permanently free plan; every plan includes a 30-day free trial with no credit card required. Essentials is $22 per user per month billed annually, cloud only, limited to five users. Professional is $38 per user per month billed annually on the plan card, while the FAQ on the same page says "Professional costs $39." Enterprise is $78 per user per month billed annually. The page does not reconcile the two Professional figures, so confirm the current one before you budget.
Deployment. On-premise is available only on Professional and Enterprise, with a minimum of 10 seats and a 12-month contract. A team of ten that wants to stay self-hosted therefore enters at Professional.
Where it falls short. No free tier. The entry tier cannot serve a team larger than five. On-premise carries a seat minimum and contract length that small teams may not meet. The pricing FAQ names Zephyr, Xray and qTest as migration sources, not TestLink; see the migration section below.
2. Kiwi TCMS
What it is. Kiwi TCMS is an open-source test management system. Its homepage describes it as container-first, with manual and automated test management, an external API (JSON-RPC, XML-RPC and OpenAPI) and one-click bug reporting to third-party trackers.
Who it suits. Teams that want to keep self-hosting and are comfortable running a Docker container. It is the closest like-for-like replacement for a TestLink instance you already run yourself.
Pricing. The software is free to self-host. The site offers an optional paid subscription for teams that do not want to run their own infrastructure, but publishes no numeric price. If you need vendor support, you cannot budget from public information, so ask Kiwi directly.
Where it falls short. The support price is not public. The homepage says it runs as a container but gives no installation walkthrough, so a team without Docker experience should plan that work. Kiwi's site does not document a TestLink import path, so trial any migration on a copy of your data.
3. Squash TM
What it is. Squash TM is a test management tool with a focus on requirements traceability. The Community edition is free and open source. Commercial editions add support, identity and access management integration, an administration API and more defect-connector options.
Who it suits. Teams that need requirements linked to test cases, and teams that want a hosted Cloud edition on French servers.
Pricing. Commercial editions are priced as an annual fee banded by headcount, not per seat, and the price differs between self-hosted Server editions and the hosted Cloud edition. Read the band for your headcount on the vendor's pricing page, because the band is the price and there is no per-seat figure to multiply. Prices are stated without tax.
Qualifiers. The Cloud Premium price excludes automation features. French hosting applies to the hosted Cloud edition, not every commercial edition. A server in the EU is a location, not a statement of data sovereignty or regulatory compliance.
Where it falls short. The banded model is hard to compare against per-seat quotes, and self-hosted commercial editions add a licence on top of the operations work the free edition already requires. Squash TM's pages reviewed do not document a TestLink import path.
4. Qase
What it is. Qase is a cloud test management platform with a free plan, Teams and Enterprise.
Who it suits. Small teams that want a free starting point and expect to grow into paid per-seat plans. Qase is also the clearest case in this list of a vendor documenting a TestLink import.
Pricing. The Free plan is $0 per user per month, up to two projects, with 500 MB of storage and 30-day history, and the vendor positions it for "students, hobbyists, educators, and non-profits." Teams is $35 per user per month billed yearly, with collaborator seats at $10 per user per month. Enterprise is custom. Qase says its prices exclude regional taxes and that its plans were last updated July 21, 2026.
What the free plan excludes. Requirements management, the traceability matrix, custom fields and integrations sit at Teams and above in the vendor's comparison table.
Migration. Qase's import documentation lists TestLink XML as a source and describes a three-step flow that imports test cases into a chosen parent suite. The page does not say whether runs, results, attachments, custom fields, requirements links or case IDs carry over. The pricing page lists migration as an Enterprise add-on service.
Where it falls short. The free tier is scoped to individuals and non-profits, not working teams, and assisted migration is an Enterprise add-on.
5. Testiny
What it is. Testiny is a cloud test management tool with a self-hosted version, Testiny Server.
Who it suits. Teams that want per-seat pricing with volume discounts and cheap viewer seats, and that may later need self-hosting.
Pricing. The free plan covers up to three users and includes cases, plans, runs, reporting, issue-tracker integrations, API keys and two-factor authentication. Paid cloud plans are per seat per month on a yearly basis: Starter $15.42 for up to 25 users, Business $17.08 from five users, Enterprise $25.00 in five-seat packages. Viewer seats cost $3.08, $3.42 and $5.00 across those plans. Prices are net of tax.
A worked total from the vendor. Testiny's own calculator puts Business cloud at 10 users plus 10 viewers at $2,460.00 per year. That is Testiny's output for that configuration only, but it is the most concrete bill in this list because the vendor calculated it.
Self-hosted. Testiny Server starts at $300 per user per year, billed annually in five-user packages, and the vendor markets it for sectors such as banking and insurance.
Migration. Testiny's TestLink guide states that "TestLink exports test cases only in XML format," so you convert to CSV before importing. The guide describes the path; it is not independent proof that every field maps without loss.
Where it falls short. The self-hosted tier is sold in packages through sales, and the TestLink path leaves the XML-to-CSV conversion to you.
6. Testmo
What it is. Testmo is a test management and reporting platform with exploratory testing as a first-class feature.
Who it suits. Teams that want a monthly fee covering a set number of users and accept a cloud-hosted product.
Pricing. Team is $59 per month with five users included, Business is $249 per month with 15, and Enterprise is $599 per month with 25. The vendor says unlimited projects, cases, plans, runs and automation results are included on every tier. There is no free tier, only a trial.
Two qualifiers. Extra users beyond the allowance move a plan into higher user bands, so the bill is not flat at every headcount. The discount wording is also inconsistent: the Team card says "Save 15% on annual plans," while the FAQ applies the 15% to annual Business and Enterprise plans. Ask Testmo which applies before budgeting an annual Team plan.
Migration. Testmo's TestLink import path is not documented in the pages reviewed. Its JUnit importer handles automation results, which is a different job from importing test cases.
Where it falls short. Testmo is a cloud web application with no on-premise edition, which rules it out if you need to keep TestLink's self-hosted model.
7. Quash
Disclosure: Quash is our product.
Quash is a mobile-first testing platform. It generates and runs tests from plain-English steps on Android and iOS apps, also runs browser-based web tests and API checks inside the same run, and includes test management for cases, suites and runs. It is listed because a team leaving TestLink may need tests executed on devices, not only stored.
Where Quash does not replace TestLink. Quash is not positioned as a requirements-traceability repository. If your TestLink use is mainly linking requirements to cases, choose Squash TM, TestRail or Qase instead. Quash is also not an open-source tool you host from a free licence.
Pricing. Quash Platform pricing is custom, sized around expected test execution volume, and evaluation is guided after a demo call. No public price exists to quote, so confirm terms with Quash.
Migration. No TestLink import path is documented for Quash.
Fit. Best for a team whose TestLink cases describe mobile app flows and that wants those flows executed, not just recorded. Not a fit if a requirements repository is the main need.
Moving your test cases: what is documented
Leaving TestLink is easy to price and hard to finish. Whether cases, runs and history come with you matters as much as the licence fee. "Not documented" below does not mean "unsupported"; it means the vendor's accessible pages do not describe the path, so test it before you commit.
Destination | What is documented | Status |
Qase | TestLink XML is a supported source; flow imports test cases into a parent suite | Documented for test cases. Runs, results, attachments and requirement links are not described on that page |
Testiny | A TestLink migration guide; TestLink exports XML, which must be converted to CSV first | Documented, with a manual conversion step. Field fidelity rests on the vendor's guide |
TestRail | Pricing FAQ says all plans support CSV and XML imports and names Zephyr, Xray and qTest as sources | Not documented for TestLink specifically |
Testmo | Its CSV and Excel import article was not accessible | Not documented for TestLink |
Squash TM, Kiwi TCMS, Quash | No TestLink import documentation found | Not documented |
No vendor reviewed publishes data on migration fidelity, meaning whether TestLink case IDs, attachments, execution history and requirement links survive. A free licence is also not free hosting, administration or migration. Budget for the conversion, a cutover period in which both systems run, and a person who checks the imported history against the original.
How we picked
Every price here was read from the vendor's own pricing page on 2026-11-11, and every migration statement comes from the vendor's own documentation or from the TestLink repository. Competitor comparison articles were not used as a source for any price or feature. Where a vendor's page contradicts itself, as TestRail's does on Professional, we report both figures.
The six alternatives are those whose own pricing or documented position was readable. Other tools exist in the category and are not covered. Kiwi TCMS is included without a support price because it fits a self-hosting reader, and the missing price is itself the finding. We ran no import ourselves, so no migration outcome in this article is a measured result.
Conclusion
Decide the road first: stay self-hosted, buy per seat, or buy banded. Then check the migration status of the tools on that road, because a documented import path narrows the field faster than a price does. Only then compare prices, and confirm each one on the vendor's page the day you buy.
If you are not ready to leave, TestLink's 1.9.x line will keep running, but you will own every PHP and database upgrade from here. Pick the tool whose bill and migration path you could explain to your manager today.
FAQ
Is TestLink still maintained?
The repository states 1.9.20 is the last 1.9.x version. A Git tag dated Dec 8, 2025 notes partial testing on PHP 8.5, and the maintainer says a 2.x is in progress, with no release date.
What is the best free TestLink alternative?
For self-hosting, Kiwi TCMS and Squash TM Community are free open-source options. For cloud, Qase and Testiny have free plans, limited to two projects and three users respectively.
Can I import TestLink test cases into another tool?
Qase documents a TestLink XML test-case import. Testiny documents a path that needs XML converted to CSV first.
Which alternatives can be self-hosted?
Kiwi TCMS, Squash TM, Testiny Server and TestRail on-premise, which requires Professional or Enterprise with a 10-seat minimum. Testmo is cloud only.
Does TestLink alternative pricing differ much by vendor?
Yes. Billing is per seat, flat with an allowance, or banded by headcount, so per-user figures are not directly comparable.
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