Modular. Open. Powerful.

Step is a multipurpose orchestration platform for software automation. It unifies the software automation disciplines and enables the reuse of automation artifacts through the whole DevOps lifecycle, from large scale test automation to load & performance tests, RPA and monitoring.

Unified Workflow Definition

Design every kind of automation — from large-scale test campaigns to RPA — using a single, consistent approach.

Flexible Plan Definitions

Author plans in YAML, plaintext, programmatically, or via an intuitive UI—Step adapts to your preferred format.

Dedicated Controls

Built-in support for parallelization, asynchronous testing, load testing, synthetic monitoring, data-driven workflows, and RPA.

Modular Design

Define fine-grained, parameterizable blocks that can be reused across teams and disciplines.

Technology-Agnostic

Combine and assemble workflows from multiple technologies and frameworks for complex E2E automation in a unified and cohesive manner

Enables collaboration

Share artifacts across teams to foster collaboration and enhance productivity.

Test Management Integration

Integrate with leading test management tools for streamlined specification and reporting.

Built-In Integrations.
Boundless Extensibility.

Step enables limitless, adaptive automation with built-in support for industry-standard tools, native code extensibility, and full execution control via containers.

Orchestration

Centrally manage and execute complex workflows with powerful, scalable orchestration features.

Centralized Control

Define, manage, and monitor all workflows from a single platform.

Distributed Execution

Distribute execution across a highly scalable agent grid supporting up to 5000 agents.

Automatic Provisioning

Provision agents on-demand to match your workload.

Hybrid Support

Run on Kubernetes, VMs, physical clients — or all at once.

Flexible Triggers

Start workflows manually, via REST API, CLI, or schedule them.

DevOps Integration

Streamline automation in CI/CD pipelines with full DevOps platform integration.

Multipurpose CLI

Use a single CLI for development, execution, and deployment.

Result Reporting

Automatically integrate test results into DevOps workflows.

No Code / Everything as Code

Empower teams with the flexibility to choose their preferred approach—Step supports all levels of automation.

Enterprise-Ready

Step is built to meet the demands of enterprise environments:

Identity Management (IDM)

Seamless integration with enterprise authentication systems.

Projects & Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

Manage projects with fine-grained access policies for users and teams.

Multi-Tenancy

Isolate workspaces and resources across tenants to ensure scalability and security.

Reporting

Gain deep insights into every execution with a powerful, scalable, and centralized reporting platform.

Third-Party Integration

Connect with tools like Prometheus, Grafana, and log monitoring solutions.

API Access

Extract and query all report data via REST API.

Export Options

Generate reports in standard formats (e.g., JUnit).

Customize

Write your own reports or connector to tailor output to your stack.

Supported Platforms

Step adapts to your infrastructure—whether fully managed or self-hosted.

Fully managed by us

On-premises: run anywhere you need

Alerting

Stay ahead of issues with a powerful, customizable alerting engine.

Customizable Alerts

Define complex alerting rules for critical scenarios.

Flexible Notifications

Deliver alerts via email, webhooks, or your preferred channels.

Rich Templating

Create detailed, reusable messages with Notification Presets.

Incident Management

Automate response workflows or tailor incident handling to your needs.

Community

Collaborate and innovate with an active community of Step users and contributors.

Active Ecosystem

Join discussions, contribute features, and benefit from the experience of other automation experts.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Clarity about Step's costs and features

Is there a demo version?

Yes, you can easily test Step with our SaaS solution. After the registration you are automatically enrolled in the free evaluation plan which includes evaluation credits. Credit card information will only be required when upgrading to a paid plan.

What is an agent?

The agent is the component that executes the automation code (scripts) interacting with the Application under Test (AUT). In that sense an agent can be considered as a Virtual User. In the SaaS edition, agents are configured to run one script (or Virtual User) at a time.

Note: Our listed pricing covers fully capable agents that support browser-based UI testing. There is no separate or hidden pricing for browser automation — everything is included.

What is an agent hour?

Agent hours, commonly called virtual user hours (VUH), are the product of the number of agents and the duration they are in use.

agent hours = (# of agents) * (duration of test in hours).

How many agents can Step support?

Step can support up to 5000 agents for browser-based load testing.With Step SaaS, the number of agents during the evaluation period is limited to 10 agents per cluster. If you would like to increase the number of agents before the end of the evaluation period, please contact our support team at support@exense.ch to increase your quota accordingly.

How does the billing work with Step SaaS?

Each running cluster is charged from the moment it starts, and the cost increases with the number of agents started (you need as many agents as concurrent browsers you want to run).Note that you can stop/restart your cluster at any time to save costs. An automatic shutdown of idle Step clusters is now available to avoid extra costs.The prices displayed on our website are in US Dollars (USD) for your convenience. However, Step being owned by exense GmbH, a Swiss company, you will be billed in Swiss Francs (CHF) at the prevailing exchange rate.

Where can I see how much I will be charged?

Your current monthly usage is displayed in the top banner of the Step portal and updated automatically in real time.

What happens with the personal data in regards to the projects executed in the clusters?

All the data (scripts, parameters, plans) that you upload or define within your dedicated cluster of Step remain isolated within your cluster and are deleted upon cluster decommissioning.

Where are the servers and infrastructure based?

Our Step clusters are hosted in Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), exclusively in the region europe-west6 (Zurich, Switzerland).

Error when trying to login to the Step portal

This might be a caching issue. Try to clear your browser cache or open Step in a private tab and retry.

Can I reuse existing scripts for browser-based load testing?

Yes, you can reuse existing Cypress, Selenium and Playwright scripts to efficiently set up browser-based load testing in Step. Follow our tutorials on Load Testing with Cypress, Selenium or Playwright for more information.

Can I pay more to customize a SaaS cluster?

For customers whose requirements do not align with our predefined scenarios, we offer a “Custom” tier option. This tier allows for tailor-made solutions to meet specific needs and demands, and requires interaction with our pre-sales team.

What if my app needs more resources?

If your keywords generate a workload that exceeds our default sizing, our engineering team can design a custom setup for you. In such cases, your solution would fall under the “Custom” tier category, and custom pricing may apply.

Are there any hidden fees?

No, the price as shown in the calculator, apart from VAT and currency conversion, are the effective prices charged to customers.

Can I add other agent types to my SaaS cluster?

Yes, but the same price will be charged as if you had ordered a second cluster.

Which version of Step is provided with SaaS?

The cloud clusters run a modified, optimized version of Step Enterprise Edition.

Is token auto-scaling available?

Token auto-scaling is not yet available. The number of agent tokens have to be provisioned before execution in the Step Portal.

Is the type of activity limited with Step SaaS?

On a cloud instance, practices are not effectively limited. However, we support 5 official practices:

1.) CI / CD / DevOps pipeline support
2.) Functional Testing (regression, data-driven, negative testing, etc)
3.) Load & Performance Testing
4.) Synthetic Monitoring (availability & SLAs)
5.) Robotic Process Automation

How can I close my account?

Simply log into the Step portal and go to “Manage Organization” to close your account.

Which plan should I go for? SaaS or on-premise?

SaaS Pros:

- No need to train customers on operational aspects.
- Reduction in Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) in exchange for reduced customization capability.
- Enhanced stability due to exense GmbH’s expertise in Step.
- Flexibility achieved through quick resource allocation.

SaaS Cons:

- No direct access to underlying infrastructure (hosts, file systems, etc) or software distribution.
- Infrastructure commissioning and operational overhead provided on behalf of the customer by exense GmbH or one of exense GmbH’s IaaS providers (data is physically stored in Switzerland unless explicitly requested otherwise by the user).
- Limited configuration and integration capability compared to on-premise setups.
- No networking customization possible (such as VPN or firewall configurations)

On-premise Pros:

- Direct access to hosts enabling controller interactions with the operating system (shared drives, SSH/RDP access to hosts).
- Ability to tightly integrate with third-party tools (ALM, Jira, LDAP, etc.).
- Flexibility to customize and extend the setup (agent pools, Step properties, system dependencies).

On-premise Cons:

- Customer administrators require training to allocate and manage their own infrastructure, software installation, and every other operational aspect such as housekeeping and backups.
- Requirement for customers to use their own infrastructure.

Empowering the future generation of automation for:

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