HTTPWatch vs. IEWatch

Perusing through the latest MSDN Magazine today, I saw an article about another HTTP/HTTPS analysis tool called IEWatch. Tonight I've installed the tool and compared the features of IEWatch against my old favorite HTTPWatch (which I previously posted about here). With a brief run through of all the features I found a few cool points and features that HTTPWatch doesn't have:

• Price. IEWatch is $89 (HTTPWatch is $249)
• HTML Analysis
  • Grouping of all the links, images, scripts, and forms on the page. Clicking of the individual items gives details in the Explorer bar as well as highlights the object in the actual Web page.
  • Show HTML object in code. Each object can be right clicked on and the actual HTML code for that HTML object will be shown.
• HTML spotlight: Click on HTML objects in the actual page to view the code for that object.

Although these are pretty cool features I wouldn't switch from HTTPWatch. The reason being is that IEWatch is lacking key QA testing features that HTTPWatch has. These are important features that help with my Web application testing. The biggest items that stick out are the easy viewing of:

• Cookies
• Cache
• Query string
• Post data
• Content stream

If all you care about is viewing the HTTP headers and getting a WSYWIG view of a page then IEWatch is for you. If you want to see more details of the HTTP/HTTPS traffic and find all the defects that I describe in my prior post, then in my humble opinion I feel that HTTPWatch is a better fit. Who am I kidding? I'm not humble. Just pay a little more and get more with HTTPWatch. HTTPWatch simply wins the throw-down.