Selenium IDE and Selenium WebDriver are both tools used for web application testing, but they have different purposes and capabilities.

1. Selenium IDE: Selenium IDE (Integrated Development Environment) is a record-and-playback tool primarily used for creating automated test cases for web applications. It is a browser extension available for Chrome and Firefox. Selenium IDE allows testers to record their interactions with a web application and then play them back as automated test scripts. These recorded scripts are written in the Selenese scripting language.

Key features of Selenium IDE:

• Easy-to-use record and playback functionality.
• Simple test script creation without the need for programming knowledge.
• Supports exporting test scripts to various programming languages like Java, Python, Ruby, etc.
• Limited in functionality compared to WebDriver.

2. Selenium WebDriver: Selenium WebDriver is a more advanced and powerful tool that provides a programmatic way to interact with web applications. It is a library available in various programming languages like Java, Python, C#, Ruby, etc., and it allows testers and developers to write their own test scripts using these programming languages.

Key features of Selenium WebDriver:

• Supports multiple programming languages, providing flexibility to choose the language of preference.
• Provides rich functionalities to interact with web elements, navigate between pages, handle pop-ups, and manage browser sessions.
• Supports cross-browser testing, enabling tests to be executed on different web browsers.
• Offers robust capabilities for handling complex scenarios, such as data-driven testing, parallel test execution, and headless browser testing.
• Integrates well with testing frameworks, build tools, and continuous integration systems.

In summary, Selenium IDE is best suited for testers without programming skills or for quick, simple test script creation, whereas Selenium WebDriver is more suitable for professional testers and developers who require more control, flexibility, and advanced capabilities in their test automation efforts. WebDriver is widely used in the industry for building scalable and maintainable test automation suites.