This post will go over how I check my websites in multiple browsers for free. There are services out there that will show you what your webpage will look like in other browsers but unfortunately they are not in real time. They also don’t allow for testing websites that are local on your machine.
Unfortunately for the Mac users this will NOT work out of the box. I’m sorry you will just have to buy an Extra PC, Run a Virtual Machine or just switch to an operating systems that gives you much more options and won’t confine your creativity! *jab*
How can I test multiple browsers for free?
There is two tools that I use. One is web based and the other one is a free download.
IE Tester
This is such a great piece of software. It does an awesome job of emulating the different versions of Internet Explorer. It emulates IE 5.5, 6, 7, and 8 on Windows 7. I have found it’s not the most stable piece of software but considering the other options out there I don’t care. Because it’s a local app I can test local websites I am developing and see them very quickly without a lot of hassle.
http://www.my-debugbar.com/wiki/IETester/HomePage
Spoon Web Browser Virtualization
These guys are amazing. They managed to virtualize all the browsers out there. Unfortunately they were asked from Microsoft to remove the different version of IE from the website. They currently have most of the Firefox versions, Opera, Safari and Google Chrome browsers. What’s nice about there site is that you don’t actually have to install the browsers on the machine. You can have multiple versions of browser open at once. Because the browser is NOT being emulated you get very actual results!
http://www.spoon.net/Browsers/
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