#### Feb 15, 2017 | Soumya Swaroop

# 5 reasons to use Gauge

Despite having the right set of automated tests, writing and managing a growing test suite can be challenging.

Here’s a few other Gauge features that can make managing tests less painful.

> **Reason 1: Get Started Quickly**

Be it Mac, Windows, Linux OS or any of the supported Gauge’s language runners, all it takes are a [few steps](/content/get_started/index.html) from Gauge installation to see it work. There are _[templates](https://docs.gauge.org/latest/installation.html#discovering-project-templates)_ available to bootstrap the process of initialising a Gauge project. Here are some the [examples](https://docs.gauge.org/latest/examples.html) to understand more.

> **Reason 2: Easy to use**

With Gauge, stop worrying about

**Which** language is used to implement a _step_ — Java, C#, Ruby or community contributed _[runners](/content/plugins/index.html)_  
**When** to execute — Trigger the tests manually or Configure to Auto trigger  
**Where** to execute it from — CI/locally on Windows, Mac or Linux, Virtual Machine, Docker Container.  
**What** are the types of test data used for the test cases — external/internal, inline/ _[special](https://docs.gauge.org/latest/writing-specifications.html#special-parameters)_ and more  
**How** are the tests executed — In Sequence or in _[parallel](https://docs.gauge.org/latest/execution.html#parallel-execution)_.

Gauge’s _execution_ and _[reporting](https://docs.getgauge.io/reports.html)_ handles all this and more.

> **Reason 3: Get faster feedback**

Gauge is fast. Here are the performance numbers on a micro benchmark of a sample Gauge project.

**With [multithread](https://docs.getgauge.io/using.html#parallel-execution-using-threads) parallel run, the performance gains are huge.**

All other functionalities like reporting etc. just works on either mode. It is easy to switch between sequential of _[parallel](https://docs.gauge.org/latest/execution.html#parallel-execution)_ runs for your test suite. This makes configuring Gauge test suites, to run on CI/CD servers, simple.

> **Reason 4: Better abstraction**

_[Specifications in Markdown](https://blog.getgauge.io/why-write-tests-in-plain-text-d9a54ccdc41b)_ provides an effective way to break communication barriers and express better. It cleanly abstracts code behind the _[steps](https://docs.gauge.org/latest/writing-specifications.html#longstart-steps)_.

_A [Concept](https://docs.gauge.org/latest/writing-specifications.html#concept)_ is a re-usable logical group of _steps_. It allows better abstraction of a business intent by combining _steps_.

_Flexible folder structure_ gives the ability to locate and _[execute](https://docs.gauge.org/latest/execution.html#specify-directory)_ the specifications that interest us.

_[Tagging](https://docs.gauge.org/latest/execution.html#specify-tags)_ allows to define functional and logical groups across scenarios and specifications. _[Filter](https://github.com/getgauge/spectacle/blob/master/README.md)_, _[execute](https://docs.getgauge.io/using.html#tagged-execution)_ and _[search](https://github.com/getgauge/spectacle/blob/master/README.md)_ related scenarios and specifications easily using these tags.

> **Reason 5: IDE Support makes maintaining suites easy**

With a growing test suite, there is a need to make managing it simpler. Gauge’s [IDE support](https://docs.gauge.org/latest/writing-specifications.html#ide-plugins) helps to

- Navigate between _steps_, _concepts_ and _[code blocks](https://docs.gauge.org/latest/writing-specifications.html#language-steps)_. This helps to keep the flow & get better understanding.
- Autocomplete encourages **D** on’t want to **R** epeat **Y** ourself (DRY)
- Generate _[step](https://docs.gauge.org/latest/writing-specifications.html#longstart-steps)_ implementations
- Refactor with ease
- Early warnings (displays as you type)
- Run tests from the IDE at any level — suite, _spec_, _scenario_ etc.
- Debug your tests from the IDE
- [And more!](https://docs.gauge.org/latest/writing-specifications.html#ide-plugins)

At _[Gauge](/content/site-root.html)_, we understand that it is good to keep things simple. We aim to make test automation, simple and easy to maintain.

_[Gauge](/content/site-root.html) is a free and open source test automation framework that takes the pain out of acceptance testing. [Download](/content/get_started/index.html) it or read [documentation](https://docs.gauge.org/) to get started!_