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Today there is plenty of choice for internet users when it comes to browsers – the current most top 10 most widely used browsers includes multiple versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari together with both Chrome and Opera. While web standards continue to improve – even in IE! – all these browsers still have their own little quirks, bugs and differences which need to be checked for in a webpage, but how do you check your webpage in 10 different browsers, let alone under different operating systems? Read on for a range of sites, plugins and programs that help you do just that!

For free

There are a number of free projects helped along by donations and volunteers that’ll help solve your browser compatibility woes.

1. Browsershots

Browsershots provides you with the ability to take screenshots of your website under almost every browser, version and OS you’d ever want to. The frontpage screams choice at you as you’re confronted with lots of checkboxes to pick exactly what you want screenshots of.

There are a few drawbacks to this service however – the queues for some setups are up to 48 minutes long and errors in screenshots are quite frequent – although quickly fixed once reported. For a totally free service with so many options though, Browsershots is a great place to start.

2. IEtab

IEtab is a nifty extension for Firefox which allows you to open and render pages using Internet Explorer right from the tabs of Firefox. In terms of convenience and ease of use it’s pretty much unbeatable however it is very limited – you need to have IE installed already. So this plugin provides a quick and easy way to check for IE compatibility but not much else.

3. BrowsrCamp

BrowsrCamp enables non-Mac users to see how their site looks like under OSX using Safari. Just provide a URL and a screenshot size and you’ll be given an image almost instantly.

There is a subscription charge if you want to test browsers other than Safari however.

4. IE NetRenderer

IE NetRenderer is another tool which will take a screenshot of your site in other browsers. As the name suggests this one deals with Internet Explorer and currently supports IE5.5 to IE8. This site seems to be a lot quicker than Browsershots, probably because it’s much more focused, so if it’s a sure place to checkout if you don’t fancy waiting 20 or so minutes!

5. IEtester

IE Tester is a program which gives you the ability to not only view but browse your site in IE – from 5.5 right up to the latest version 8. Unfortunately it does require Windows (XP, Vista and 7 are all supported) and is still a bit buggy in places but it will give you the chance to view things which a static screenshot won’t ever show you.

Commercial options

If you don’t mind spending a bit of money there are a couple of subscription services on offer.

6. CrossBrowserTesting.com

From $19.95 a month, CrossBrowserTesting.com not only provides screenshots of your design in a range of browsers but also live browsing similar to IE tester. This setup allows you to fully test not only your site’s layout but also Ajax and other scripting functionality.

7. BrowserCam

BrowserCam is another subscription service providing the ability to view and test your sites both using screenshots and remote access to Linux, Mac and Windows machines with plenty of browser options at your disposal. The website also offers Email capture – the ability to check how your email newsletters look across various clients and setups such as Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo! and AOL. On top of that you can also view how your site performs when viewed with a number of mobile systems including the iPhone OS, Google’s Android and Windows Mobile.