title: Difference between automation testing tool and automation framework
body: <p>I am trying to understand the difference between automation frameworks and automation testing tools. According to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test_automation" rel="nofollow">Test Automation</a> in wikipedia a tool is dependent on the environment whereas a framework provides the structure for running the tool.</p>
  
  <p>However, we have <a href="http://white.codeplex.com/" rel="nofollow">White</a> which interacts with windows applications, then <a href="http://seleniumhq.org/" rel="nofollow">Selenium</a> which works on browsers for web based applications. We call both of these "frameworks" but they both need to be run using a testing framework like NUnit or JUnit. So I feel they should be called tools because of this.</p>
  
  <p>How exactly do we differentiate between an automation testing tool and an automation framework?</p>