First it is very important to notice that Manual testing is not just random clicks on the user interface of a software application. For efficient testing of the software product you should have test plan and strongly defined test cases. Manual testing is the process of executing trough these test cases manually.
Test automation is a software code that is executing the same test cases or test scenarios but automatically using some kind of test automation tools or frameworks.
The development time of test automation can take a lot of time. Usually is a huge investment of time and resources. Some software companies prefer to use offshore outsourcing companies for doing their test automation, which cuts the costs.
It is common believe that once the test automation is created it is working forever. That is completely wrong. You can expect some expenses for fixing the test automation. But at the end test automation is much faster than the manual testing and is the only way you can do a fast regression testing. Test automation is recommended especially for very big software products.
My personal advice on whether you should use manual testing or test automation for your project is: Always have a small set of the most important tests automated, so when a bug fix is introduced at late stage of the project you will be able to run very quickly the most important test and after the bug fix is applied you will be able to do a full test pass.
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