Disorders of gastrointestinal motility are frequently seen in clinical practice. Apart from motility disorders, factors leading to lowered visceroperception thresholds are recognized as commonly involved in the pathogenesis of functional gastrointestinal disorders. The wide array of gastrointestinal motility and viscerosensitivity tests available is in contrast with the relatively limited number of tests used universally in clinical practice. The main reason for this discrepancy is that the outcome of a test only becomes truly important when it carries clinical consequences. The main goal of this Review is to assess the place of the presently available gastrointestinal motility and sensitivity tests in the clinical armamentarium of the gastroenterologist.