Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!
AVA vs Mocha: What are the differences?
What is AVA? A refined, futuristic test runner. Even though JavaScript is single-threaded, IO in Node.js can happen in parallel due to its async nature. AVA takes advantage of this and runs your tests concurrently, which is especially beneficial for IO heavy tests. In addition, test files are run in parallel as separate processes, giving you even better performance and an isolated environment for each test file.
What is Mocha? Simple, flexible, fun javascript test framework for node.js & the browser. Mocha is a feature-rich JavaScript test framework running on node.js and the browser, making asynchronous testing simple and fun. Mocha tests run serially, allowing for flexible and accurate reporting, while mapping uncaught exceptions to the correct test cases.
AVA and Mocha can be categorized as "Javascript Testing Framework" tools.
"Simple and fast" is the primary reason why developers consider AVA over the competitors, whereas "Open source" was stated as the key factor in picking Mocha.
AVA and Mocha are both open source tools. Mocha with 18K GitHub stars and 2.43K forks on GitHub appears to be more popular than AVA with 16.4K GitHub stars and 1.07K GitHub forks.
Sellsuki, Onedio, and triGo GmbH are some of the popular companies that use Mocha, whereas AVA is used by Taboola, Becual.com, and Navendis. Mocha has a broader approval, being mentioned in 397 company stacks & 268 developers stacks; compared to AVA, which is listed in 12 company stacks and 10 developer stacks.
We use Mocha for our FDA verification testing. It's integrated into Meteor, our upstream web application framework. We like how battle tested it is, its' syntax, its' options of reporters, and countless other features. Most everybody can agree on mocha, and that gets us half-way through our FDA verification and validation (V&V) testing strategy.
Pros of AVA
- Simple and fast13
- Parallel test running6
- Open source5
- Promise support3
- Test code Instrumenting3
- Babel integration2
- ESM Ready1
Pros of Mocha
- Open source137
- Simple102
- Promise support81
- Flexible48
- Easy to add support for Generators29
- For browser and server testing12
- Curstom assertion libraries7
- Works with Karma5
- No other better tools3
- Simple setup1
- Works with saucelabs1
- Lots of tutorials and help online1
- Default reporter is nice, clean, and itemized1
- Works with BrowserStack1
- Simple integration testing1
Sign up to add or upvote prosMake informed product decisions
Cons of AVA
- No built-in support for DOM1
- No source files compilation1
Cons of Mocha
- Cannot test a promisified functions without assertion3
- No assertion count in results2
- Not as many reporter options as Jest1