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Cypress vs react-testing-library: What are the differences?
Introduction Cypress and react-testing-library are two popular frameworks used for testing applications built with React. While they both serve the purpose of testing, there are key differences that set them apart. This article will explore these differences in detail.
Syntax and API: One major difference between Cypress and react-testing-library is their syntax and API. Cypress provides a rich set of commands that allow you to interact with the application as a user would, such as clicking buttons or typing in input fields. On the other hand, react-testing-library focuses on testing the behavior of React components by rendering them in a virtual DOM and then using specific queries to interact with those components.
Scope of Testing: Another important difference is the scope of testing. Cypress is designed to be an end-to-end testing framework, which means it can be used to test the entire application stack, including the front-end and back-end. It allows you to simulate user interactions, as well as make assertions on the network requests and responses. On the other hand, react-testing-library is more focused on testing individual React components in isolation. It aims to test the component's behavior and state by rendering it and performing assertions on its output.
Performance and Speed: Cypress provides a unique feature called "time-travel" which allows you to see and interact with the application at any point during the test. While this can be useful for debugging, it can also impact the performance and speed of your tests. In contrast, react-testing-library focuses on simplicity and speed. It aims to provide fast and efficient testing by rendering components in a virtual DOM and using lightweight queries to interact with them.
Testing Philosophy: Cypress takes a different approach to testing compared to react-testing-library. Cypress encourages a "black-box" approach, where tests are written to mimic user interactions and validate the expected behavior. This can be useful for testing complex user flows or scenarios. On the other hand, react-testing-library promotes a "white-box" approach, where tests are written to focus on the component's implementation and behavior, without considering the specific user interactions.
Integration with Testing Frameworks: Cypress is a standalone framework that comes with its own testing environment. It provides an easy setup process and integration with various popular testing frameworks. React-testing-library, on the other hand, is specifically designed to work with testing frameworks like Jest. It provides custom render functions and utility methods that simplify the testing process when using Jest.
Community and Ecosystem: Both Cypress and react-testing-library have active and growing communities. However, react-testing-library is more widely adopted within the React community and has a larger ecosystem of tools and utilities built around it. This can make it easier to find support, resources, and examples when using react-testing-library for testing React applications.
In summary, Cypress and react-testing-library have distinct differences in terms of syntax, testing scope, performance, testing philosophy, integration with testing frameworks, and community support. Selecting the appropriate testing framework depends on the specific requirements and goals of your project.
In the company I will be building test automation framework and my new company develops apps mainly using AngularJS/TypeScript. I was planning to build Protractor-Jasmine framework but a friend of mine told me about Cypress and heard that its users are very satisfied with it. I am trying to understand the capabilities of Cypress and as the final goal to differentiate these two tools. Can anyone advice me on this in a nutshell pls...
I've used both Protractor and Cypress extensively. Cypress is the easier and more reliable tool, whereas Protractor is the more powerful tool. Your choice of tool should depend on your specific testing needs. Here are some advantages and disadvantages of each tool:
Cypress advantages:
Faster
More reliable (tends to throw fewer intermittent false failures)
Easier to read code (handles promises gracefully)
Cypress disadvantages:
Cannot switch between browser tabs
Cannot switch to iFrames
Cannot specify clicks or keypresses explicitly as if a real user was interacting
Cannot move the mouse to specific co-ordinates
Sometimes has trouble switching between different top-level domains, so not good for testing external links
Cypress is a newer tool with less extensive documentation and less community support
Protractor advantages:
More powerful because it is Selenium-based - it can switch between tabs, it can handle external links to other domains, it can handle iFrames, simulate keypresses and clicks, and move the mouse to specific co-ordinates within the browser.
More extensive community support and documentation
Protractor disadvantages:
Slower and more brittle - in general there is a higher likelihood of cryptic and/or intermittent errors which may cause your tests to fail even though there is nothing wrong with your application
For highly experienced automation engineers, the fundamental "brittle" nature of Selenium can be worked around - it can be reliable but only if you really know what you are doing
Less graceful handling of promises - relies on async/await or .then to manage the order of execution. Therefore it is a bit harder to read the code.
Harder to set up, and the method of setup impacts its reliability. For example, a hub/node configuration where the selenium jar is on a different physical machine than the browser under test will cause unreliability in your tests. Not everyone knows about this type of thing, so it's common to find Selenium frameworks that are set up poorly.
It's probably better to use Cypress if
you're at a smaller company and have a close relationship with developers who can help write hooks or stubs in their code to assist your testing
you don't need to do things like switch between tabs or test links to external top-level domains
It's probably better to use Protractor if
You might need to switch between tabs or test external links to other domains within the scope of your framework
You want to use a more accurate simulation of how a real user interacts with a browser (i.e. click at this location, type these keys)
You're at a company where you won't have any support from developers in writing hooks or stubs to make their code more testable in a less powerful framework like Cypress
Please try Handow, the e2e tool basing on Puppeteer.
Gherkin syntax compatible
Chrome/Chromium orentied, driven by Puppeteer engine
Complete JavaScript programming
Create test suites rapidly without coding (or a little bit), basing on built-in steps library
Schedule test with plans and arrange stories with sequential stages
Fast running, execute story groups in parallel by multi-workers
Built-in single page report render
Cover page view, REST API and cookies test
As we all know testing is an important part of any application. To assist with our testing we are going to use both Cypress and Jest. We feel these tools complement each other and will help us get good coverage of our code. We will use Cypress for our end to end testing as we've found it quite user friendly. Jest will be used for our unit tests because we've seen how many larger companies use it with great success.
Pros of Cypress
- Open source29
- Great documentation22
- Simple usage20
- Fast18
- Cross Browser testing10
- Easy us with CI9
- Npm install cypress only5
- Good for beginner automation engineers2
Pros of react-testing-library
- We can test behavior3
- Good documentation1
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Cons of Cypress
- Cypress is weak at cross-browser testing21
- Switch tabs : Cypress can'nt support14
- No iFrame support12
- No page object support9
- No multiple domain support9
- No file upload support8
- No support for multiple tab control8
- No xPath support8
- No support for Safari7
- Cypress doesn't support native app7
- Re-run failed tests retries not supported yet7
- No support for multiple browser control7
- $20/user/thread for reports5
- Adobe4
- Using a non-standard automation protocol4
- Not freeware4
- No 'WD wire protocol' support3