Cypress vs Selenium: What are the differences?

Introduction: Cypress and Selenium are both popular testing frameworks used for automating web applications. However, they differ in several key aspects.

1. Installation and Setup: Cypress provides a simple installation process by simply running a single command, while Selenium requires downloading and setting up different components like the WebDriver and language-specific bindings separately.

2. API and Syntax: Cypress has its own API designed specifically for modern web applications, offering commands to interact with elements and control network requests. Selenium, on the other hand, uses a WebDriver API which requires developers to have a better understanding of the underlying technologies like XPath or CSS selectors.

3. Execution Speed: Cypress has the advantage of executing tests directly within the browser, allowing it to operate faster than Selenium. While Selenium performs actions by sending requests to the WebDriver and receiving responses, Cypress runs directly in the browser itself, eliminating the overhead of network requests.

4. Debugging Capabilities: Cypress provides better debugging capabilities than Selenium with its real-time reloading and interactive debugging tools. Developers can easily pause and inspect the state of the application during test execution. Selenium lacks these features, making debugging more challenging.

5. Automatic Retries: Cypress has an automatic retry mechanism built-in, which means it automatically retries failed assertions and commands until they pass or reach a maximum limit. Selenium does not have this feature, making it less convenient to handle flaky tests.

6. Cross-Browser Testing: Selenium is known for its cross-browser compatibility, as it supports major browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer. Cypress, on the other hand, currently only supports Chrome and Electron browsers, limiting its cross-browser testing capabilities.

In summary, Cypress offers a simpler and faster setup, provides a modern API with built-in debugging capabilities and automatic retries. However, it lacks comprehensive cross-browser support compared to Selenium.