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Protractor vs TestCafe: What are the differences?

<Write Introduction here>

1. **Browser support**: Protractor is specifically designed for Angular applications and works best with Angular websites, while TestCafe is more versatile and can test any web application regardless of the framework being used.
2. **API simplification**: Protractor has a more complex API which can sometimes lead to confusion and difficulties for beginners, whereas TestCafe offers a simpler and more intuitive API making it easier for users to write and maintain tests.
3. **Programming language**: Protractor uses JavaScript for writing test scripts, which can be limiting for teams that prefer working with other programming languages, whereas TestCafe supports multiple programming languages like JavaScript, TypeScript, and CoffeeScript.
4. **Cross-browser testing**: TestCafe has built-in support for parallel testing across multiple browsers, making it easier to perform cross-browser testing, while Protractor lacks this feature and requires additional setup for parallel testing.
5. **Installation process**: Protractor requires the installation of WebDriver and Selenium server, adding complexity to the setup process, whereas TestCafe has a simpler installation process with no additional dependencies needed.
6. **Performance**: TestCafe is known for its faster execution speed compared to Protractor, making it a more efficient choice for large test suites or time-sensitive projects.

In Summary, Protractor is more tailored towards Angular applications with a slightly more complex API and limited language support, while TestCafe offers versatility, simplicity, and faster performance for web application testing.
Advice on Protractor and TestCafe
Yildiz Dila
testmanager/automation tester at medicalservice · | 5 upvotes · 269.1K views
Needs advice
on
CypressCypress
and
ProtractorProtractor

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...

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Replies (2)
Kevin Emery
QE Systems Engineer at Discovery, Inc. · | 4 upvotes · 165.6K views
Recommends
on
CypressCypressProtractorProtractor

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

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Jian Wang
Web Engineer at sentaca · | 1 upvotes · 194.4K views
Recommends

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

https://github.com/newlifewj/handow

http://demo.shm.handow.org/reports

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Pros of Protractor
Pros of TestCafe
  • 9
    Easy setup
  • 8
    Quick tests implementation
  • 6
    Flexible
  • 5
    Open source
  • 5
    Promise support
  • 8
    Cross-browser testing
  • 4
    Open source
  • 4
    Easy setup/installation
  • 4
    Built in waits
  • 3
    UI End to End testing
  • 2
    Supports Devices without extra software/package
  • 1
    Both client and server side debug

Sign up to add or upvote prosMake informed product decisions

Cons of Protractor
Cons of TestCafe
  • 4
    Limited
  • 9
    No longer free

Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions

What is Protractor?

Protractor is an end-to-end test framework for Angular and AngularJS applications. Protractor runs tests against your application running in a real browser, interacting with it as a user would.

What is TestCafe?

It is a pure node.js end-to-end solution for testing web apps. It takes care of all the stages: starting browsers, running tests, gathering test results and generating reports.

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What companies use Protractor?
What companies use TestCafe?
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What tools integrate with Protractor?
What tools integrate with TestCafe?

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What are some alternatives to Protractor and TestCafe?
Selenium
Selenium automates browsers. That's it! What you do with that power is entirely up to you. Primarily, it is for automating web applications for testing purposes, but is certainly not limited to just that. Boring web-based administration tasks can (and should!) also be automated as well.
PhantomJS
PhantomJS is a headless WebKit scriptable with JavaScript. It is used by hundreds of developers and dozens of organizations for web-related development workflow.
WebdriverIO
WebdriverIO lets you control a browser or a mobile application with just a few lines of code. Your test code will look simple, concise and easy to read.
Jasmine
Jasmine is a Behavior Driven Development testing framework for JavaScript. It does not rely on browsers, DOM, or any JavaScript framework. Thus it's suited for websites, Node.js projects, or anywhere that JavaScript can run.
Compass
The compass core framework is a design-agnostic framework that provides common code that would otherwise be duplicated across other frameworks and extensions.
See all alternatives