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Cypress vs WebdriverIO: What are the differences?

Cypress and WebdriverIO are both popular automation testing frameworks used for web application testing. Below are the main distinctions between Cypress and WebdriverIO:

  1. Architecture and Approach: Cypress is a JavaScript end-to-end testing framework that runs directly in the browser, enabling fast and reliable testing with real-time feedback. It operates within the same JavaScript runtime as the application being tested, which allows it to interact natively with the application's components and eliminate flakiness. On the other hand, WebdriverIO is a WebDriver-based testing framework that communicates with browsers through the WebDriver protocol, executing commands remotely. While this approach provides support for a wide range of browsers, it may introduce additional complexity and potential flakiness due to remote communication.

  2. Testing Paradigm: Cypress follows a synchronous testing paradigm, where commands are queued and executed sequentially, enabling easy debugging and stable test execution. It also provides a clear and user-friendly interface for writing tests, making it more approachable for developers. WebdriverIO, being based on the WebDriver protocol, follows an asynchronous testing paradigm, where commands are sent to the WebDriver server, and the server responds asynchronously with the test results. This asynchronous nature can sometimes lead to more complex test code and debugging.

  3. Test Runner and Debugging: Cypress comes with its built-in test runner, which offers a rich set of features like time-travel debugging, screenshots, and videos for better visibility into test execution. In contrast, WebdriverIO relies on third-party test runners like Mocha or Jasmine, which might require additional configurations for debugging and reporting.

  4. Community and Ecosystem: Cypress has gained significant popularity and has a growing community, resulting in good documentation, active forums, and a variety of plugins to extend its capabilities. WebdriverIO also has a considerable community and ecosystem, with support for various integrations and plugins, thanks to its WebDriver compatibility.

In summary, Cypress is known for its simplicity, fast execution, and native browser testing, making it ideal for developers who want a straightforward testing experience. On the other hand, WebdriverIO is well-suited for those who prefer a more flexible and browser-agnostic approach with access to a wide range of browsers and testing capabilities.

Advice on Cypress and WebdriverIO
Yildiz Dila
testmanager/automation tester at medicalservice · | 5 upvotes · 258.1K 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 · 157.5K 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 · 186.3K 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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Needs advice
on
JestJestSeleniumSelenium
and
WebdriverIOWebdriverIO
in

we are having one web application developed in Reacts.js. in the application, we have only 4 to 5 pages that we need to test. I am having experience in selenium with java. Please suggets which tool I should use. and why ............................ ............................ .............................

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Replies (1)
Prashanth Marappa
Senior Software Engineer at Mphasis · | 1 upvotes · 212.8K views
Recommends
on
SeleniumSelenium

with the help of selenium we can automate react js for functional testing

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Needs advice
on
CypressCypressSelenideSelenide
and
WebdriverIOWebdriverIO

Hi, I am starting out to test an application that is currently being developed - FE: React. BE: Node JS. I want the framework to be able to test all UI scenarios (from simple to complex) and also have the capability to test APIs. I also need to run tests across all OSs and Browsers (Windows, Mac, Android, iOS). I have also looked into react-testing-library and @TestProject.io. Any advice you can give as to which framework would be best and why would be so much appreciated! Thank you!!

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Replies (3)
Recommends
on
PlaywrightPlaywright

You should also definitely look into Playwright, which is a new automation tool from Microsoft building on top of the Puppeteer experience and trying to bring this experience in the cross browser space - very exciting project. Great team. Also CodeceptJS as already Playwright support which at a ton of valuable features on top of Playwright, give it a go!

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Jinesh Khimsaria
Test Automation Specialist at Personal · | 3 upvotes · 72.3K views
Recommends
on
WebdriverIOWebdriverIO

I'm also looking for the same, FE: React & BE: NodeJS. Cypress won't help as it lacks cross-browser testing, it doesn't support all the browsers. I'm still investigating it, but looks like WebdriverIO may fulfil what I'm looking for - Cross-browser testing, integration with CI/CD, running it as a docker service, good support on assertions & reporting of test results. Let me know if you found any information on any of the above mentioned points.

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Recommends
on
CodeceptJSCodeceptJS

Hi Esther, if you really need cross OS and cross device automation Cypress wont help, with WebdriverIO you can do it … and check out CodeceptJS, which is a wrapper around several frameworks (like WebdriverIO) and will support future players (currently for example upcoming Playwright) as well.

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Decisions about Cypress and WebdriverIO
Shared insights
on
CypressCypressJestJest

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.

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Pros of Cypress
Pros of WebdriverIO
  • 29
    Open source
  • 22
    Great documentation
  • 20
    Simple usage
  • 18
    Fast
  • 10
    Cross Browser testing
  • 9
    Easy us with CI
  • 5
    Npm install cypress only
  • 1
    Good for beginner automation engineers
  • 11
    Various integrations to vendors like Sauce Labs
  • 10
    Open Source
  • 8
    Great community
  • 7
    Easy to setup
  • 4
    Best solution for broad browser support

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Cons of Cypress
Cons of WebdriverIO
  • 21
    Cypress is weak at cross-browser testing
  • 14
    Switch tabs : Cypress can'nt support
  • 12
    No iFrame support
  • 9
    No page object support
  • 9
    No multiple domain support
  • 8
    No file upload support
  • 8
    No support for multiple tab control
  • 8
    No xPath support
  • 7
    No support for Safari
  • 7
    Cypress doesn't support native app
  • 7
    Re-run failed tests retries not supported yet
  • 7
    No support for multiple browser control
  • 5
    $20/user/thread for reports
  • 4
    Adobe
  • 4
    Using a non-standard automation protocol
  • 4
    Not freeware
  • 3
    No 'WD wire protocol' support
  • 8
    High maintenance

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What is Cypress?

Cypress is a front end automated testing application created for the modern web. Cypress is built on a new architecture and runs in the same run-loop as the application being tested. As a result Cypress provides better, faster, and more reliable testing for anything that runs in a browser. Cypress works on any front-end framework or website.

What is 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.

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What companies use Cypress?
What companies use WebdriverIO?
See which teams inside your own company are using Cypress or WebdriverIO.
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What tools integrate with Cypress?
What tools integrate with WebdriverIO?

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What are some alternatives to Cypress and WebdriverIO?
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.
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.
Puppeteer
Puppeteer is a Node library which provides a high-level API to control headless Chrome over the DevTools Protocol. It can also be configured to use full (non-headless) Chrome.
Jest
Jest provides you with multiple layers on top of Jasmine.
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.
See all alternatives