Enzyme vs Jest vs Protractor

Overview

Jest

Stacks15.2K

Followers4.1K

Votes175

Protractor

Stacks2.2K

Followers544

Votes33

GitHub Stars8.7K

Forks2.3K

Enzyme

Stacks1.7K

Followers349

Votes0

Enzyme vs Jest vs Protractor: What are the differences?

Testing Framework: Enzyme is mainly used for testing React components in isolation and shallow rendering, providing utilities to test React components' output. Jest, on the other hand, is a testing framework that includes an assertion library, mocking capabilities, and code coverage reports out of the box. Protractor is specifically designed for end-to-end testing of Angular applications, interacting with them as if a real user would.
API: Enzyme's API is built around jQuery-like selectors and traversal functions, making it easier to assert on specific elements of a rendered component. Jest has a more integrated API, offering functions for test assertions, mocks, spies, and timers. Protractor, being a WebDriver-based tool, utilizes a Selenium-like API for accessing and interacting with web elements in Angular applications.
Scope: Enzyme is best suited for unit and integration testing of React components, focusing on their isolated behavior and rendering. Jest is a comprehensive testing solution that covers unit testing, integration testing, and snapshot testing for React applications, providing a complete testing experience. Protractor, being an end-to-end testing framework, simulates user interactions across the entire application stack, covering frontend and backend interactions.
Mocking: Enzyme provides utilities for shallow rendering components and manual mock implementations, allowing developers to isolate components for testing purposes. Jest has a built-in mocking system with functions for creating mocks, spies, and stubs, simplifying the process of mocking dependencies. Protractor also supports mocking HTTP requests and responses, enabling developers to simulate server responses during end-to-end tests.
Performance: Enzyme's shallow rendering approach can lead to faster test execution times compared to full rendering, making it a preferred choice for quick component tests. Jest's built-in parallel test execution and smart test filtering mechanisms enhance test suite performance for large-scale applications. Protractor's asynchronous nature and WebDriver-based interactions may introduce some performance overhead, especially when dealing with complex interactions in Angular applications.
Community Support: Enzyme and Jest are widely adopted within the React ecosystem, benefiting from a large community that contributes plugins, extensions, and best practices. Protractor, being specifically tailored for Angular applications, has dedicated support and resources within the Angular community, offering guidance and tools tailored to testing Angular features.

In Summary, Enzyme is focused on component testing, Jest provides a comprehensive testing solution with mocking capabilities, and Protractor specializes in end-to-end testing of Angular applications. Each tool serves specific testing needs within the JavaScript ecosystem.

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CLI (Node.js)

Manual

Detailed Comparison

Jest	Protractor	Enzyme
Jest provides you with multiple layers on top of Jasmine.	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.	Enzyme is a JavaScript Testing utility for React that makes it easier to assert, manipulate, and traverse your React Components' output.
Familiar Approach: Built on top of the Jasmine test framework, using familiar expect(value).toBe(other) assertions;Mock by Default: Automatically mocks CommonJS modules returned by require(), making most existing code testable;Short Feedback Loop: DOM APIs are mocked and tests run in parallel via a small node.js command line utility	Test Like a User; For Angular Apps; Automatic Waiting	Shallow rendering; Full DOM rendering; Static rendered markup; React Hooks support
Statistics
GitHub Stars -	GitHub Stars 8.7K	GitHub Stars -
GitHub Forks -	GitHub Forks 2.3K	GitHub Forks -
Stacks 15.2K	Stacks 2.2K	Stacks 1.7K
Followers 4.1K	Followers 544	Followers 349
Votes 175	Votes 33	Votes 0
Pros & Cons
Pros 36 Open source 32 Mock by default makes testing much simpler 23 Testing React Native Apps 20 Parallel test running 16 Fast Cons 4 Ambiguous configuration 4 Documentation 3 Difficult 2 Difficult to run single test/describe/file 2 Ambiguous	Pros 9 Easy setup 8 Quick tests implementation 6 Flexible 5 Open source 5 Promise support Cons 4 Limited	No community feedback yet
Integrations
No integrations available	AngularJS Angular	React

What are some alternatives to Jest, Protractor, Enzyme?

Mocha

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.

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.

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.

CodeceptJS

It is a modern end to end testing framework with a special BDD-style syntax. The test is written as a linear scenario of user's action on a site. Each test is described inside a Scenario function with I object passed into it.

AVA

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.

Ghost Inspector

It lets you create and manage UI tests that check specific functionality in your website or application. We execute these automated browser tests continuously from the cloud and alert you if anything breaks.

QUnit

QUnit is a powerful, easy-to-use JavaScript unit testing framework. It's used by the jQuery, jQuery UI and jQuery Mobile projects and is capable of testing any generic JavaScript code, including itself!

Sorry-cypress

Open-source, self-hosted alternative Cypress Dashboard.

Baretest

It is a fast and simple JavaScript test runner. It offers near-instant performance and a brainless API. It makes testing tolerable.

SinonJS

It is a really helpful library when you want to unit test your code. It supports spies, stubs, and mocks. The library has cross browser support and also can run on the server using Node.js.

Related Comparisons

Enzyme vs Jest vs Protractor: What are the differences?

Testing Framework: Enzyme is mainly used for testing React components in isolation and shallow rendering, providing utilities to test React components' output. Jest, on the other hand, is a testing framework that includes an assertion library, mocking capabilities, and code coverage reports out of the box. Protractor is specifically designed for end-to-end testing of Angular applications, interacting with them as if a real user would.
API: Enzyme's API is built around jQuery-like selectors and traversal functions, making it easier to assert on specific elements of a rendered component. Jest has a more integrated API, offering functions for test assertions, mocks, spies, and timers. Protractor, being a WebDriver-based tool, utilizes a Selenium-like API for accessing and interacting with web elements in Angular applications.
Scope: Enzyme is best suited for unit and integration testing of React components, focusing on their isolated behavior and rendering. Jest is a comprehensive testing solution that covers unit testing, integration testing, and snapshot testing for React applications, providing a complete testing experience. Protractor, being an end-to-end testing framework, simulates user interactions across the entire application stack, covering frontend and backend interactions.
Mocking: Enzyme provides utilities for shallow rendering components and manual mock implementations, allowing developers to isolate components for testing purposes. Jest has a built-in mocking system with functions for creating mocks, spies, and stubs, simplifying the process of mocking dependencies. Protractor also supports mocking HTTP requests and responses, enabling developers to simulate server responses during end-to-end tests.
Performance: Enzyme's shallow rendering approach can lead to faster test execution times compared to full rendering, making it a preferred choice for quick component tests. Jest's built-in parallel test execution and smart test filtering mechanisms enhance test suite performance for large-scale applications. Protractor's asynchronous nature and WebDriver-based interactions may introduce some performance overhead, especially when dealing with complex interactions in Angular applications.
Community Support: Enzyme and Jest are widely adopted within the React ecosystem, benefiting from a large community that contributes plugins, extensions, and best practices. Protractor, being specifically tailored for Angular applications, has dedicated support and resources within the Angular community, offering guidance and tools tailored to testing Angular features.

Enzyme vs Jest vs Protractor

Overview