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  1. Stackups
  2. DevOps
  3. Continuous Integration
  4. Continuous Integration
  5. Jenkins vs Jest

Jenkins vs Jest

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Jenkins
Jenkins
Stacks59.2K
Followers50.4K
Votes2.2K
GitHub Stars24.6K
Forks9.2K
Jest
Jest
Stacks15.2K
Followers4.1K
Votes175

Jenkins vs Jest: What are the differences?

  1. Key Difference 1: Jenkins and Jest Execution Environment Jenkins is a continuous integration and delivery tool that runs on a server or multiple servers, allowing for distributed execution. It is written in Java and provides a web-based interface for managing and monitoring builds. On the other hand, Jest is a testing framework specifically designed for JavaScript and React applications. It is executed within a Node.js environment and generally runs on a developer's local machine or in a CI/CD pipeline.

  2. Key Difference 2: Testing Capabilities Jenkins is primarily used for automating build and deployment processes, while Jest is primarily designed for unit testing JavaScript code. Jenkins can execute various types of tests, including unit tests, integration tests, and end-to-end tests, using different testing tools or frameworks. Jest, on the other hand, provides built-in capabilities for running JavaScript unit tests, including powerful features like code coverage analysis and snapshot testing.

  3. Key Difference 3: Test Configuration and Setup In Jenkins, test configurations are defined using a Jenkinsfile or through a graphical user interface, allowing users to define build pipelines and specify test commands or scripts. Jenkins provides flexibility in configuring test environments, allowing users to define and manage dependencies, plugins, and build tools. Jest, on the other hand, uses a configuration file (usually named "jest.config.js") to define the test environment, test match patterns, and other Jest-specific settings. It offers a simple setup process and requires less manual configuration.

  4. Key Difference 4: Integration with CI/CD Pipelines Jenkins is widely used as a CI/CD tool and integrates with various version control systems, build tools, and deployment platforms. It provides extensive integration capabilities, allowing users to trigger tests based on code changes, schedule builds at specific times, and automatically deploy applications. Jest, on the other hand, is commonly integrated into CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins or other CI/CD tools. It can be easily executed as part of the build or test stage in a pipeline.

  5. Key Difference 5: Community and Ecosystem Jenkins has a vast and active community of users and contributors, with a wide range of plugins and extensions available for enhancing its functionality. It offers great flexibility and can be customized to meet specific requirements. Jest, on the other hand, is built and maintained by Facebook and has gained popularity within the JavaScript and React development community. It has a focused ecosystem with specific features and functionalities for JavaScript unit testing, making it a preferred choice for many JavaScript developers.

  6. Key Difference 6: Learning Curve and Skill Set Using Jenkins effectively requires understanding the concepts of continuous integration, build automation, and deployment processes. It involves learning the Jenkins syntax, configuring jobs, and managing build environments. Jest, on the other hand, is relatively easy to learn and use, especially for JavaScript developers familiar with test-driven development (TDD) practices. It has a simple and intuitive API for writing tests and provides clear error messages and feedback, making it user-friendly for beginners.

In Summary, Jenkins is a versatile CI/CD tool with broader capabilities for build automation and deployment, while Jest is a JavaScript-specific testing framework primarily focused on unit testing. Jenkins offers more flexibility, integration options, and a larger community, while Jest provides a simpler setup, powerful features for JavaScript unit testing, and ease of use for JavaScript developers.

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Advice on Jenkins, Jest

Dane
Dane

Feb 7, 2020

Needs adviceonCypressCypressJestJest

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.

836k views836k
Comments
Balaramesh
Balaramesh

Apr 20, 2020

Needs adviceonAzure PipelinesAzure Pipelines.NET.NETJenkinsJenkins

We are currently using Azure Pipelines for continous integration. Our applications are developed witn .NET framework. But when we look at the online Jenkins is the most widely used tool for continous integration. Can you please give me the advice which one is best to use for my case Azure pipeline or jenkins.

663k views663k
Comments
StackShare
StackShare

Apr 17, 2019

Needs advice

From a StackShare Community member: "Currently we use Travis CI and have optimized it as much as we can so our builds are fairly quick. Our boss is all about redundancy so we are looking for another solution to fall back on in case Travis goes down and/or jacks prices way up (they were recently acquired). Could someone recommend which CI we should go with and if they have time, an explanation of how they're different?"

529k views529k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Jenkins
Jenkins
Jest
Jest

In a nutshell Jenkins CI is the leading open-source continuous integration server. Built with Java, it provides over 300 plugins to support building and testing virtually any project.

Jest provides you with multiple layers on top of Jasmine.

Easy installation;Easy configuration;Change set support;Permanent links;RSS/E-mail/IM Integration;After-the-fact tagging;JUnit/TestNG test reporting;Distributed builds;File fingerprinting;Plugin Support
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
Statistics
GitHub Stars
24.6K
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Forks
9.2K
GitHub Forks
-
Stacks
59.2K
Stacks
15.2K
Followers
50.4K
Followers
4.1K
Votes
2.2K
Votes
175
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 523
    Hosted internally
  • 469
    Free open source
  • 318
    Great to build, deploy or launch anything async
  • 243
    Tons of integrations
  • 211
    Rich set of plugins with good documentation
Cons
  • 13
    Workarounds needed for basic requirements
  • 10
    Groovy with cumbersome syntax
  • 8
    Plugins compatibility issues
  • 7
    Lack of support
  • 7
    Limited abilities with declarative pipelines
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
    Documentation
  • 4
    Ambiguous configuration
  • 3
    Difficult
  • 2
    Ambiguous
  • 2
    Difficult to run single test/describe/file

What are some alternatives to Jenkins, Jest?

Travis CI

Travis CI

Free for open source projects, our CI environment provides multiple runtimes (e.g. Node.js or PHP versions), data stores and so on. Because of this, hosting your project on travis-ci.com means you can effortlessly test your library or applications against multiple runtimes and data stores without even having all of them installed locally.

Codeship

Codeship

Codeship runs your automated tests and configured deployment when you push to your repository. It takes care of managing and scaling the infrastructure so that you are able to test and release more frequently and get faster feedback for building the product your users need.

CircleCI

CircleCI

Continuous integration and delivery platform helps software teams rapidly release code with confidence by automating the build, test, and deploy process. Offers a modern software development platform that lets teams ramp.

Mocha

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.

TeamCity

TeamCity

TeamCity is a user-friendly continuous integration (CI) server for professional developers, build engineers, and DevOps. It is trivial to setup and absolutely free for small teams and open source projects.

Drone.io

Drone.io

Drone is a hosted continuous integration service. It enables you to conveniently set up projects to automatically build, test, and deploy as you make changes to your code. Drone integrates seamlessly with Github, Bitbucket and Google Code as well as third party services such as Heroku, Dotcloud, Google AppEngine and more.

wercker

wercker

Wercker is a CI/CD developer automation platform designed for Microservices & Container Architecture.

GoCD

GoCD

GoCD is an open source continuous delivery server created by ThoughtWorks. GoCD offers business a first-class build and deployment engine for complete control and visibility.

Jasmine

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.

Shippable

Shippable

Shippable is a SaaS platform that lets you easily add Continuous Integration/Deployment to your Github and BitBucket repositories. It is lightweight, super simple to setup, and runs your builds and tests faster than any other service.

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