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Cypress vs TestCafe: What are the differences?

Introduction

Cypress and TestCafe are two commonly used frameworks for web application testing. While they both serve the purpose of testing web applications, there are key differences between the two. In this article, we will explore and highlight six of these differences.

  1. Architecture: Cypress runs directly in the browser and runs inside the application’s context, allowing direct access to the Document Object Model (DOM). On the other hand, TestCafe uses iframes to execute tests and communicates with the browser using built-in transport mechanisms. This difference in architecture affects how tests are written and executed.

  2. Programming Language: Cypress is mainly written in JavaScript and enables test authors to write tests using JavaScript. TestCafe, on the other hand, supports a wider range of programming languages such as JavaScript, TypeScript, and CoffeeScript. This allows teams to choose the language they are most comfortable with for writing their tests.

  3. Assertions and Selectors: Cypress makes use of a jQuery-like API for making assertions and selecting elements on the page. In contrast, TestCafe uses a built-in mechanism for assertions and provides a powerful selector system that doesn't require any libraries or additional dependencies.

  4. Cross-browser Testing: TestCafe provides built-in cross-browser support, allowing tests to be run on multiple browsers without the need for additional configuration. Cypress, on the other hand, requires additional setup and configuration to run tests on different browsers.

  5. Waiting for Element Availability: Cypress automatically waits for elements to become available before performing assertions or interactions. This eliminates the need for explicit waits and makes tests more reliable and deterministic. In TestCafe, explicit waits are required to ensure elements are available before interacting with them.

  6. Debugging and Testing Tools: Cypress provides a rich set of built-in tools for debugging tests, including real-time reloading, automatic screenshots, and video recordings of test runs. TestCafe, on the other hand, provides a simpler debugging experience and does not offer the same level of visual tools for debugging and testing.

In Summary, Cypress and TestCafe differ in architecture, programming language support, assertions and selectors, cross-browser testing, element availability handling, and debugging/testing tools. These differences make each framework suitable for different use cases and user preferences.

Advice on Cypress and TestCafe
Yildiz Dila
testmanager/automation tester at medicalservice · | 5 upvotes · 258.2K 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 · 157.6K 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 · 186.4K 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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Decisions about Cypress and TestCafe
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 TestCafe
  • 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
  • 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

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Cons of Cypress
Cons of TestCafe
  • 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
  • 9
    No longer free

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

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Blog Posts

What are some alternatives to Cypress 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.
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.
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.
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