What are the best JavaScript unit testing frameworks?

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score 22 · Accepted Answer

Mocha

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Top Pro

Supports different assertion libraries

Mocha runs independently from the assertion library, so you can choose which assertion format works best for you. Mocha most often is run in combination with assertion library Chai. See More

Top Con

No atomic tests

Tests cannot be ran in random order. See More

Top Pro

Write tests with Behavior Driven Development (BDD)

Allows developers to choose their development process. Not only TDD but also BDD. See More

Top Con

Can be intimidating for beginners

While some testing frameworks are complete out of the box, Mocha requires developers to select and set up assertion libraries and mocking utilities. For someone who is just starting to learn how to build tests this can be scary as they will also have to choose which libraries to use and learn them too. See More

Top Pro

Makes Asynchronous testing extremely easy

No need to write tricky statements for Async testing. Mocha gives you a done callback. Place this done parameter in your callback function, that'll let Mocha know that you've written an asynchronous function. See More

Top Pro

Integrates really well with NodeJS

The Mocha test framework itself runs on NodeJS, hence it makes everything related to it extremely simple. With Mocha's simple syntax and speed, testing your node.js app just got a whole lot easier. See More

Top Pro

Runs in Node.js and the browser

Mocha has a browser build as well as a node command line program so you can test in client and server side environments. See More

Top Pro

Custom full color test reporters

Mocha has multiple test reporters built in and you can create your own as well. The test reporters have full color and makes it easy to see if your tests fail or not. See More

Top Pro

Easy to add support for Generators

Aside from the numerous benefits with generators in your application, You can now also integrate generators into your test suite. By using mocha, all you have to do is enable support for generators. See More

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The Best 1 of 6 OptionsWhy?

My Recommendation for Mocha

My Recommendation for Mocha

Supports different assertion libraries

No atomic tests

Write tests with Behavior Driven Development (BDD)

Can be intimidating for beginners

Makes Asynchronous testing extremely easy

Integrates really well with NodeJS

Runs in Node.js and the browser

Custom full color test reporters

Easy to add support for Generators

5 Other Options Considered

My Recommendation for Jest

My Recommendation for Jest

Recommended for React testing

Not beginner-friendly

Well documented

Easy to use

Snapshot testing is convinient

My Recommendation for Jasmine

My Recommendation for Jasmine

Behaviour Driven Development focused

Not much room for flexibility

Has a very readable and user-friendly syntax

Includes assertions and mocking

Allows both DOM-less as well as Asynchronous testing

Supported by many CI servers (TeamCity, Codeship, etc.)

Integrates very well with Ruby on Rails

My Recommendation for tape

My Recommendation for tape

Simple API

No concurrency

Built-in assert

No global functions

It follows the principles of TAP

My Recommendation for QUnit

My Recommendation for QUnit

Doesn't support source maps

Tests run in the order they're added to the suite

Testing of Async operations can be a little tough at times

Works really well if performing DOM Testing

Extremely easy to start from scratch

My Recommendation for Ava

My Recommendation for Ava

Atomic tests

No globals

Promise support

Isolated tests

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My Recommendation for chai

My Recommendation for chai

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