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Add to SafariWhen comparing Webpack vs Mocha, the Slant community recommends Mocha for most people. In the question“What are the best tools for front-end JavaScript development?” Mocha is ranked 2nd while Webpack is ranked 3rd. The most important reason people chose Mocha is:
Mocha runs independently from the [assertion library](http://visionmedia.github.io/mocha/#assertions), so you can choose which assertion format works best for you. Mocha most often is run in combination with assertion library [Chai](http://chaijs.com).
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Rich and flexible plugin infrastructure
Plugins and loaders are easy to write and allow you to control each step of the build, from loading and compiling CoffeeScript, LESS and JADE files to smart post processing and asset manifest building.
Pro Tap into npm's huge module ecosystem
Using Webpack opens you up to npm, that has over 80k modules of which a great amount work both client-side and server-side. And the list is growing rapidly.
Pro Can create a single bundle or multiple chunks loaded on demand, to reduce initial loading time
Webpack allows you to split your codebase into multiple chunks. Chunks are loaded on demand. This reduces the initial loading time.
Pro Supports source maps for easier debugging
Source maps allow for easier debugging, because they allow you to find the problems within the origin files instead of the output file.
Pro ES6 module support
Webpack supports ES6 modules and their import and export methods without having to compile them to CommonJS require
Pro Share the same modules client-side and server-side
Because Webpack allows you to use the same require() function as node.js, you can easily share modules between the client-side and server-side.
Pro Bundles CommonJs and AMD modules (even combined)
Webpack supports AMD and CommonJS module styles. It performs clever static analysis on the AST of your code. It even has an evaluation engine to evaluate simple expressions. This allows you to support most existing libraries.
Pro Mix ES6 AMD and CommonJS
Webpack supports using all three module types, even in the same file.
Pro Limit plugin integration issues
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.
Pro Write tests with Behavior Driven Development (BDD)
Allows developers to choose their development process. Not only TDD but also BDD.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Cons
Con Config file may be hard to understand
Due to a somewhat hard to grasp syntax, configuring Webpack may take some time.
Con Can not load files discovered during runtime
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.
Con No atomic tests
Tests cannot be ran in random order.
