When comparing Mocha vs Insomnia, the Slant community recommends Mocha for most people. In the question“What are the best frameworks to test REST server?” Mocha is ranked 2nd while Insomnia 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).
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
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.
Pro Detailed information about response
Response content and headers are presented in an accessible and readable format. JSON responses is prettified and can be filtered for for closer inspection.
Pro Plugins
e.g. Swagger validator.
Pro Can generate code
Generates code for more than 30 languages, including Curl, NodeJS, Go, Swift, Python, Java and C.
Pro GraphQL support
Cons
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.