When comparing Jest vs Ava, the Slant community recommends Jest for most people. In the question“What are the best JavaScript unit testing frameworks?” Jest is ranked 2nd while Ava is ranked 7th. The most important reason people chose Jest is:
One of Jest's philosophies is to provide an integrated “zero-configuration” experience. Eg: it provides assertion library by default.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Easy to use
One of Jest's philosophies is to provide an integrated “zero-configuration” experience.
Eg: it provides assertion library by default.
Pro Well documented
Pro Recommended for React testing
Jest is the recommended unit testing framework by Facebook. It's also the one used by Facebook developers when working with React projects.
Pro Snapshot testing is convinient
It's great for testing UI.
It is also convenient for asserting complex data objects, as it doesn't require developers to manually compose the expected value.
Pro Isolated tests
Each test is run in isolation.
Cons
Con Not beginner-friendly
If you're new to unit testing and are trying to understand unit testing within the React ecosystem, specifically ReactNative, it is going to be a challenge. The Jest doc dives right into making tests without any primer on how to go from concept to implementation.
Con No browser testing supported
Only supports tests in Node and the backend and not the browser.