Here’s the Deal

WebdriverIO vs Nightwatch.js

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When comparing WebdriverIO vs Nightwatch.js, the Slant community recommends Nightwatch.js for most people. In the question“What are the best Javascript end-to-end testing tools?” Nightwatch.js is ranked 2nd while WebdriverIO is ranked 4th. The most important reason people chose Nightwatch.js is:

Nightwatch solves the [Paradox of Choice](http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice?language=en) among testing frameworks such as Jasmine, Cucumber or Mocha+Chai, by including its own BDD-style assertion library, based on Chai.

Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking

Common Questions

What are the best Javascript end-to-end testing tools?

What are the best Node.JS Selenium WebDriver client libraries / bindings?

What are the best automated browser testing frameworks?

Pros

Pro
Works with any testing framework or assertion library

WebdriverIO lets you use your favorite testing framework (Jasmine, Mocha, Cucumber) and assertion library (Chai for Mocha). Other projects implement their own testing and assertion APIs, for example Nightwatch, Intern.

It should be mentioned though that v4.2.16 has an incompatibility with at least tap v7.1.2: stdout/stderr written during a run gets lost.

Pro
Used by Chimp.js

Chimp.js, is an emerging web application test framework that implements easy sync tests using WebdriverIO, CucumberJS and Chai. Features include:

synchronous style
built-in "widget framework" (an implementation of the PageObject pattern)
automatically downloads dependencies (ChromeDriver, PhantomJS etc.)
works with SauceLabs and BrowserStack (CrossBrowserTesting TBD)
automatically takes screenshots on failures
works on Windows in addition to Linux and OS X
automatically produces boilerplate code for step definitions, which you can copy, paste and edit
file watcher reuses the browser sessions and can run only the tests you tag, to maximize development speed

Pro
Excellent API documentation

Pro
Synchronous implementation of asynchronous browser commands

So you don't need to worry about promises

Pro
Config file generation wizard

Run wdio config and WebdriverIO will generate a config file for testing locally vs. in the cloud, specifying the test framework (Jasmine, Cucumber, Mocha), where to find tests and store screenshots etc.

Pro
Allows you to do visual regression tests using WebdriverCSS

WebdriverIO has a plugin called WebdriverCSS that allows you to do cross visual platfrom/browser tests with an integration to Applitools.

Pro
Provides plugins for gulp, grunt and other

WebdriverIO is accessible via gulp and grunt and even has a Sublime Text plugin for autocompletion.

Pro
Simpler syntax than selenium-webdriverjs and WD.js

selenium-webdriverjs:

driver.get('http://www.google.com');
driver.findElement(webdriver.By.id('q')).sendKeys('webdriver');
driver.findElement(webdriver.By.id('btnG')).click();

WD.js:

browser
  .get("http://www.google.com")
  .elementById('q')
  .sendKeys('webdriver')
  .elementById('btnG')
  .click()

WebdriverIO:

client
    .url('http://google.com')
    .setValue('#q','webdriver')
    .click('#btnG')

Pro
Used by Meteor's Velocity test runner

If you develop web applications with Meteor.js, you might want to use the xlovio:webdriver wrapper, because it's the Selenium binding behind the preferred testing framework (Chimp) promoted by the Velocity (Meteor's official testing framework) team for using BDD via Cucumber.

Pro
Selenium Server need not be started independently

Service is provided by WebdriverIO which over comes the con of starting selenium server independently.
Reference: http://webdriver.io/guide/services/selenium-standalone.html

Pro
You don't have to choose a testing framework

Nightwatch solves the Paradox of Choice among testing frameworks such as Jasmine, Cucumber or Mocha+Chai, by including its own BDD-style assertion library, based on Chai.

Pro
Includes its own testing framework / assertions library

Pro
Test organization is out of the box

Supports page object model, custom commands, custom assertions, and globals.js.

Pro
3rd party integration with Cucumber

Though Cucumber is not officially supported, Nightwatch can be used with Cucumber.

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Cons

Con
Must run with WDIO to debug

Tasks written in this beautiful Selenium API can only be debugged using the provided WDIO task runner. You can't set breakpoints within tasks, but you can have WDIO pause the run between Selenium commands.

Con
Selenium server must be started independently

selenium-webdriverjs starts the Selenium server automatically, and actually manages to achieve a faster startup time (4 seconds vs. 5.5) than WebdriverIO.

Con
Have no docs for latest version (4.0.5)

Con
No official BDD-style syntax support

Con
Includes its own testing framework / assertions library

Unlike WebdriverIO, which lets you use various test frameworks and assertion libraries (e.g. Jasmine, Cucumber, Mocha + Chai), Nightwatch comes with its own BDD-style interface for performing assertions, based on Chai.

Here's a simple test example:

module.exports = {
  'Demo test Google' : function (browser) {
    browser
      .url('http://www.google.com')
      .waitForElementVisible('body', 1000)
      .setValue('input[type=text]', 'nightwatch')
      .waitForElementVisible('button[name=btnG]', 1000)
      .click('button[name=btnG]')
      .pause(1000)
      .assert.containsText('#main', 'Night Watch')
      .end();
  }
};