Here’s the Deal

Nightwatch.js vs Cypress

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When comparing Nightwatch.js vs Cypress, the Slant community recommends Cypress for most people. In the question“What are the best Javascript end-to-end testing tools?” Cypress is ranked 1st while Nightwatch.js is ranked 2nd. The most important reason people chose Cypress is:

You can edit your test code in the browser and instantly see it run as you change the code.

Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking

Common Questions

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

Pros

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.

Pro
Web UI to develop tests quickly

You can edit your test code in the browser and instantly see it run as you change the code.

Pro
Easy to record a video

It can easily record a video so you can understand what happened when a test failed in your CI.

Pro
Amazing dashboard to view reports and recordings

The Cypress dashboard allows you to see every run on a great UI linked to commits and gitflow.

Pro
Cross Browser testing

https://docs.cypress.io/guides/guides/cross-browser-testing.html
Chrome
Firefox
Edge
Electron
Brave

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Cons

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();
  }
};

Con
Doesn't support Safari

Con
Single tab only

Does not and will not support multiple tabs or multiple simultaneous browsers.
See https://docs.cypress.io/guides/references/trade-offs.html#Permanent-trade-offs-1

Con
Heavy in setup

Do not add Cypress in the main repo. Have a specific test repo for it or you will be sorry when the CI/CD flow takes 5-6 min longer every build due to installation time of Cypress.