Here’s the Deal

Nightwatch.js vs Puppeteer

31 3

30 2

When comparing Nightwatch.js vs Puppeteer, 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 Puppeteer is ranked 3rd. 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 automated browser testing frameworks?

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
Works great with modern node.js features

Pro
Runs a real browser

Unlike the other options here, this is a real browser, just without the GUI parts. This means the quality of the test is much higher, and lets you do things like save to PDF or images.

Pro
Actively developed and promoted by Google

Pro
Complete API for Chromium included

Chromium tests depend on the same API that Puppeteer gives you access to, so all the features are included

Ad
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
Not good for Cross Browser Tests

Since it only tests via Chromium, it won't help you test inconsistencies between browsers like Edge or Safari. There are projects to get around this, but they aren't mature.