Knapsack Pro

Chai vs Codedeception comparison of testing frameworks
What are the differences between Chai and Codedeception?

Chai

https://www.chaijs.com

Codedeception

https://codeception.com/
Programming language

JavaScript

PHP

Category

Unit Testing

Unit Testing, Acceptance Testing/Functional Testing

General info

Chai is a BDD / TDD assertion library for Node.js and the browser that can be paired with any JavaScript testing framework.

Chai is an assertion library, similar to Node's built-in assert and makes testing easier by giving you many assertions you can run against your code. It also includes a robust Plugin architecture for extending Chai's assertions and interfaces.

Codeception is a full-stack testing framework for PHP

It is inspired by BDD and provides a way of writing acceptance, functional and even unit tests. It is powered by PHPUnit.
xUnit
Set of frameworks originating from SUnit (Smalltalk's testing framework). They share similar structure and functionality.

N/A

No

Client-side
Allows testing code execution on the client, such as a web browser

Yes

Chai can be used in a browser environment to test front-end components and functionality

Yes

One is able to write acceptance tests which are used to look at functionality from a user's perspective. It is able to look at pages in browser (Chrome, Firefox or PhpBrowser)
Server-side
Allows testing the bahovior of a server-side code

Yes

Chai is used in a Node.JS environment to test server behaviour and functionality

Yes

It supports back-end tests, by writing functionaltests one can be able to test server behaviour
Fixtures
Allows defining a fixed, specific states of data (fixtures) that are test-local. This ensures specific environment for a single test

N/A

Yes

One can define a fixture and write the test with Codedeception, use the yii2-codedeceptionextention which will autoload fixtures for you
Group fixtures
Allows defining a fixed, specific states of data for a group of tests (group-fixtures). This ensures specific environment for a given group of tests.

N/A

Yes

One can define group fixtures
Generators
Supports data generators for tests. Data generators generate input data for test. The test is then run for each input data produced in this way.

Yes

By using chai-spec-generator plugin which will generate chai test specs from a JavaScript object

N/A

Licence
Licence type governing the use and redistribution of the software

MIT License

MIT License

Mocks
Mocks are objects that simulate the behavior of real objects. Using mocks allows testing some part of the code in isolation (with other parts mocked when needed)

Yes

By using by using a third party library like chai-jest-mocks which is a chai plugin that adds assertions for jest mock functions. You can also use sinon.js

Yes

Codeception provides Codeception\Stub library for building mocks and stubs for tests
Grouping
Allows organizing tests in groups

N/A

Yes

Codeception consists of three so-called “suites”: A “unit suite” for all unit tests, a “functional suite” for all functional tests, and an “acceptance suite” for all acceptance tests.
Other
Other useful information about the testing framework