Knapsack Pro

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

Codedeception

https://codeception.com/

SpecFlow

https://specflow.org/
Programming language

PHP

.NET

Category

Unit Testing, Acceptance Testing/Functional Testing

Acceptance Testing

General info

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.

SpecFlow is a test automation solution for .NET

SpecFlow is a test automation solution for .NET which follows the BDD paradigm, and is part of the Cucumber family. SpecFlow tests are written with Gherkin, using the official Gherkin parser which allows you to write test cases using natural languages and supports over 70 languages.
xUnit
Set of frameworks originating from SUnit (Smalltalk's testing framework). They share similar structure and functionality.

No

No

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

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)

Yes

Front-end behaviour is tested. With specflow specifications of the expected behaviours are made and specflow tests against this
Server-side
Allows testing the bahovior of a server-side code

Yes

It supports back-end tests, by writing functionaltests one can be able to test server behaviour

Yes

Back-end behaviour is tested. Specifications of the expected behaviours are made and specflow tests against them
Fixtures
Allows defining a fixed, specific states of data (fixtures) that are test-local. This ensures specific environment for a single test

Yes

One can define a fixture and write the test with Codedeception, use the yii2-codedeceptionextention which will autoload fixtures for you

Yes

BeforeTestRun and AfterTestRun are executed once for each thread which is a limitation of the current architecture.
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.

Yes

One can define group fixtures

N/A

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.

N/A

Yes

SpecFlow contains a generator component. The SpecFlow IDE integration tries to locate the generator component in your project structure, in order to use the generator version matching the SpecFlow runtime in your project
Licence
Licence type governing the use and redistribution of the software

MIT License

BSD 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

Codeception provides Codeception\Stub library for building mocks and stubs for tests

Yes

Specflow intergrates well with mock to give it excellent mocking capabilities
Grouping
Allows organizing tests in groups

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.

Yes

You can create test suites with specflow
Other
Other useful information about the testing framework