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Cucumber vs TestNG comparison of testing frameworks
What are the differences between Cucumber and TestNG?

Cucumber

https://github.com/cucumber/cucumber-ruby

TestNG

https://testng.org/doc/documentation-main.html
Programming language

Ruby

Java

Category

Acceptance Testing

Unit Testing, Intergration Testing, End-to-End Testing

General info

An automation tool for Behavior-Driven Development

The specifications are written in plain texts, which allows them to be easily understandable for all stakeholders. Cucumber Framework also supports languages beyond Ruby e.g. Java, JavaScript and Scala.

TestNG is a testing framework for the Java programming language inspired by JUnit and NUnit

TestNG is similar to JUnit and NUnit but with newer functionalities such as: annotations, test that your code is multithread safe, flexible test configuration, support for data-driven testing (with @DataProvider), support for parameters, powerful execution model (no more TestSuite) and more... It's also designed to cover all categories of tests unit, functional, end-to-end, intergration... etc
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

You can test the front-end part like the GUI using cucumber and selenium, they integrate well to test your front-end.

Yes

The scope of testing with testNg is wide and you can test various front-end functionalities and behaviours with it
Server-side
Allows testing the bahovior of a server-side code

Yes

You can test back-end components such as APIs using rest & soap clients, and databases using whatever client libraries were provided by the libraries that existed in those stacks

Yes

You can test server-side functionalities and behaviours with TestNg
Fixtures
Allows defining a fixed, specific states of data (fixtures) that are test-local. This ensures specific environment for a single test

Yes

Fixtures are inbuilt into testNG, these are the annotations which are: @BeforeSuite, @AfterSuite, @BeforeTest, @AfterTest, @BeforeGroups, @AfterGroups, @BeforeClass, @AfterClass, @BeforeMethod, @AfterMethod
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

Using the cucumber extension aruba you can create fixures in two steps: 1.Create a fixtures-directory; 2.Create fixture files in this directory

Yes

You can use various fixtures to setup environments for group tests
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

You can group your fixtures inside your fixtures directories

N/A

Licence
Licence type governing the use and redistribution of the software

MIT License

Apache License 2.0

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 all of RSpec’s supported mocking frameworks (RSpec, Mocha, RR, Flexmock)

Yes

By Use of an external library like mockit which intergrates well with testNG
Grouping
Allows organizing tests in groups

Yes

Cucumber allows the use of tag Cucumber feature files or individual tests to group tests. Then, you can pass a Cucumber tagged expression at test execution that specifies the tag (grouped) tests to run. https://www.toolsqa.com/cucumber/cucumber-tags/

Yes

Multiple test cases can be grouped more easily by converting them into testng.xml file, in which you can make priorities which test case should be executed first
Other
Other useful information about the testing framework