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Cypress.io vs Tape comparison of testing frameworks
What are the differences between Cypress.io and Tape?

Cypress.io

https://www.cypress.io/

Tape

https://github.com/substack/tape
Programming language

JavaScript

JavaScript

Category

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

Unit Testing, Intergration Testing

General info

Cypress users are typically developers or QA engineers building web applications using modern JavaScript frameworks. This is the top tier UI automation framework which outsmarts Selenium based frameworks in most of the aspects!

Cypress enables you to write all types of tests: 1. End-to-end tests; 2. Integration tests; 3. Unit tests; 4. Cypress can test anything that runs in a browser; Apart from that Cypress provides the Dashboard facility for CI/CD

tap-producing test harness for node and browsers.

Tape API is a small superset of the node core assert module
xUnit
Set of frameworks originating from SUnit (Smalltalk's testing framework). They share similar structure and functionality.

No

Yes

It does support xUnit output
Client-side
Allows testing code execution on the client, such as a web browser

Yes

This is the primary goal of Cypress, it tests anything that runs in a browser and works to build great user experience that is it tests the applications flow from beginning to end from a user's perspective. It is built to handle modern JavaScript frameworks especially well and also works equally well on older server rendered pages or applications

Yes

You can write tests for any part of your front-end code to test any component or functionality
Server-side
Allows testing the bahovior of a server-side code

Yes

Although Cypress is not a general automation framework, nor is it a unit testing framework for your back-end services, It can test back-end behaviours for example using cy.task() command which provides a way for running Node code, so you can take actions necessary for your tests outside of the scope of Cypress

Yes

With tape you can test any back-end component, behaviour and functionality after all it supports TAP (Test Anything Protocol)
Fixtures
Allows defining a fixed, specific states of data (fixtures) that are test-local. This ensures specific environment for a single test

Yes

Cypress has inbuilt fixtures capabilities or example using the command 'cy.fixture(filePath)' loads a fixed set of data located in a file

No

Tape contains only the essential features for making assertions on your code but there is a package called redtape that extends tape to give you beforeEach and afterEach functionality
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

Cypress can create group fixtures using the 'cy.fixture' command

No

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

No

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

Cypress comes built in with the ability to stub and spy with cy.stub(), cy.spy(), It also automatically bundles 'sinon', 'lolex' and 'sinon-chai' which all work to give Cypress mocking capabilities

No

Tape is a minimalistic framework that provides only essential features to make your assertions about your code
Grouping
Allows organizing tests in groups

Yes

Cypress allows you to configure tests into groups however there is no way currently to run the groups

No

Tape contains only the essential features for making assertions on your code
Other
Other useful information about the testing framework