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

Cypress.io

https://www.cypress.io/

Vitest

https://vitest.dev
Programming language JavaScript JavaScript
Category

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

Unit testing, integration testing, and component 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

Vitest is a fast, modern JavaScript test runner built on Vite

It supports unit, integration, and component testing with a Jest-compatible API, built-in mocking, and TypeScript support. Designed for speed and efficiency. It seamlessly integrates with Vite projects but can also be used independently.

xUnit
Set of frameworks originating from SUnit (Smalltalk's testing framework). They share similar structure and functionality.

No

No

Vitest does not natively follow the xUnit test structure, but it supports similar concepts. It uses a Jest-compatible API, meaning it provides test lifecycle hooks (beforeEach, afterEach, etc.) and assertions similar to xUnit-style frameworks. However, it does not strictly adhere to classical xUnit architecture, such as NUnit, JUnit, or MSTest.

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

Vitest uses JSDOM to simulate a browser environment, making it easy to test DOM-related functionality. It has Browser Mode for running component tests in the browser. Vitest can run tests in real browsers via tools like Playwright or WebdriverIO.

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

Vitest supports server-side testing, allowing you to test Node.js and server-side logic such as APIs, databases, and backend functions. It provides native support for ESM, mocks, spies, and environment configurations.

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

Yes

Vitest's Test Context, inspired by Playwright Fixtures, allows defining utils, states, and fixtures for use in tests. It enables sharing context between tests using the test.context object and supports tuple syntax for fixtures, allowing customization of fixture options per test.

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

Yes

Vitest supports group fixtures by using describe blocks with beforeAll, beforeEach, afterEach, and afterAll hooks. These hooks allow setting up a shared state for a group of 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.

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

Yes

Vitest has built-in support for mocks, allowing you to mock functions, modules, timers, and spies similar to Jest.

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

Yes

Vitest supports Grouping, allowing you to organize tests into groups using describe() blocks.

Other
Other useful information about the testing framework

Vitest provides a watch mode for instant test re-runs, ESM-first architecture for modern development, parallel and concurrent test execution for speed, custom reporters for CI/CD integration, and fake timers for testing time-dependent code.