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Intern vs WebdriverIO comparison of testing frameworks
What are the differences between Intern and WebdriverIO?

Intern

https://github.com/theintern/intern

WebdriverIO

https://webdriver.io/
Programming language

JavaScript

JavaScript

Category

Unit Testing, Functional Testing

Browser Automation, Unit Testing, Functional Testing

General info

Intern is minimal test system for JavaScript designed to write and run consistent.

Intern is a complete test system for JavaScript designed to help you write and run consistent, high-quality test cases for your JavaScript libraries and applications. Using Intern we can write tests in JavaScript and TypeScript using any style like TDD, and BDD. Intern can run unit tests in most browsers that support ECMAScript

WebdriverIO is the next-gen WebDriver test framework for Node.js made upon Selenium

WebdriverIO is written in JavaScript and uses Selenium under the hood. It also comes with its own inbuilt test runner and supports other testing frameworks like Jasmine, Cucumber, and Mocha
xUnit
Set of frameworks originating from SUnit (Smalltalk's testing framework). They share similar structure and functionality.

No

Yes

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

Yes

Intern is a complete test system for JavaScript It Runs in the browser and can test any front-end component and functionality

Yes

WebdriverIO allows the use of advanced CSS selectors and makes it easy to find elements for front-end testing
Server-side
Allows testing the bahovior of a server-side code

Yes

Since it is a complete testing system that can test any type of JavaScript code, it can test server-side behaviour and components as well

Yes

It can be used to test server side behaviour and functionality
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

WebdriverIO supports the creation of fixtures
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

WebdriverIO supports the creation of 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.

N/A

Licence
Licence type governing the use and redistribution of the software

FreeBSD 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)

Intern uses the Dojo Toolkit’s AMD loader. To mock, you should be able to just use the standard AMD 'map' feature, else you can use third party libraries like sinon.js

Yes

It contains a mocking service called 'wdio-wiremock-service'
Grouping
Allows organizing tests in groups

Yes

You can group tests into Suites which may be specified as file paths or using glob expressions, there is typically one top-level suite per module.

Yes

WebdriverIO allows one to build test suites, you can run these test in parallel and organize them by adjusting the 'maxInstances' property in your config file
Other
Other useful information about the testing framework