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Jest vs AVA comparison of testing frameworks
What are the differences between Jest and AVA?

Jest

https://jestjs.io

AVA

https://github.com/avajs/ava
Programming language

JavaScript

JavaScript

Category

Unit Testing

Unit Testing, Intergration Testing

General info

A Unit Testing framework focused on simplicity

This is a Unit test framwork especially designed for the React.JS, Babel, TypeScript, Node, React, Angular and Vue projects. It usually worked with Enzyme(Integration testing)

Futuristic, new, fast and concurrent JavaScript test runner with simple test syntax

AVA is a test runner for Node.js with a concise API, detailed error output. JS is a single-threaded but Node.JS is a parallel due to it's async behaviour. Ava leverages that and it can run tests concurrently
xUnit
Set of frameworks originating from SUnit (Smalltalk's testing framework). They share similar structure and functionality.

No

No

However Ava supports the TAP format which allows us to use the tap-xunit reporter to produce xUnit (JUnit) XML
Client-side
Allows testing code execution on the client, such as a web browser

Yes

You can easily test methods, properties, UI element actions and other front-end functionalities

Yes

You can write tests for the DOM with Ava, testing front-end components is easy with Ava
Server-side
Allows testing the bahovior of a server-side code

Yes

Back-end server behaviour also can be tested with Jest much in the same way as the front-end tests.

Yes

Ava utilizes the async I/O nature of Node and runs concurrent tests on NodeJs applications' back-endsA node server can have its endpoints tested with Ava
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 supported, Jest has many helper functions such as: BeforeEach and afterEach If you have some work you need to do repeatedly for many tests, beforeAll and afterAll if you only need to do setup once, at the beginning of a file.

Yes

Using Ava's ava-fixture library it supports 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.

Yes

Jest supports group fixtures

Yes

Ava has support for 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

N/A

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)

Jest uses a custom resolver for imports in your tests making it simple to mock any object outside of your test’s scope. You can use mocked imports with the rich Mock Functions API to spy on function calls with readable test syntax.

AVA has no mocking built in, to mock functions you can use third party libraries like Sinon.js.
Grouping
Allows organizing tests in groups

Yes

You can declare as many test suites as you want. Grouping of tests together is done using a describe block

No

There is no support for grouping tests
Other
Other useful information about the testing framework