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mocha-parallel-tests vs Vitest comparison of testing frameworks
What are the differences between mocha-parallel-tests and Vitest?

mocha-parallel-tests

https://www.npmjs.com/package/mocha-parallel-tests

Vitest

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

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

Unit testing, integration testing, and component testing

General info

mocha-parallel-tests is a test runner for tests written with mocha testing framework.

mocha-parallel-tests allows you to run your tests in parallel and executes each of your test files in a separate process while still maintaining the output of mocha

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.

N/A

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

Mocha-parallel-tests Runs in the browser and is used widely to test front-end components and functionality. It can test various DOM elements, front-end functions and so on.

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

Mocha-parallel-tests provides convenient ways of testing the Node server.

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

Mocha, which is the the framework which mocha-parallel-tests runs provides the hooks before(), after(), beforeEach(), and afterEach() to set up preconditions and clean up after your tests

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

Group fixtures are available

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)

Provides Mocking capabilities through third party Libraries like sinon.js, simple-mock and nock

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

Grouping is supported and is accomplished by the using a nested 'describe()'

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.