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PHPSpec vs PHPUnit comparison of testing frameworks
What are the differences between PHPSpec and PHPUnit?

PHPSpec

https://www.phpspec.net/en/stable/

PHPUnit

https://phpunit.de/
Programming language

PHP

PHP

Category

Unit Testing

Unit Testing

General info

PhpSpec is a testing tool based on the concept of emergent design using specification

PhpSpec is a tool to use at the spec level or SpecBDD, a type of BDD; It's process generates code for you and guides you through the SpecBDD process through the command line

PHPUnit is a unit testing framework for the PHP programming language

PHPUnit is a programmer-oriented testing framework and is an instance of the xUnit architecture for unit testing frameworks.
xUnit
Set of frameworks originating from SUnit (Smalltalk's testing framework). They share similar structure and functionality.

No

Yes

It's an instance of the xUnit architecture for unit testing frameworks
Client-side
Allows testing code execution on the client, such as a web browser

Yes

By testing your PHP classes that run your front-end

Yes

It can perform Unit tests and can test various front-end components and behaviours
Server-side
Allows testing the bahovior of a server-side code

Yes

You can use PHPSpec to test your PHP classes that run your back-end

Yes

By performing unit tests on singular back-end components
Fixtures
Allows defining a fixed, specific states of data (fixtures) that are test-local. This ensures specific environment for a single test

Yes

You can define fixtures

Yes

By use of a setup code. The setup code consists of two Important template functions, the 'setUp()' function (called to create the objects to be tested) and 'tearDown()' function (called to cleanup the objects which you tested)
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

You can define group fixtures

Yes

It does support 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.

Yes

There are methods that act as generators

N/A

Licence
Licence type governing the use and redistribution of the software

Free

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported 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

It has built in support for Mocks

Yes

One of its main features is that PHPUnit comes with out of the box support for Mock objects
Grouping
Allows organizing tests in groups

In PHPspec, you can group specification files by a certain namespace in a suite

Yes

It allows grouping of tests and by using the @group annotation one can tag a test to belong to one or more groups
Other
Other useful information about the testing framework