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

PHPUnit

https://phpunit.de/

PHPSpec

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

PHP

PHP

Category

Unit Testing

Unit Testing

General info

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.

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

Yes

It's an instance of the xUnit architecture for unit testing frameworks

No

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

Yes

It can perform Unit tests and can test various front-end components and behaviours

Yes

By testing your PHP classes that run your front-end
Server-side
Allows testing the bahovior of a server-side code

Yes

By performing unit tests on singular back-end components

Yes

You can use PHPSpec to test your PHP classes that run your back-end
Fixtures
Allows defining a fixed, specific states of data (fixtures) that are test-local. This ensures specific environment for a single test

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)

Yes

You can define 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

It does support group fixtures

Yes

You can define 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

Yes

There are methods that act as generators
Licence
Licence type governing the use and redistribution of the software

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License

Free

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

One of its main features is that PHPUnit comes with out of the box support for Mock objects

Yes

It has built in support for Mocks
Grouping
Allows organizing tests in groups

Yes

It allows grouping of tests and by using the @group annotation one can tag a test to belong to one or more groups

In PHPspec, you can group specification files by a certain namespace in a suite
Other
Other useful information about the testing framework