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SimpleTest vs Specter comparison of testing frameworks
What are the differences between SimpleTest and Specter?

SimpleTest

https://github.com/simpletest/simpletest

Specter

http://specter.sourceforge.net/
Programming language

PHP

.NET

Category

Unit Testing, Web Testing

Acceptance Testing

General info

SimpleTest is a unit test and web test framework for PHP

It has JWebUnit style functionality and support for SSL, forms, frames, proxies and basic authentication

Specter is a behaviour-driven development framework for .NET and Mono

Specter enables behavior driven development (BDD) by allowing developers to write executable specifications for their objects, before actually implementing them, this is similar to test driven development however the different nomenclature makes it different from writing 'tests' for code that does not exist yet
xUnit
Set of frameworks originating from SUnit (Smalltalk's testing framework). They share similar structure and functionality.

No

No

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

Yes

With SimpleTest common but fiddly PHP tasks, such as logging into a site, can be tested easily

Yes

Developers can create specfications of the expected front-end behaviours and test them
Server-side
Allows testing the bahovior of a server-side code

Yes

Server-side behaviour can be tested by writing simple unit tests to test functionality and behaviour of single components.

Yes

Yes developers can create specfications of the expected back-end behaviours and test these.
Fixtures
Allows defining a fixed, specific states of data (fixtures) that are test-local. This ensures specific environment for a single test

Yes

It can import fixtures using a mixin like 'given()' method

N/A

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 allows grouping of fixtures

N/A

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

Simpletest has support for generators

N/A

Licence
Licence type governing the use and redistribution of the software

GNU Lesser General Public License v2.1

BSD 3-Clause 'New' or 'Revised' 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 allows for one to build Mock objects.To create a mock version of a class we need to include the mock object library and run the generator. This will create a clone class which we use to create new instances(objects) in our test cases.

N/A

Grouping
Allows organizing tests in groups

Yes

There are several ways of grouping tests; one is to simply place multiple test cases into a single file, another is to mark any base test cases that should not be run as abstract, Simpletest gives you a couple of options

Yes

You can create your own test suites with specter
Other
Other useful information about the testing framework