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SpecFlow vs Nose comparison of testing frameworks
What are the differences between SpecFlow and Nose?

SpecFlow

https://specflow.org/

Nose

https://nose.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
Programming language

.NET

Python

Category

Acceptance Testing

Unit Testing, unittest Extensions

General info

SpecFlow is a test automation solution for .NET

SpecFlow is a test automation solution for .NET which follows the BDD paradigm, and is part of the Cucumber family. SpecFlow tests are written with Gherkin, using the official Gherkin parser which allows you to write test cases using natural languages and supports over 70 languages.

Nose is a Python unit test framework

This is a Python unit test framework that intergrates well with doctests, unnittests, and 'no-boilerplate tests', that is tests written from scratch without a specific boilerplate.
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

Front-end behaviour is tested. With specflow specifications of the expected behaviours are made and specflow tests against this

Yes

nose is a unit testing tool which is very similar to unittest. It is basically unittest with extensions therefore just like unittest is can test front-end components and behaviour
Server-side
Allows testing the bahovior of a server-side code

Yes

Back-end behaviour is tested. Specifications of the expected behaviours are made and specflow tests against them

Yes

Nose can test back-end components and functionality as small units. One can write tests for each function that provides back-end functionality
Fixtures
Allows defining a fixed, specific states of data (fixtures) that are test-local. This ensures specific environment for a single test

Yes

BeforeTestRun and AfterTestRun are executed once for each thread which is a limitation of the current architecture.

Yes

nose supports fixtures at the package, module, class, and test case levels, so that initialization which can be expensive is done as infrequently as possible.
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.

N/A

Yes

Group fixtures are allowed with nose, where a multitest state can be defined.
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

SpecFlow contains a generator component. The SpecFlow IDE integration tries to locate the generator component in your project structure, in order to use the generator version matching the SpecFlow runtime in your project

Through use of third party libraries like test-generator and from the 'unittest.TestCase' library
Licence
Licence type governing the use and redistribution of the software

BSD license

GNU Library or Lesser General Public License (LGPL) (GNU LGPL)

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

Specflow intergrates well with mock to give it excellent mocking capabilities

Yes

The nose library extends the built-in Python unittest module therefore has access to unittest.mock
Grouping
Allows organizing tests in groups

Yes

You can create test suites with specflow

Yes

With nose it collects tests automatically and there’s no need to manually collect test cases into test suites.
Other
Other useful information about the testing framework