Knapsack Pro

Spock vs Kotest comparison of testing frameworks
What are the differences between Spock and Kotest?

Spock

http://spockframework.org/

Kotest

https://github.com/kotest/kotest
Programming language

Java

Kotlin

Category

Unit Testing

Unit Testing

General info

Spock is a testing and specification framework for Java and Groovy applications

Spock has a highly expressive specification language, and due to its JUnit runner, Spock is compatible with most IDEs, build tools, and continuous integration servers.Spock is inspired from JUnit, RSpec, jMock, Mockito, Groovy, Scala, Vulcans among others

kotest is a powerful, elegant and flexible test framework for Kotlin, formerly known as kotlintest

Kotest has excellent support for data driven testing or table driven testing where it has the ability to quickly rerun the same test over and over with a predefined set of inputs and expected values
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

Spock tests front-end components and functionality by unit testing individual classes and functions

Yes

You can test front-end components with kotest
Server-side
Allows testing the bahovior of a server-side code

Yes

Spock tests back-end components and functionality by unit testing individual classes and functions

Yes

Yes, you can test back-end components with kotest
Fixtures
Allows defining a fixed, specific states of data (fixtures) that are test-local. This ensures specific environment for a single test

Yes

Spock contains four methods for setting up environments :setup() (run before every feature method), cleanup() (run after every feature method), setupSpec() (run before the first feature method), cleanupSpec() (run after the last feature method)

Yes

kotest contains fixtures, that is the setup / teardown functions
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 use the fixture methods to setup environments for groups of tests.

Yes

kotest has group fixtures available
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

N/A

Licence
Licence type governing the use and redistribution of the software

Apache License 2.0

Apache License 2.0

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

Spock has inbuilt mocking capabilities and has no need for external libraries

Yes

You can use a third party library like mockk to create mocks
Grouping
Allows organizing tests in groups

Yes

You can create suites manually in spock

Yes

You can create test suites with kotest
Other
Other useful information about the testing framework