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Capybara VS pytest

Compare Capybara VS pytest and see what are their differences

Capybara logo Capybara

Capybara helps you test web applications by simulating how a real user would interact with your app.

pytest logo pytest

Javascript Testing Framework
  • Capybara Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-11-05
  • pytest Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-15

Capybara features and specs

  • Robustness
    Capybara provides a robust framework for testing web applications. It offers a natural way to simulate how a user would interact with your app, making it highly efficient for end-to-end testing.
  • DSL
    Capybara's Domain Specific Language (DSL) is expressive and easy to understand, making test scripts straightforward to write and maintain, even for those who may not be deeply familiar with Ruby.
  • Integration
    Capybara easily integrates with Ruby on Rails applications and is designed to work seamlessly with testing frameworks like RSpec and Cucumber, providing flexibility in testing suite setup.
  • Multiple Drivers Support
    Capybara supports multiple drivers, allowing tests to be run in different browsers, which aids in cross-browser testing.
  • Asynchronous Operations
    Capybara has built-in support for dealing with asynchronous web applications, which makes it suitable for testing modern web applications with dynamic content updates.

Possible disadvantages of Capybara

  • Performance
    Tests written in Capybara can be slower compared to unit tests because they involve spinning up a web driver and interacting with the web application like a real user.
  • Complex Setup
    Initial configuration and setup can be complex, especially for those who are not familiar with Ruby or the specific testing environments needed for Capybara.
  • Limited to Ruby
    Capybara is a tool primarily for Ruby applications, which limits its usability for projects written in other languages unless you employ language bridge solutions.
  • Debugging Challenges
    Debugging failures in Capybara tests can sometimes be difficult, as the errors may often be related to timing issues or element invisibility rather than logic errors.
  • Maintenance Overhead
    Keeping tests up to date as UI changes occur can require significant effort, potentially leading to high maintenance costs if best practices in test design aren't followed.

pytest features and specs

  • Easy to Use
    Pytest is designed to be simple and easy to use, with minimal boilerplate code required to write tests. Its straightforward syntax allows users to quickly write and understand tests.
  • Extensive Plugin System
    Pytest has a flexible and powerful plugin architecture, with a wide range of community-maintained plugins available, allowing for easy customization and extension of its functionality.
  • Detailed Information on Failures
    Pytest provides detailed and informative feedback on failures, enhancing the debugging process by highlighting where and why a test failed.
  • Fixture Support
    Pytest's fixture system allows for easy setup and teardown of test environments, encouraging the reuse of setup code and reducing code duplication.
  • Compatibility
    Pytest is compatible with standard Python testing frameworks such as unittest, allowing for easy migration and integration of existing tests.

Possible disadvantages of pytest

  • Steeper Learning Curve for Advanced Features
    While basic usage is straightforward, mastering advanced pytest features, such as writing custom plugins and fixtures, can have a steeper learning curve.
  • Performance Overhead
    For very large projects, the additional features and flexibility of pytest can introduce some performance overhead when running tests, compared to simpler testing frameworks.
  • Complexity in Parameterized Testing
    While pytest supports parameterized testing, setting up and managing complex parameterizations can become cumbersome and might require additional abstraction layers.
  • Plugin Conflicts
    With a vast ecosystem of plugins, there is a potential for conflicts or compatibility issues between different plugins, especially when they modify similar pytest behaviors.

Capybara videos

Kalibrgun CAPYBARA Released - FIRST REVIEW 2019

More videos:

  • Review - Schrade Old Timer 30OT Capybara Fixed Blade Knife Review
  • Review - Capybara Video Review

pytest videos

getting started with pytest (beginner - intermediate) anthony explains #518

More videos:

  • Review - Python Code Review: Adding Pytest Tests to an Existing Python Web Scraper
  • Review - pytest: everything you need to know about fixtures (intermediate) anthony explains #487

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Capybara and pytest)
Automated Testing
66 66%
34% 34
Testing
57 57%
43% 43
Browser Testing
100 100%
0% 0
Online Services
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Capybara and pytest

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pytest Reviews

25 Python Frameworks to Master
Pytest is a widely adopted testing framework that is designed to be easy to use and extend. It helps you to write elegant tests in both small and complex Python codebases.
Source: kinsta.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Capybara should be more popular than pytest. It has been mentiond 12 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Capybara mentions (12)

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pytest mentions (5)

  • An Introduction to Testing with Django for Python
    Pytest is an excellent alternative to unittest. Even though it doesn't come built-in to Python itself, it is considered more pythonic than unittest. It doesn't require a TestClass, has less boilerplate code, and has a plain assert statement. Pytest has a rich plugin ecosystem, including a specific Django plugin, pytest-django. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • How I Added Continuous Integration (CI) to a C++ Project
    For this lab exercise I had the opportunity to add unit tests to a classmate's project and experience their CI workflow. For this exercise I worked on go-go-web by kliu57. Go-Go Web is written in Python and uses the pytest testing framework. This was my first time writing tests for pytest, but I found the pytest docs helpful. However, more helpful was the information provided in the associated issue and the tests... - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • CI/CD Part 1: Unit/Integration Testing
    This week, in a setup for a CI/CD pipeline, I added unit and integration testing using Pytest to my Python CLI and utilized pytest-cov for generating a coverage report. As always, the merged commit for changes to the repo can be found here. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Testing in Python
    After looking through the various unit testing tools available for Python like pytest, unittest (built-in), and nose, I went with pytest for its simlpicity and ease of use. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Testing and Refactoring With pytest and pytest-cov
    Up until now we've been using python's unittest module. This was chosen as a first step since it comes with python out of the box. Now that we've gone over dev dependencies I think it's a good time to look at pytest as a unit test alternative. I highly recommend getting accustomed to pytest as it's used quite often in the python ecosystem to handle testing for projects. It's also a bit more user friendly in how it... - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Capybara and pytest, you can also consider the following products

Cucumber - Cucumber is a BDD tool for specification of application features and user scenarios in plain text.

JUnit - JUnit is a simple framework to write repeatable tests.

Selenium - Selenium automates browsers. That's it! What you do with that power is entirely up to you. Primarily, it is for automating web applications for testing purposes, but is certainly not limited to just that.

RSpec - RSpec is a testing tool for the Ruby programming language born under the banner of Behavior-Driven Development featuring a rich command line program, textual descriptions of examples, and more.

unittest - Testing Frameworks

QUnit - What is QUnit? QUnit is a powerful, easy-to-use JavaScript unit testing framework. It's used by the jQuery, jQuery UI and jQuery Mobile projects and is capable of testing any generic JavaScript code, including itself!