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Jasmine VS react-testing-library

Compare Jasmine VS react-testing-library and see what are their differences

Jasmine logo Jasmine

Behavior-Driven JavaScript

react-testing-library logo react-testing-library

[`React Testing Library`][gh] builds on top of `DOM Testing Library` by adding
  • Jasmine Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-17
  • react-testing-library Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-08-21

Jasmine features and specs

  • Behavior-Driven Development
    Jasmine is designed for BDD, which makes tests easier to understand and maintain, aligning well with modern development practices.
  • No Dependencies
    Jasmine does not require a DOM and has no dependencies, which simplifies initial setup and integration into various environments.
  • Comprehensive API
    Jasmine provides a rich set of matchers, spies, and utilities out of the box, making it easier to write complex tests.
  • Built-in Mocking
    Jasmine includes built-in features for spying and mocking functions, reducing the need for additional libraries.
  • Wide Adoption
    Jasmine is widely adopted in the industry, which means better community support, extensive documentation, and plentiful resources.
  • Framework Agnostic
    Jasmine can be used with any JavaScript framework or library, offering flexibility for different projects.

Possible disadvantages of Jasmine

  • Steep Learning Curve
    Users new to BDD or Jasmine might find its extensive API and different testing paradigms challenging to learn initially.
  • Async Testing Complexity
    Although Jasmine provides support for asynchronous tests, handling async code can still be complex and less intuitive compared to some other testing frameworks.
  • Verbose Syntax
    Writing tests in Jasmine can sometimes be more verbose compared to other testing libraries, potentially leading to longer, harder-to-read test files.
  • Limited Plugin Ecosystem
    Compared to some other testing frameworks like Jest, Jasmine has a more limited ecosystem of plugins and extensions.
  • Integration with ES Modules
    Jasmine's integration with modern JavaScript features like ES Modules can sometimes be less straightforward, requiring additional configuration or workarounds.

react-testing-library features and specs

  • Focused on user-centric testing
    React Testing Library encourages tests that closely resemble how users interact with an application. This approach makes tests more reliable and meaningful.
  • Reduces coupling to implementation details
    By encouraging developers to interact with components via the DOM, the library minimizes dependencies on component internals, making tests less prone to breaking from refactors.
  • Improved test readability
    Tests written with React Testing Library are generally easier to read and understand because they focus on what the user sees and does, rather than the internal logic of the components.
  • Comprehensive query options
    The library provides a wide range of query methods (e.g., getByText, getByRole), which makes it easy to select elements in ways that resemble how users think.
  • Active community and well-maintained
    React Testing Library has a strong, active community and it's maintained by experienced developers who keep the library up-to-date with React's evolution.

Possible disadvantages of react-testing-library

  • Limited support for non-DOM testing
    The library is heavily focused on DOM interactions, making it less suited for testing non-DOM logic or scenarios that don't involve user interactions.
  • Can be slower
    Tests that involve the DOM can be slower compared to tests that interact directly with component methods and state, which can lead to longer test execution times.
  • Learning curve for traditional testers
    Developers who are used to testing implementation details with other tools (like Enzyme) might find it challenging to adjust to the user-centric approach advocated by React Testing Library.
  • Potential for less granular control
    Because the library encourages testing through the UI, developers might find it harder to test specific, isolated internal behaviors of components that aren't directly visible to users.
  • Dependencies on browser APIs
    The library's reliance on browser APIs means that tests may behave differently in different environments or may require polyfills for certain features, leading to potential inconsistencies.

Jasmine videos

Blue Jasmine - Movie Review by Chris Stuckmann

More videos:

  • Review - Blue Jasmine -- Movie Review
  • Review - Was Jasmine Ever Speechless? [Aladdin 2019 Review]

react-testing-library videos

React unit testing with Jest & React-testing-library

More videos:

  • Review - Test a React Component that renders a list with react-testing-library

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Jasmine and react-testing-library)
Automated Testing
46 46%
54% 54
Developer Tools
30 30%
70% 70
Testing
47 47%
53% 53
Javascript UI Libraries
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 Jasmine and react-testing-library

Jasmine Reviews

20 Best JavaScript Frameworks For 2023
In the State of JS ranking, Cypress has already surpassed some previously leading best testing frameworks, such as Jasmine, and is now ranked fourth for testing, with 35.8% of testers citing Cypress as their preferred testing framework, which is nearly identical to Mocha.

react-testing-library Reviews

We have no reviews of react-testing-library yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, react-testing-library should be more popular than Jasmine. It has been mentiond 133 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.

Jasmine mentions (32)

  • Angular vs. React vs. Vue
    Apart from that, there is a lot of common ground regarding testing. All three contenders support the testing tools that many of you use and love, whether it is Jest, Jasmine, and Mocha for unit testing or Cypress, Playwright, and — of course — Selenium for end-to-end testing, among others. A shallow learning curve will be ahead if you want to use these testing tools. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • Test Test Test
    Greetings, another week another lab this week covered the topic of automated testing. When selecting a test framework my first thought was to use Jasmine, which I had used previously, however it turns out that Jasmine does not have good support for ES modules. After doing a bit of research I opted to go with Vitest, since it was ES module compatible, and was inter-compatible with the very popular Vite tool chain. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • Is the VCR plugged in? Common Sense Troubleshooting For Web Devs
    5. Automated Tests: Unit tests are automated tests that verify the behavior of a small unit of code in isolation. I like to write unit tests for every bug reported by a user. This way, I can reproduce the bug in a controlled environment and verify that the fix works as expected and that we wont see a regression. There are many different JavaScript test frameworks like Jest, cypress, mocha, and jasmine. We use... - Source: dev.to / 10 months ago
  • # 5 Testing Frameworks for JavaScript Developers
    Jasmine is renowned for its simplicity and is a popular choice for JavaScript testing. Here are its key features:. - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
  • Migrating from Jest to Vitest for your React Application
    Vitest makes it effortless to migrate from Jest. It supports the same Jasmine like API. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
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react-testing-library mentions (133)

  • Migrating from AngularJS to React
    Additionally, I wrote Jest and Enzyme unit tests to demonstrate how to go about unit testing the components, as test driven development (TDD) is another methodology my organization subscribes to. Jest is a unit testing framework that actually shipped with React if you use the Create React App CLI to make a new React project. And at the time, Enzyme was created by Airbnb and added additional functionality to Jest... - Source: dev.to / 29 days ago
  • How To Convert HTML CSS JS To React JS
    After converting your components, take some time to test your application. Make sure everything is working as expected. React’s development server automatically reloads your application whenever you save changes, which makes testing a lot easier. Tools like Jest and React Testing Library are also available to help you write tests for your components. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • How To Write Unit Test Cases In React JS
    React Testing Library: For testing React components from a user’s point of view, visit the React Testing Library documentation. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Top 20 Modern React Libraries To Supercharge Your Next Big Project
    Resource: React Testing Library Documentation. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Next.js Testing Guide: Unit and E2E Tests with Vitest & Playwright
    In this article, you will write unit tests in Next.js client components and synchronous server components using Vitest and React Testing Library, and you will write end-to-end tests for your async server components using Playwright. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Jasmine and react-testing-library, you can also consider the following products

Mocha - Sponsors. Use Mocha at Work? Ask your manager or marketing team if they'd help support our project. Your company's logo will also be displayed on npmjs. com and our GitHub repository.

Enzyme - Enzyme is a JavaScript testing utility for React.

Mochajs - Mocha is a JavaScript test framework running on Node.js and the browser, making asynchronous testing simple.

Jest - Jest is a delightful JavaScript Testing Framework with a focus on simplicity.

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!

EyeJS - A JavaScript testing framework for the real world.