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PHPUnit VS Enzyme

Compare PHPUnit VS Enzyme and see what are their differences

PHPUnit logo PHPUnit

Application and Data, Build, Test, Deploy, and Testing Frameworks

Enzyme logo Enzyme

Enzyme is a JavaScript testing utility for React.
  • PHPUnit Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-26
  • Enzyme Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-16

PHPUnit features and specs

  • Comprehensive Testing
    PHPUnit provides a wide range of tools and functionalities for unit testing, allowing developers to thoroughly test their PHP code.
  • Command-Line Interface
    PHPUnit includes a robust CLI that facilitates the running of tests, which can be easily integrated into automated build and deployment processes.
  • Integration with CI/CD
    PHPUnit integrates seamlessly with continuous integration and continuous deployment pipelines, enhancing the DevOps workflow.
  • Mock Objects
    The framework provides built-in support for creating mock objects, which can simulate the behavior of complex dependencies, making unit tests more isolated and reliable.
  • Rich Documentation
    PHPUnit has extensive documentation and a strong community, offering a wealth of resources and support for developers.
  • Code Coverage Analysis
    PHPUnit can be used with Xdebug or PHPDBG to generate detailed code coverage reports, helping identify untested parts of the codebase.

Possible disadvantages of PHPUnit

  • Steep Learning Curve
    For beginners, PHPUnit can be daunting due to its comprehensive set of features and conventions, requiring a significant time investment to master.
  • Performance Overhead
    Running a large number of tests with PHPUnit can introduce performance overhead, making test execution slower especially in larger projects.
  • Complex Configuration
    Setting up PHPUnit in a complex development environment can sometimes be tricky, requiring careful configuration and maintenance.
  • Limited Functional Testing
    PHPUnit is primarily designed for unit testing and may not be as suitable for functional or end-to-end testing, necessitating additional tools for comprehensive test coverage.

Enzyme features and specs

  • Shallow Rendering
    Allows you to render a component without its children, which speeds up tests and isolates the component being tested.
  • Rich API
    Provides a comprehensive set of APIs that enable deep rendering, traversing, and manipulating of components, making it flexible and powerful for various testing needs.
  • Compatibility with Mocha and Jest
    Easily integrates with popular testing frameworks like Mocha and Jest, ensuring a smooth setup process.
  • Simulate Events
    Supports simulation of user events such as clicks, enabling more realistic interaction testing.
  • Selector Support
    Allows for selecting and finding elements using CSS selectors or component constructors, making it easier to target specific elements in tests.
  • Active Community
    Has a large and active community, which can be a valuable resource for support, plugins, and best practices.

Possible disadvantages of Enzyme

  • Complex Setup
    The initial setup and configuration can be complex, especially for beginners, requiring additional libraries and configurations.
  • Limited Support for New React Features
    Often lags behind in supporting new React features, such as Hooks or the latest Context API, compared to other testing frameworks.
  • Deprecation Warnings
    Issues with deprecation warnings and updates can arise, causing frustrations during maintenance and upgrades.
  • Performance Overhead
    Can be slower compared to other testing libraries, especially when using deep rendering for large components.
  • Inconsistent API
    Some users find the API inconsistent or unintuitive, requiring more effort to learn and use effectively.

Analysis of PHPUnit

Overall verdict

  • PHPUnit is a good choice for testing PHP applications. Its strong reputation in the PHP community and its extensive capabilities make it a valuable tool for ensuring code quality and reliability.

Why this product is good

  • PHPUnit is widely regarded as a robust and reliable testing framework for PHP. It is well-documented, actively maintained, and integrates seamlessly with various development tools and environments. PHPUnit's comprehensive feature set, including support for test-driven development (TDD) and behavior-driven development (BDD), makes it a popular choice among PHP developers.

Recommended for

  • Developers looking to implement test-driven development practices in their PHP projects.
  • Projects requiring a mature, stable, and well-supported testing framework.
  • Teams that benefit from built-in support for continuous integration workflows.
  • Developers who need to perform unit testing, integration testing, or acceptance testing for their PHP code.

Analysis of Enzyme

Overall verdict

  • Enzyme is generally considered a good tool for testing React applications, especially among developers familiar with its API. However, it is worth noting that there has been a shift towards using React Testing Library, which has gained popularity for its focus on testing the application as users would interact with it.

Why this product is good

  • Enzyme is a popular JavaScript testing utility for React that makes it easier to assert, manipulate, and traverse your React Components' output. It provides methods for rendering components, interacting with them, and testing their lifecycle methods, which are essential for writing comprehensive tests for your React applications.

Recommended for

    Enzyme is recommended for developers who are working on React applications and prefer a testing library that provides a more detailed inspection of component internals, or for those maintaining legacy codebases that already rely on Enzyme. If you value testing that emphasizes implementation details, Enzyme can be a good choice.

PHPUnit videos

PHP Unit Testing with PHPUnit | Automated PHP Testing Tutorial [2021]

More videos:

  • Review - DrupalCon Dublin 2016: Automated Testing: PHPUnit all the way
  • Review - Our first PHPunit test in Drupal 8

Enzyme videos

Enzymes (Updated)

More videos:

  • Review - Enzymes
  • Review - Over-the-Counter Enzyme Supplements Explained: Mayo Clinic Physician Explains Pros, Cons

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to PHPUnit and Enzyme)
Automated Testing
100 100%
0% 0
Developer Tools
39 39%
61% 61
Development
100 100%
0% 0
Design Tools
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, PHPUnit seems to be a lot more popular than Enzyme. While we know about 34 links to PHPUnit, we've tracked only 3 mentions of Enzyme. 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.

PHPUnit mentions (34)

  • Building a JSON CRUD API in PHP
    Use tools like Composer, Docker, and PHPUnit for efficiency. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • 19+ Laravel Best Practices for Developers in 2024
    Laravel also has out-of-the-box testing tools like Pest and PHPUnit and functionalities to enable expressive testing. It also supports executing automated testing sessions that are more precise than manual ones. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • Focusing your tests on the domain. A PHPUnit example
    The example is built over a Symfony environment and using the PHPUnit library, but the idea is valid for any language or framework. - Source: dev.to / 12 months ago
  • Run PHPUnit locally in your WordPress Plugin with DDEV
    Okay, I am digressing; the focus here is PHPUnit for plugins. As with many of my other articles, my goal is to create a reference for myself to use when I need it in the future. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Wordpress tests with Pest and WP Setup
    Today, I finished the first implementation of this environment, adding Pest and PHPUnit in v10.5, which is currently not supported by default with WP Env. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
View more

Enzyme mentions (3)

  • Top React Testing Libraries in 2025
    Enzyme is a widely-used testing utility that provides robust tools for interacting with and inspecting React components. Its API supports shallow, full, and static rendering, enabling developers to test components in isolation or with their child components. Enzyme also allows testing lifecycle methods, making it ideal for applications with complex state and props interactions. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • How we have managed to run Enzyme tests with React 18 app.
    Like many other companies with mature software, we found ourselves at a crossroads with our React application. The app, initially developed in early 2019, was built with React 16 and used Enzyme for unit testing. Over the past five years, the app grew, evolved, gained new features, and went though minor and major refactorings. Obviously, as responsible engineers we always maintained unit test coverage around... - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
  • What would you consider to be a must for a modern 2022 dev stack?
    React testing library instead of enzyme for testing react UIs. I'll never go back. Source: over 3 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing PHPUnit and Enzyme, you can also consider the following products

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

Jasmine - Behavior-Driven JavaScript

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

Ava - Making conversations accessible for the deaf

WritePHPOnline.Com - WritePHPOnline.Com is an online site that enables you to write code in PHP and view its output.

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!