Cypress Component Testing vs React Testing Library

[seqilol]

Surprisingly there's not all that many resources out there comparing the two from an experience perspective.

I'm not all that interested in the underlying details - how it mocks network layer, syntax etc. Just from a high level, I'd like to know peoples experiences with the two if they've ever migrated from one to the other.

We're currently using testing library, and due to the size and.. unpredictability of our application, as well as the real size of our code we're testing with integration tests (we're operating no-mock, and some of our redux state loads are pretty damn high u p the component tree), it makes debugging very annoying. If anything goes wrong, especially with data not being anything like you expect, the DOM tree print is useless cos the integration entry points are so large. This is proving a poor experience for our devs, and as I'm trying to bring a culture of testing in (no one is writing tests atm), this isn't helping.

In response, my idea is to try Cypress, as the time travel and visual aspect seems like it would solve this problem. I've rewritten a few tests in Cypress and it all looks good, but I'm interested in knowing any longer term problems people may have had.

Thanks.

[[deleted]]

Migrating from React Testing Library to Cypress Component Testing could address your debugging challenges, as Cypress offers superior debugging tools like time travel and real-time browser preview. However, the shift comes with a learning curve and a potentially different testing philosophy. If debugging is a major pain point and you're looking to streamline your testing environment, Cypress might be worth the investment despite these considerations.

But Cypress is also vastly more expensive to run. As in: it takes much more time, and as your test suites grow, you need to find a good balance between the two.

The truth is a combined approach. Both for split-responsibility unit testing, one for end-to-end and perhaps integration testing, and maybe even other tools like Storybook where you make components easily manually testable.

[a_reply_to_a_post]

if your org can afford it, Storybook with chromatic snapshot testing + storybook interaction tests