Cypress vs Protractor

End-to-end testing (E2E testing) alludes to a software testing strategy that tests the workflow of an application from beginning to end. The strategy is mainly to simulate real customer scenarios so that the framework can be approved for integration and information integrity. |Cypress is an automated testing framework for the modern web, offering a strong alternative to Protractor. Explore Cypress vs Protractor for your testing needs.

The test evaluates how the application communicates with external conditions, databases, organize network, dependencies, hardware, and other applications through every operation that the application can perform. Generally, E2E tests are run after the utility and platform tests are completed.

Cypress 

Cypress is an automated testing framework designed specifically for the modern Web. Cypress is based on the new architecture and runs in the same execution cycle as the application under test. As a result, Cypress has conducted better, faster and more reliable tests on all products. Cypress can run on any front-end application or website.

Key features

• Time travel: Cypress takes a snapshot while running the test. Scroll through the commands in the “Command Log” to understand exactly what happened at each stage.
• Debuggability: Debug directly from Developer tools, The stack trace can speed up debugging.
• Automatic waiting: Cypress will automatically wait for the commands and approval before proceeding. There is no asynchronous hell anymore.
• Network traffic management: Track, mute and test extreme situations without server involvement. You can flood the network traffic as needed.
• screenshots and videos: When executed via the CLI, it displays the automatically captured error screenshot or the video of the entire test suite.
• Cross-browser testing- Run tests in the continuous integration pipeline in the Firefox and Chrome browser series (including Edge and Electron).

Protractor

Protractor is a WebdriverJs wrapper  for end-to-end testing of Angular and AngularJS applications which supports behavioural learning frameworks such as Jasmine, Mocha, Cucumber, etc.  The protractor runs tests against an application running in a real browser and interacts with it like a user. It provides several new locator strategies and functions to automate AngularJS testing. Together with Selenium, Protractor works to provide an automated test infrastructure. It uses the Selenium grid to run several browsers simultaneously.

Key features

• Page objects can be easily set up. Protractor does not do WebDriver commands, e.g. set up page objects to allow testing the page elements without moving HTML.
• As the website completes a pending job, Protractor can immediately bind to the AngularJS framework and then perform the next phase of the testing process.
• Protractor supports Angular locator specific strategies that include repeater, binding, model, as well as native locator strategies of WebDriver.

Key differences

CI/CD Integration

• Cypress & Protractor both have the functionality to integrate with most of the CI/CD Tools, but cypress have an edge because of Cypress Dashboard Service.

Fluent Waits

• Cypress have their own fluent waits which allows the web automation to be synchronously executed.
• Protractor allows async & await keywords to handle the test execution synchronously.

Selectors Type Usage

• Cypress by default allows only CSS selectors and also using a third party package able to use Xpath as well.
• Protractor have the in-built libraries to use almost all the selectors and also have the extra type useful to automate Angular Applications. 

Execution Flow

• Cypress is easy to execute with a built-in functionality of GUI and headless.
• Protector needs to handle tests with the help of webdriver manager which takes care of all the dependencies and libraries.

To Conclude

For both angular and non-angular applications which don’t use CSS attributes, Protractor acts as an end-to-end test framework. Companies are taking a major step forward in automating business process apps through the use of Protractor in AngularJS web applications.

On the other hand Cypress is an automated testing front-end framework designed specifically for the modern Web. Cypress is based on a new architecture. Developers describe Cypress as “the best, fastest and most reliable benchmark for all operations done in the browser.” Cypress provides better, faster, and more reliable tests for all content running in the browser. Cypress can work in any user interface or website interface.