Comparing Test Runners

Test Runner	Isolation	CJS	ESM	node_modules	Size	Bun	Deno
Jest (30.4.2)	✅	✅	experimental	293 packages	~28MB	❓	❓
Vitest (4.1.6)	✅	❌	✅	42 packages	~24MB	❓	❓
AVA (8.0.0)	✅	✅	✅	140 packages	~16MB	❓	❓
Mocha (11.7.5)	❌	✅	✅	92 packages	~9MB	❓	❓
uvu (0.5.6)	❌	✅	✅	6 packages	~558KB	❓	❓
🐷 Poku	✅	✅	✅	1 package (poku)	~198KB	✅	✅

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Quick Comparisons

Performance

Poku is continuously tested to ensure the following average expectations for basic usage:

• ~5.3x faster than Jest (v30.4.2)
• ~4.5x faster than Vitest (v4.1.6)

• You can see how the tests are run and compared in the benchmark directory.
• Comparing Poku and native test runners (discussion).

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Installation Size

• ~145x lighter than Jest
• ~124x lighter than Vitest
• ~83x lighter than AVA
• ~47x lighter than Mocha
• ~2.8x lighter than uvu

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TypeScript Comparison

Comparison using TypeScript (no compile) and ESM to show a simple error test:

• Let's starting from installation 🔬

Poku

Poku

Installation

npm i -D poku tsx

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Creating the test file

test/index.test.ts

import { assert } from 'poku';

assert.deepStrictEqual('1', 1, 'Number should not be a text');

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Running tests

npx poku

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That's it 🎉

tip

For simple tests, Poku doesn't need to use test, describe or it, since the message is already in the assert.

• Poku's assert is just an abstraction from original assert from Node.js.
  
• It means: No new learning is needed 🎉

Adopt a Poku for yourself 🩵

Jest

Jest

Installation

npm i -D jest @types/jest ts-jest

---

Configuring TypeScript

Add in your tsconfig.json

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "esModuleInterop": true
  }
}

---

Configuring Jest

jest.config.js

export default {
  preset: 'ts-jest',
  testEnvironment: 'node',
  testMatch: ['**/test/**/*.test.ts'],
};

---

Creating the test file

test/index.test.ts

describe('Type comparison', () => {
  test('Number should not be a text', () => {
    expect('1').toStrictEqual(1);
  });
});

---

Running tests

npx jest

Mocha + Chai

Mocha + Chai

Installation

npm i -D mocha @types/mocha chai @types/chai ts-node

---

Configuring ts-node

ts-loader.js

import { register } from 'node:module';
import { pathToFileURL } from 'node:url';

register('ts-node/esm', pathToFileURL('./'));

Configuring Mocha

.mocharc.json

{
  "spec": "./test/**/*.test.ts",
  "require": "ts-loader.js"
}

---

Creating the test file

test/index.test.ts

import { expect } from 'chai';

describe('Type comparison', () => {
  it('Number should not be a text', () => {
    expect('1').to.deep.equal(1);
  });
});

---

Running tests

npx mocha

Vitest

Vitest

Installation

npm i -D vitest ts-node

---

Configuring Vitest

vitest.config.ts

import { defineConfig } from 'vitest/config';

export default defineConfig({
  test: {
    include: ['test/**/*.test.ts'],
    globals: true,
    environment: 'node',
  },
});

---

Creating the test file

test/index.test.ts

import { describe, it, expect } from 'vitest';

describe('Type comparison', () => {
  it('Number should not be a text', () => {
    expect('1').toStrictEqual(1);
  });
});

---

Running tests

npx vitest run

AVA

AVA

Installation

npm i -D ava tsimp

---

Configuring Git

Include in the .gitignore:

/.tsimp

---

Configuring AVA

Include in the package.json:

{
  "ava": {
    "files": ["test/**/*.test.ts"],
    "extensions": {
      "ts": "module"
    },
    "nodeArguments": ["--import=tsimp"]
  }
}

---

Creating the test file

test/index.test.ts

import test from 'ava';

test('Number should not be a text', (t) => {
  t.deepEqual('1', 1);
});

---

Running tests

npx ava