Cucumber.js vs Rstest

Cucumber.js checks software against executable specifications written as plain-text scenarios, reporting whether each scenario passes or fails. It is the JavaScript implementation of Cucumber and runs on Node.js. Scenarios use Gherkin syntax and are usually kept in `.feature` files alongside the software in source control. Step definitions connect each Gherkin step to code that carries out its described action; expressions can use Cucumber Expressions or regular expressions, but not both syntaxes in a single expression.

The tool runs feature files from the command line and can run in continuous integration, including parallel execution. Reporter plugins can produce results, and reports can be published to Cucumber Reports with `--publish`. Published reports are public and deleted after 24 hours. Cucumber.js is available as the `@cucumber/cucumber` npm module, installed as a development dependency with npm or Yarn. The setup requires Node.js and one of those package managers. It is free and open source, with Linux, macOS, Windows, and self-hosted platforms listed. It works with browser automation tools, but is not itself one.

Rstest is a free, open-source testing framework for JavaScript and TypeScript, built on Rsbuild and Rspack. It bundles tests through Rspack’s dependency-graph build process and applies SWC transforms. Projects can reuse configuration from Rsbuild, Rslib, or Rspack, including aliases, transforms, and plugins. Tests run in Node.js, simulated DOM environments with jsdom or happy-dom, and real browsers. Browser Mode uses Playwright to run tests in Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit; an integration supports end-to-end tests against local, preview, or deployed URLs. Rstest can also load Module Federation remotes in Node, JSDOM, and Browser Mode. Its built-in tools include Jest-compatible assertions, snapshots, mocks, spies, lifecycle hooks, file-level isolation, reporters, filtering, and coverage reporting. For CI, it supports multi-project testing, sharding, blob report merging, and coverage thresholds. The Rstack VS Code extension lets users browse, run, and debug tests. The quick start requires Node.js 20.19.0 or newer, and recommends the Node.js LTS version. Rstest is released under the MIT license.