NUnit vs. MbUnit vs. MSTest vs. xUnit.net

unit-testing nunit mstest mbunit xunit.net
bitbonk picture bitbonk · Nov 4, 2008 · Viewed 124k times · Source

There are quite a lot of unittesting frameworks out there for .NET. I found this little feature comparison: http://xunit.github.io/docs/comparisons.html

Now I am to choose the best one for us. But how? Does it matter? Which one is most future proof and has a decent momentum behind it? Should I care about the features? While xUnit seems to be most modern and specifically designed for .NET, NUnit again seems to be the one that is widely accepted. MSTest again is already integrated into Visual Studio ...

Answer

jrista picture jrista · Jun 5, 2009

I know this is an old thread, but I thought I'd post a vote for xUnit.NET. While most of the other testing frameworks mentioned are all pretty much the same, xUnit.NET has taken a pretty unique, modern, and flexible approach to unit testing. It changes terminology, so you no longer define TestFixtures and Tests...you specify Facts and Theories about your code, which integrates better with the concept of what a test is from a TDD/BDD perspective.

xUnit.NET is also EXTREMELY extensible. Its FactAttribute and TraitAttribute attribute classes are not sealed, and provide overridable base methods that give you a lot of control over how the methods those attributes decorate should be executed. While xUnit.NET in its default form allows you to write test classes that are similar to NUnit test fixtures with their test methods, you are not confined to this form of unit testing at all. You are free to extend the framework to support BDD-style Concern/Context/Observation specifications, as depicted here.

xUnit.NET also supports fit-style testing directly out of the box with its Theory attribute and corresponding data attributes. Fit input data may be loaded from excel, database, or even a custom data source such as a Word document (by extending the base data attribute.) This allows you to capitalize on a single testing platform for both unit tests and integration tests, which can be huge in reducing product dependencies and required training.

Other approaches to testing may also be implemented with xUnit.NET...the possibilities are pretty limitless. Combined with another very forward looking mocking framework, Moq, the two create a very flexible, extensible, and powerful platform for implementing automated testing.

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