Selenium vs Cucumber

Differences Between Selenium vs Cucumber

Selenium is an Automation Testing Framework that is used to test website or web-based application software using Java or any other programming language, while Cucumber is another Automation Testing tool that is used for testing any type of software application using plain text like programming language called ‘Gherkin Language’. Although both Selenium and Cucumber are available as open-source and for free of cost, corporations are making all the efforts to implement cucumber on selenium framework, as cucumber allows transparency with its plain text code, and selenium performance is exceptional comparatively.

Selenium

Jason Huggins created selenium in the year 2004, and with the help of other developers, the selenium suite has developed in the end. In Selenium, test scripts can be written to test the web application. Selenium supports different languages for developing test scripts like Java, Javascript, C#, Ruby, Python, Perl, PHP, Groovy.

Selenium consists of various tools or variants of selenium are:

1. Selenium IDE
2. Selenium web driver
3. Selenium Remote control (RC)
4. Selenium Grid
5. Selenium client API

Selenium tests an automated framework that uses scripts that can be tested directly across multiple browsers like google chrome, Internet, Mozilla Firefox. It can be implemented for mobile web applications as well as iOS, Android, etc.

Cucumber

The cucumber was written in Ruby. Cucumber supports other languages like Java, .Net, Javascript, and other platforms. In BDD, the text descriptions with scenarios are written to test the whole system rather than testing of specific code.

Cucumber consists of the terms:

1. Feature: It describes the feature written in a file that used to write the steps for automation tests.
2. Scenario: It defines the functionality that needs to be tested.
3. Give-When-Then: It provides information on conditions that are pre-condition, postcondition, and execution.
4. And (|): It is being used to combine two or more actions.
5. But: It is being used to intersect two or more actions or commands

Cucumber follows the language or set of rules in Gherkin. It is the simple, lightweight and structured language that used to describe features, requirements, and scenarios. It has its own syntax to write the featured file and set of keywords to define different actions on scenarios.

Head to Head Difference Between Selenium and Cucumber (Infographics)

Below is the Top 8 Comparisons Between Selenium and Cucumber:

Key Differences Between Selenium and Cucumber

Some of the points are explained below that shows the Differences Between Selenium and Cucumber:

1. Selenium is generally referred to as a browser automation testing tool. Cucumber is referred to as a testing tool based on a behaviour-driven framework.
2. In Selenium, test scripts can be written in Java, C#, and other languages. In Cucumber, test scripts written in plain text language according to rules of Gherkin language.
3. In Selenium, we can use conditional statements effectively and easily. In Cucumber, we cannot use these statements like if statement.
4. In Selenium, we need to write scripts based on test cases and requirements. We need to write scenarios in Cucumber and get them verified by a business analyst and other management teams.
5. In Selenium, scripts are more complicated to develop and executed. In Cucumber, it is easy to write or develop and execute.
6. Selenium scripts appear more like developing an application. Cucumber scripts are like of documenting the procedure or functionality in the right order.
7. In Selenium, syntax errors are easy to find while developing. In cucumber, syntax errors are not getting into notice while writing.
8. In Selenium, there is a suite of tools or set of software tools used for a different purpose. Each has different functionality to test; like Selenium web driver is mainly used to test web applications across all the platforms. In Cucumber, we have a set of terms, and in that way, only we need to write the file for all the supported platforms.

Selenium and Cucumber Comparison Table

Following is the comparison table between Selenium and Cucumber.

BASIS FOR COMPARISON	Selenium	Cucumber
Framework	It is a software testing framework.	It is not a testing framework.
Programmed	Selenium is mainly written in Java.	It was programmed in Ruby programming language.
Automation	Selenium is functional and performance automation testing tool	It is not an automation testing tool.
Readability	Selenium scripts are difficult to read for a management team.	Cucumber scripts can be easily readable by a management team.
Installation	Selenium installation is difficult comparatively.	Cucumber has a quick setup and installation.
Performance	Selenium has quite good performance in executing test scripts.	Cucumber makes the execution of scripts slower.
Reliability	The selenium process makes testing more reliable and dependable.	Cucumber testing is not that reliable comparatively.
Plugins	In Selenium, Plugins works slower as compared to cucumber	In Cucumber, Plugins are faster than selenium

Conclusion

Selenium and Cucumber both are open-source tool and free of cost. They can be easily downloaded and readily available for use. Cucumber can be integrated with Selenium for testing. Both Selenium and Cucumber tools can be used for cross-browser web applications. Selenium and Cucumber scripts are easy to maintain and reuse for different platforms and languages. These are some of the best tools used in the DevOps CICD process.

Selenium is a very good tool used for functional testing across many companies. It will make you both developer and tester after learning selenium as we need to develop scripts and do the testing according to the test cases and plans. Selenium is always the first choice for developers to build scripts and test applications.

Cucumber is not as famous as selenium is in the market. Cucumber is also getting its market slowly and firmly. If you are a beginner, you can easily learn cucumber as it is easy to understand and write without any difficulty.

Automation is one of the core requirement in IT companies. Automation testing really helps the team to check the vulnerabilities more effectively and consistently. The daily reports are getting generated to check the progress, which helps in the quality of delivery and, most importantly, on-time delivery without any issues. The above Selenium and Cucumber tools are helpful in achieving these primary things for any organization in functional areas. Each tool has its own strong areas. You need to get your requirements done and check which tool can be selected or best fit into your requirements.

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