node:test vs Jasmine

Free and open source

Free and open source

Free and open source. You pay in engineering time and CI minutes.

Free and open source. You pay in engineering time and CI minutes.

Everything, self-hosted

Everything, self-hosted

Established

OpenJS Foundation · since 2022

Established

OSS community · since 2010

• No dependencies to install, audit or upgrade — a real supply-chain advantage for libraries.
• Stable and versioned with the runtime itself.
• Fast, with parallel execution by file and built-in coverage.

• Self-contained: spies, clocks and matchers with no extra packages.
• Runs directly in a browser without bundling.
• Extremely stable API — old suites keep working.

• No DOM environment, so it is a poor fit for front-end component testing.
• Ecosystem of reporters and matchers is tiny compared to Jest or Vitest.
• TypeScript requires a loader or a build step.

• Feels dated; snapshot testing and modern mocking are absent or bolted on.
• Momentum has moved to Jest and Vitest, including within the Angular ecosystem.
• Weaker TypeScript ergonomics than newer runners.

Node libraries and backend services that want a dependency-free test setup.

Existing Angular codebases and browser-native test setups.