pest
Pest is an elegant PHP testing Framework with a focus on simplicity, meticulously designed to bring back the joy of testing in PHP.
A PHP testing framework with a cleaner, simpler syntax built on top of PHPUnit, making it less tedious to write tests while staying fully compatible with existing PHP test infrastructure.
Pest is a testing framework for PHP applications. Its main pitch is that writing tests should feel straightforward and enjoyable rather than tedious, which it tries to accomplish by offering a simpler, more expressive syntax than the older PHPUnit-style approach that PHP developers have traditionally used.
The project is built on top of PHPUnit under the hood, so it works with existing PHP projects without requiring a full rewrite of any test infrastructure. You write your tests using Pest's cleaner syntax, and it handles the rest. The README does not go into deep technical detail about how to write tests, directing readers instead to the full documentation at pestphp.com.
Version 4 of Pest introduced browser testing support, which allows tests to interact with a running web page rather than just testing code in isolation. This is noted in the README as the headline feature of the latest release.
The project is maintained by Nuno Maduro, who also produces videos and live coding streams where Pest is regularly featured. The README lists several corporate sponsors who fund the project's ongoing development, including a number of web development and SaaS companies. Pest is released under the MIT license, meaning it is free to use in both personal and commercial projects.
The README itself is fairly brief and focuses on pointing to external resources rather than explaining how to use the framework in detail. For actual usage instructions, installation steps, or examples, the pestphp.com documentation site is the intended starting point.
Where it fits
- Write PHP unit tests with less boilerplate using Pest's expressive syntax instead of PHPUnit classes.
- Add browser-based testing to a PHP app that interacts with a real running web page, using Pest v4's browser testing feature.
- Drop Pest into an existing Laravel or PHP project without rewriting any existing PHPUnit tests.
- Run a full PHP test suite through Pest while keeping all existing PHPUnit configuration and test files.