My Simple Testing Stack (for .NET developers) [2023]

Discover the tools I use for my .NET test projects!

Not only will you get an inside look at my current testing stack, but you'll also get a sneak peek at the tools I'm planning to try out. Stick around to the end to uncover these hidden gems!

🧰 What I Use

xUnit.net

xUnit is my go-to framework for unit testing in .NET applications. I love its clean and straightforward syntax. Besides that, it's the most used testing framework in the .NET space.

Fluent Assertions

Fluent Assertions is a powerful library that elevates the expressiveness of my test assertions. Tests should reveal the intent as clearly as possible. Fluent Assertions are the perfect tool for that.

Moq

Moq is the most commonly used mocking library for .NET. However, I confess that I have been looking into other options. Moq is a powerful tool but sacrifices simplicity, and I don't use advanced features.

FluentDocker

FluentDocker is a fantastic library. With its fluent API, I can quickly spin up docker containers to create isolated testing environments that mimic real-world scenarios. I've started using it because Test-containers didn't support spinning up containers based on a docker-compose file, and FluentDocker does. That might change in the future.

K6

If you don't have a go-to load-testing, soak-testing, or smoke-testing tool, you will want K6 as part of your testing toolkit. You don't write tests using .NET. You do it with JavaScript. But trust me, it's simple and expressive.

Cypress

Cypress is my choice for end-to-end testing of web applications. If you have ever used Selenium, you will love this.

🔮 What I Plan to Use

NSubstitute

I'm looking forward to trying NSubstitute as an alternative to Moq for creating mock objects. I have seen so many great things about it. The simplicity of NSubstitute is what seduces me.

Bogus

I'm eager to explore Bogus for generating realistic test data in my .NET projects. I find it especially exciting for E2E tests. A side benefit would be using it to seed demo data.

Playwright

Playwright is another tool I'm excited to try out. With .NET support, it's difficult to find arguments to not try to replace Cypress.

👋 Wrap up

As a developer, having a reliable and efficient testing stack is crucial for ensuring the quality of your projects. If you are looking for a testing stack, copy this one and start with it. And before we go, I would love to know if you have any other tools to recommend.

Follow me on Twitter (@gsferreira), and let's keep in touch.

Keep it Simple 🌱