head to head · open source
jest vs vitest
jest has 45,562 GitHub stars, 6,734 forks, 228 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. vitest has 17,206 stars, 2,075 forks, 425 open issues and last shipped yesterday. jest leads on adoption by 165% (45,562 vs 17,206 stars). jest is written in TypeScript under MIT; vitest is written in TypeScript under MIT. jest has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, vitest 12%. vitest was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| jest | vitest | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 17K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-11 | 2026-10-12 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.7K | ⑂ 2.1K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick jest if
- You weight community size — 46K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick vitest if
- You want the vitest feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and vitest fits your workflow better
About jest
Jest is a delightful, developer ready JavaScript testing framework for writing and running tests in JavaScript and TypeScript projects.
About vitest
Vitest is a next generation JavaScript and TypeScript testing framework powered by Vite, built for teams already running Vite who want Jest compatible tests without maintaining a second, separate build pipeline.
read the full vitest overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is jest or vitest more popular?
jest has 45,562 GitHub stars and vitest has 17,206. jest has the larger community by that measure.
Are jest and vitest free?
Both are open source. jest is licensed under MIT and vitest under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between jest and vitest?
jest is written in TypeScript and vitest in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, jest or vitest?
Choose jest if you want the larger community (45,562 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose vitest if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.