head to head · open source
jest vs selenium
jest has 45,472 GitHub stars, 6,717 forks, 228 open issues and last shipped yesterday. selenium has 34,584 stars, 8,727 forks, 188 open issues and last shipped yesterday. jest leads on adoption by 31% (45,472 vs 34,584 stars). jest is written in TypeScript under MIT; selenium is written in Java under Apache-2.0. jest has attracted 15% as many forks as stars, selenium 25%. selenium was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (javascript), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 | selenium | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 45K | ★ 35K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 6.7K | ⑂ 8.7K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick jest if
- You weight community size — 45K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick selenium if
- You want the selenium feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and selenium fits your workflow better
About jest
🃏 Delightful JavaScript Testing 👩🏻💻 Developer Ready : A comprehensive JavaScript testing solution. Works out of the box for most JavaScript projects. 🏃🏽 Instant Feedback : Fast, interactive watch mode only runs test files related to changed files. 📸 Snapshot Testing : Capture snapshots of large objects to simplify testing and to analyze how they change over time. See more on jestjs.io Table of Contents Getting Started Running from command line Additional Configuration Generate a basic configuration file Using Babel Using webpack Using Vite Using Parcel Using Typescript Documentation Badge Contributing…
About selenium
Selenium Automates browsers. That's it! Contributing • Installing • Building • Developing • Testing • Documenting • Releasing Selenium is an umbrella project encapsulating a variety of tools and libraries enabling web browser automation. Selenium specifically provides an infrastructure for the W3C WebDriver specification — a platform and language neutral coding interface compatible with all major web browsers. The project is made possible by volunteer contributors who've generously donated thousands of hours in code development and upkeep. This README is for developers interested in contributing to the project…
read the full selenium overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is jest or selenium more popular?
jest has 45,472 GitHub stars and selenium has 34,584. jest has the larger community by that measure.
Are jest and selenium free?
Both are open source. jest is licensed under MIT and selenium under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between jest and selenium?
jest is written in TypeScript and selenium in Java. 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 selenium?
Choose jest if you want the larger community (45,472 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose selenium if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.