You can tell that DEV.TO uses Cypress for testing
Tags: testing, webdev, frontend
Published: 2020-06-17 16:38:10

---
title: You can tell that DEV.TO uses Cypress for testing
published: true
description: Why you should not use Cypress
tags: testing, webdev, frontend
cover_image: https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/xo7esm9wvl84dep4bq08.png
---

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I'm tired of telling people to stop using Cypress for testing. 🙄

DEV Community is using Cypress to test their website. 

This is how it looks in Internet Explorer 11:

![dev.to internet explorer](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/nos2tbx83fpyoyra90bg.png)

And here is how it looks in Safari:


![dev.to Safari](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/i/85vzxa270i8leffdos0n.png)

##**Why you should not use Cypress:**##
1. It does not work on Safari.
2. It does not work on Internet Explorer.
3. It does not work on mobile browsers.
4. It cannot handle multiple browser tabs.
5. It's nearly impossible to make it work with iframes.
6. It's nearly impossible to test file uploads.

There are also other technical reasons, mostly related to bad architecture, like the fact that it runs inside JavaScript instead of calling the browser APIs from outside of the browser.

Even if your users are tech savvy and they're all using Chrome, having a website that doesn't work in other browsers just makes you look like an amateur. 

##**The dirty tactics used by Cypress:**##

Sadly, Cypress is tolerated on DEV Community. 

If you mention anything bad about Cypress, the Cypress Ambassadors will report your article or your comment. 

Cypress is a for-profit corporation that label themselves as "open source", abusing buzzwords like "community".

There is no community behind Cypress, just a huge Marketing budget. 

They're trying so hard that they even removed the [Pricing](https://www.cypress.io/pricing/) link from their homepage, to give you the impression that it's 100% free. 

Did you ever read an article where someone was saying that Selenium is outdated and causes flaky tests and promoted Cypress as being the better alternative?

If you would search for that article again, you will see that it was most likely written by a Cypress Ambassador, technical people who are paid to spam about Cypress all over the internet.

Speaking of articles, you should bookmark this one and check in a few days to see if it's still here. It will probably be deleted and my account will be silenced. 

##**What is the alternative?**##

Cypress folks will tell you that every tool has drawbacks, but that's not true.

That's actually just something they're saying in order to justify their awful solution.

[Selenium](https://www.selenium.dev/) is 100% open source and free, there is no extra service that you need to purchase. 

Selenium works on all major browsers and mobile devices. 

It supports multiple browser tabs, iframes and file uploads. 

If you don't want to execute Selenium tests on your own machine, you can connect them to external grids like [BrowserStack](https://browserstack.com) and [Sauce Labs](https://saucelabs.com).

If you're looking for a faster way to build tests and execute them on a cross-browser cloud, you might also want to try [Endtest](https://endtest.io) or [Mabl](https://mabl.com).