Mobile — Testing Frameworks

Mobile testing splits into three layers: unit / integration (per-platform), UI tests (per-platform or cross-platform), and full E2E flows (cross-platform tools dominate in 2026). For visual / snapshot testing see Mobile — Snapshot Testing. For real-device testing see Mobile — Cloud Test Labs.

iOS / Swift

• ★ Swift Testing (@Test) — Apple's macro-based framework; default in Xcode 16+.
• XCTest — older framework; still required for XCUITest-based UI tests.
• XCUITest — accessibility-driven UI tests; runs on simulator and device.
• Quick + Nimble — BDD / matcher style; less common in the Swift Testing era.
• swift-snapshot-testing — see Mobile — Snapshot Testing.

Android / Kotlin

• JUnit 4 / 5 — unit tests; JUnit 5 increasingly default.
• Robolectric — JVM-side Android tests; fast feedback.
• Espresso — instrumented UI tests for the View system.
• Compose UI tests (createComposeRule) — Compose's built-in testing.
• MockK — Kotlin-first mocking. Apache 2.0.
• Mockito-Kotlin — Mockito with Kotlin niceties.
• Turbine — test Flow values cleanly.
• Truth / AssertK — fluent assertions.

Cross-platform UI / E2E

• ★ Maestro — YAML-driven flows; cross-platform; runs on iOS, Android, RN, Flutter, native, hybrid. Free / OSS core, paid Maestro Cloud. The default in 2026 for E2E.
• ★ Appium — long-running Selenium-shape WebDriver for mobile; works with everything; Apache 2.0.
• Detox (Wix) — RN E2E; still maintained, less hot than Maestro.
• Patrol — Flutter E2E with native interaction; the recommended choice for Flutter native flows.
• EarlGrey 2 (Google) — iOS UI tests; less common.

Game / canvas-heavy apps

• For Skia / OpenGL / Compose Canvas apps, snapshot tests via Paparazzi or pixel-diff tooling.

RN-specific

• ★ Jest — unit / component tests (RN ships with it).
• react-native-testing-library — component-level testing.
• Detox — RN E2E.
• Maestro — E2E flows.

Flutter-specific

• ★ flutter_test — built-in unit + widget tests.
• ★ integration_test — official E2E.
• patrol — native-interactive E2E.
• golden_toolkit / alchemist — golden file testing.

KMP / Compose Multiplatform

• kotlin.test — multiplatform.
• Compose UI tests (runComposeUiTest) — multiplatform on iOS + Android.
• kotest — for richer assertion / property-test layer.

Mocking / fakes

• MockK (Kotlin), Mockito (Java), swift-mockable, Cuckoo (Swift), Mockingbird (Swift), MSW (RN networking mocks).

Network mocking

• WireMock — JVM HTTP mock.
• MockServer — language-agnostic.
• Mockoon — local mock API GUI.
• See api-clients for desktop mocking.

Pick this if…

• iOS unit tests, new project: Swift Testing + swift-snapshot-testing.
• Android unit tests: JUnit 5 + MockK + Turbine + Robolectric for fast feedback.
• Cross-platform E2E flows: Maestro for almost any stack in 2026.
• Flutter native flows: patrol; otherwise integration_test.
• RN component tests: Jest + react-native-testing-library; flows in Maestro.
• Snapshot testing: see Mobile — Snapshot Testing.