WireMock vs Mockito

WireMock and Mockito both are testing tools and both tools are highly used in real-world applications for Unit and Integration testing. And the developer must know the difference between these two testing tools. So in this article, we are going to discuss the main differences between these two very popular testing tools. 

WireMock 

WireMock is a tool for mocking HTTP-based APIs that runs in the unit tests, on the desktop, or in the test environment. We can also say it is a simulator for HTTP-based APIs, considered a service virtualization tool or a mock server. It enables you to stay productive when an API you depend on

• Doesn’t exist or
• Isn’t complete or
• Costly to access

It supports the testing of Edge cases and failure modes. It’s fast so reduces build time significantly. In simple terms, Wiremock is a mocking setup for integration testing. It is mainly used during the development and more significantly during the Integration testing while a system or service talks to one or multiple external or internal dependencies/services. 

Read more about WireMock in this article: Introduction to WireMock

Mockito

Similarly, Mockito is an open-source testing framework used for unit testing of Java applications. It plays a vital role in developing testable applications. Mockito is used to mock interfaces so that a dummy functionality can be added to a mock interface that can be used in Unit Testing. Unit Testing is a type of software testing in which individual components of the software are tested. The major objective of using the Mockito framework is to simplify the development of a test by mocking external dependencies and using them in the test code. And as a result, Mockito provides a simpler test code that is easier to understand, more readable, and modifiable. Mockito can also be used with other testing frameworks like JUnit and TestNG. 

Read more about Mockito in this article: Software Engineering | MOCK (Introduction)

Why We Should use WireMock Instead of Mockito?

Wiremock provides a simulator for HTTP-based APIs while Mockito provides the mock implementation of the method/object. If we are using Mockito to mock the HTTP-based method, it means we are trying to return the object/response without testing any code to invoke REST service, getting an HTTP response, and deserializing the same. If we use the Wiremock, we will be able to test close to reality as it will test invocation of REST call as well as deserialization of the response.

Difference Between WireMock and Mockito

WireMock	Mockito
In WireMock, the webserver just acts like the real API.	In Mockito, there is no webserver.
It is a real HTTP call.	There is no HTTP call in Mockito.
It is external to the app code.	It is a part of the application code.
It can simulate the network calls.	In Mockito, it can’t.
It is language agnostic. That means whether you are working on Java, Python, or Groovy language if it’s a REST-based response you can just use WireMock.	But in the case of Mockito, it’s a language-specific mocking library. For example, in Java programming, the mocking library is named Mockito and for other programming languages, it has a different name.