TOP 18 PHP Libraries for testing codebases and generating test data

Testing is an essential aspect of developing in any programming language. Manual testing can only be performed irregularly and usually only in limited ways. The answer to testing source code regularly, and in depth, is to write automated tests which can be frequently executed.

In PHP such tests are usually written using a unit testing framework, a framework which allows the source code of any application or library to be tested as isolated units of functionality such as a single class or method. As unit testing has gained popularity, it has become a standard practice in PHP with libraries and frameworks.



The best thought is to build up a beneficial testing work process in which you have to write your own particular testing code that checks if your application code works appropriately. The trick is that the testing code should be written before the application code. This way you can assure from the very beginning that the code you write works legitimately. The testing code will go into separate files. If you later chance upon any errors in your PHP web application, you don’t have to do anything else, simply run your tests that ideally will give you appropriate insights about the bugs.

Benefits Of Unit Testing

  • Testing can be automated for speed.
  • Higher probability of bug free code
  • Easy to understand inherited code
  • Refactor code to the point of testability and understandability



TOP 18 PHP Libraries for testing codebases and generating test data

You can use following php libraries for testing codebases and generating test data. Which help you to do unit test during your project development.

  • PHPUnit – A unit testing framework.
  • ParaTest – A parallel testing library for PHPUnit.
  • PHPSpec – A design by specification unit testing library.
  • Codeception – A full stack testing framework.
  • Atoum – A simple testing library.
  • Mockery – A mock object library for testing.
  • Phake – Another mock object library for testing.
  • Parody – Yet another mock object library for testing.
  • Sismo – A continuous testing server library.
  • Faker – A fake data generator library.
  • Samsui – Another fake data generator library.
  • Alice – An expressive fixture generation library.
  • Behat – A Behaviour Driven Development framework.
  • Mink – Web acceptance testing.
  • HTTP Mock – A library for mocking HTTP requests in unit tests.
  • VFS Stream – A virtual filesystem stream wrapper for testing.
  • Locust – A modern load test library written in Python.
  • Travis CI – A continuous integration platform.