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Discussion on: Level Up Your Front-end Testing Game With Wallaby.js

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khrome83 profile image
Zane Milakovic

I really love the concept. I was tracking this when they first launched. I didn’t realize it became a paid product.

Honestly that is the thing that will prevent its adoption.

Don’t get me wrong, lots of developers have paid for IDE over the years. But I feel web development has been strongly rooted in open source and free tools. It’s typically hosting, or team management meeting, or some other add on that is paid for.

For me, this would be the only tool I would be paying for in my work flow. That makes me rethink if I should pay. And I would just fall back to what I was already doing, which is typically Jest.

Really great write up. I am glad you found it worth while to pay.

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beggars profile image
Dwayne Charrington

I am just like you. I prefer open-source tools and software over paid in most cases. And in the case of open-source where the creator has made it so you can support them, I do. Codesandbox is a great example, I have been a Patreon member since they launched basically, it's a great product.

For me, I have been paying for certain kinds of software for years. Sublime Text Editor was the first proper piece of software I bought related to development. I still have an ST 3 licence, but I find myself using VSCode these days which is a solid free IDE.

Before VSCode, I was paying for a Webstorm subscription, which probably worked out to be the same cost as my Wallaby subscription does now.

Not really a development tool, but I pay for Grammarly which has really helped with my writing. As I have gone up in salary, my attitude towards paying for things has changed. Sometimes, open-source is great but cannot compete with paid software (like Microsoft Office, which I also pay for).

Jest has a great watch feature out-of-the-box, it just doesn't offer inline test coverage or metrics. I like how Wallaby shows those coloured boxes on the left and intelligently knows when you open a file if you have covered it in tests or not. The ability to console.log inside of tests and see the output is super helpful. It's the one tool that doesn't have an open-source equivalent. If there was a solid Wallaby competitor that was open-source, I would definitely be using it.

But, understandably and respectfully, some people are more comfortable with open-source tools and software, and that's fine. Wallaby is probably a bit expensive for some, for something that just runs tests. I've found value in it, but I think many will find it hard to reconcile the cost (unless it's employer-funded).

Thanks for the comment, Zane.

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khrome83 profile image
Zane Milakovic

I don’t disagree.

I have or still do pay for a lot of the same things you do. I have sublime 3, Grammarly, and have donated to many things.

Recently I purchased Sizzy and have fallen in love.