Jest image snapshot vs Chromatic

Chromatic is a cloud alternative to Jest image snapshot with a team-centric developer experience.

Thinking of visual regression testing using Chromatic or an open source library like Jest image snapshot?

It can be time-consuming to scan every feature of each library, so we gathered some handy info that’ll make it easier to decide which visual regression testing tool is right for you.

Read on for an overview of Chromatic and Jest image snapshot, including features, workflows, collaboration and more. We hope this helps you figure out the best testing solution for your project.

Chromatic is ideal for testing components

If you use Jest, you already know how important it is to test every component. That’s why we tailored Chromatic to be familiar to the Jest workflow, but with added developer experience improvements to save time and boost productivity.

Jest image snapshot checks components for visual diffs and fails if a component looks different. This is great if you’re an solo dev working on a tightly scoped project, but gets out of hand and slow pretty quickly when you're working on a team or you have a lot of components to test.

Chromatic integrates seamlessly with Storybook to automatically track each component from commit-to-commit, capture image snapshots in the cloud, and gives you a merge manager to help you review changes with your team.

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You’ll also get the superpower of rewinding a component’s look and feel from previous commits. Go back in time to see the fully inspectable markup, styling, and assets. No Git gymnastics required.


Chromatic is built for teams

Jest image snapshot works for its specific functionality. But not for collaboration. It takes a team to build a full-featured app. Like you, we understand that complexity grows and communication muddies the larger the team and project. That’s why Chromatic was built for collaboration from the start.

Chromatic is the place for everyone to contribute to the UI review process. The online merge manager helps you pull in stakeholders to review and confirm changes. Engineers, designers, and product managers can browse your component library online without needing to pull code, migrate, or maintain a dev environment.

Review with your team


Chromatic is perfect for Storybook

Storybook helps frontend teams ship components. Chromatic automates visual testing those components.

As maintainers and sponsors of Storybook, we understand how integral Storybook is to app teams. That’s why we’re dead set on building a tool to improve your Storybook workflow without adding extra work.

View your stories on Chromatic

Every story is a test

Chromatic tests map 1-to-1 with your stories. Whenever you update a story your tests are synced. This means visual tests are painless to keep up to date.

Your Storybook is uploaded automatically

Every time you push code, the components in your Storybook are uploaded to Chromatic. This means everyone on your team can participate in reviewing. No pulling code required.

No hassle branching and merging

Work on features together or separately. With branching and merging, you can make as many feature-branches as you need and seamlessly merge them back into production. It all happens behind the scenes, and just works. No configuration needed.

Choose versions of your components


Chromatic makes reproductions easy

Chromatic doesn’t just capture an image of each component, it’s a living re-creation of component’s DOM, styling, and assets. Whenever you’re reviewing changes, you see high-fidelity components that are fully inspectable. This makes it painless to reproduce and confirm component changes.


Chromatic has common-sense pricing

It’s clear, Jest image snapshot is free. And free is very attractive.

But we reckon the workflow boost and time saving you get from Chromatic is the best value out there. Chromatic helps you manage and visually test your component library in the cloud. Each time you push code, we instantly find visual changes, notify you, and help you review them with your team.

Sure, you can cobble together something like this. But then you also sign up for sinking time into maintaining, deploying, and updating your DIY service instead of building valuable features. If Chromatic’s automated visual testing and review saves just 3 dev hours –it saves more than that- each month then it pays for itself!


Ready to try Chromatic?

We hope this guide makes choosing the right visual regression testing tool a bit simpler.

Trying Chromatic is easy, install the addon and setup your project in less than a minute. Free plan. No credit card required. Sign up now.