The goal of software or application testing is to build a quality product. Software testing types come with excellent software development importance. Functional testing vs unit testing is the foundation of the testing process. Here, we have explained the main difference between both is,
- The developer in the development cycle performs the best unit testing.
- The tester performs the functional testing well during the level of system testing.
Let’s dive into the blog and understand unit testing vs functional testing,
Unit Testing
Unit testing is a practice adopted by most organizations. It primarily helps in reducing the risk of bugs. To test the functional part of an application, we use a set of codes that pass through Automated testing.
The developers make their own choice of doing a manual unit test or an automated unit test. It follows step-by-step document testing that helps developers to isolate the function. The test makes it more rigorous.
It follows white-box solutions for automated testing such like,
Junit
It’s used as java programming and is available for free.
Nunit
Its popular framework is used for .Net languages and is an open-source tool.
Jmockit
It’s widely used unit testing which supports recording and verification syntax.
PHPUnit
It’s a tool for a PHP programmer. It’s a pre-defined simulation that helps to create a system structure for testing.
Advantage of Unit Testing
- It allows developers to refine code and make sure that the module works efficiently.
- It enables testing parts of the project without the dependency of others for completion.
What is Functional Testing?
While testing the system against the functional requirements, it’s termed functional testing. The processing steps test with results of processing matters through the input-output process. Without making any environmental expectations, it simulates the actual system functionality.
The tester tests the black box by using technique and helping in the test results to plan correctly. There are different software testing types available. One of them is functional testing and methods used to execute them. It includes integration testing, smoke testing, user acceptance testing, sanity test, and regression testing.
Advantages of Functional Testing
- It takes user perspective to the software development team to create test scenarios representing real-world used scenarios.
- helps to expand actual system usage by enhancing the quality of the software product.
- It allows the team to meet the obligation of the user and client.
Comparison between Unit Testing vs Functional Testing
| Factors |
Unit Testing |
Functional Testing |
| Complexity |
Easy to write and execute |
Quite complex compared to unit testing. |
| No of the test cases |
Higher than others |
Lower than others |
| Testing Technique |
White-box testing |
Black Box Testing |
| Programming Language |
Usually done with the same coding language |
No need of using the same coding language. |
| Changes |
It’s done frequently |
Low rate of changes |
| Maintenance and Cost |
Low |
High |
| Test Coverage |
No of code line |
No of the requirements covered |
| Ideally written |
Starting of the development |
When features have been built |
| Automation |
Is required |
Both manual and automation testing. |
| Popular tools |
Junit, NUnit, Mockito, TestNG |
Selenium, UFT, SahiPro |
Wrap up
In current times, customers ask developers and SI companies to develop software of the highest quality. It compels the companies to incorporate, unlike testing stages as a part of the development process.
Here the unit testing is the key to achieve bug-free codes used for growing in the competitive market. The developer spends extra hours correcting the errors. The software testing types plays a vital role in ensuring code quality and helps in coding in line with design document. The functional testing identifies the defects against a business document by making it a perfect software product with customer expectations.
The main goal of any testing is to deliver a quality product with find the right job balance between unit testing and functional testing. Choose us to clear your doubt and allow us to assist you to the best of our ability.