Cucumbervs
Selenium
Selenium: If the automation target is web browsers and you need the driver Cucumber step definitions typically call into
Cucumber
Behaviour-driven development testing framework that returned to community ownership after nine years under SmartBear
As of 1 September 2026, Cucumber is free to use. The framework that defined Gherkin-syntax, plain-language behaviour-driven testing, free and open source, with an unusual ownership history: SmartBear acquired Cucumber Ltd in 2019, then returned the open source project to independent community ownership in December 2024. Softwr lists it under Testing. Cucumber is made by Cucumber open source project, available on Linux, macOS, Windows.
Overview
What Cucumber does
Cucumber runs automated tests written in Gherkin, a plain-language given-when-then syntax intended to be readable by non-programmers such as product owners and QA stakeholders, with step definitions in the underlying implementation language, Cucumber-JVM for Java, Cucumber-JS for JavaScript, Cucumber-Ruby and others, connecting each Gherkin line to executable code. The core idea is that a shared, readable specification can serve as both documentation and an automated test simultaneously. The ownership history is unusually eventful for a widely used open source tool. SmartBear, a commercial testing tool vendor, acquired Cucumber Ltd in 2019, intending to combine its commercial BDD product with SmartBear's HipTest collaboration platform. Then, starting in early 2023, SmartBear and Cucumber's founder worked to unwind that arrangement, and as of December 2024 Cucumber returned to independent community ownership, with the core team stating it can now focus entirely on evolving the open source flavours, Cucumber-JVM, Cucumber-JS and Cucumber-Ruby, without a commercial parent's roadmap pulling in a different direction. A buyer relying on Cucumber for a long-term test suite should treat this reversal as evidence that ownership arrangements in this space are not permanent, and check the project's current governance status directly rather than assuming any historical description still holds. Buyers are teams wanting readable, business-stakeholder-accessible test specifications, free by definition since Cucumber itself carries no licence fee, most often in organisations practising or adopting behaviour-driven development as a collaboration process, not just a testing framework. The trade-off is that Gherkin's readability overhead adds real maintenance cost: keeping feature files, step definitions and actual implementation code in sync across a large suite is a known source of drag that plain code-based test frameworks do not carry.
What people use it for
- A team practising behaviour-driven development that wants shared, readable specifications between product owners and engineers
- An organisation wanting living documentation that stays synchronised with actual test coverage rather than a separate specification document
- A QA team migrating acceptance tests from a proprietary BDD tool to an open source, community-governed alternative
- A Java, JavaScript or Ruby project needing a mature BDD framework rather than building Gherkin-style parsing from scratch
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Cucumber.
- Gherkin's plain-language layer adds a real maintenance burden, keeping feature files, step definitions and implementation code synchronised across a large suite is a known source of drift and duplicated effort.
- Ownership has moved twice in under a decade, from independent to SmartBear-owned to independent community ownership again, which should temper confidence in any specific long-range roadmap claim.
- Non-technical stakeholders who are meant to read and write Gherkin scenarios often do not engage with them in practice, leaving the readability benefit unrealised while the maintenance cost remains.
- Step definition reuse across a large feature file set can become tangled, with ambiguous step matching causing hard-to-debug failures as a suite grows.
- As a community-owned project without a corporate backer's support infrastructure, enterprise buyers wanting a formal support contract have no vendor to buy one from, unlike some competing BDD tools still sold commercially.
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Cucumber
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- CucumbervsRobot Framework
Robot Framework: If you want a keyword-driven alternative to Gherkin-style BDD with a different syntax approach
- CucumbervsAppium
Appium: If the automation target is mobile apps rather than web browsers
Pricing
What Cucumber costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Cucumber
Free
- Full functionality across Cucumber-JVM, Cucumber-JS, Cucumber-Ruby and other implementations
- Community support via GitHub
- Returned to independent community ownership in December 2024 after nine years connected to SmartBear
Capabilities
Features
Gherkin syntax
Given-when-then plain-language test specifications readable by non-programmers
Step definition binding
Connects Gherkin steps to executable code in the implementation language
Multi-language support
Cucumber-JVM, Cucumber-JS, Cucumber-Ruby and other language-specific implementations
Living documentation
Feature files serve simultaneously as specification and automated test
Tagging and scenario outlines
Organises and parametrises scenarios for reuse across data sets
Reporting plugins
Generates readable test execution reports tied back to the original Gherkin scenarios
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Is Cucumber owned by SmartBear?
No, not currently. SmartBear acquired Cucumber Ltd in 2019 but the open source project returned to independent community ownership in December 2024.
Is Cucumber free?
Yes, entirely open source with no licence fee across all its language implementations.
Does Cucumber replace Selenium or Appium?
No, Cucumber provides the Gherkin specification layer and step definition binding; the actual browser or mobile automation still needs a driver such as Selenium or Appium underneath.
Keep looking
Where to go from Cucumber
- Cucumber alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Cucumber pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Cucumber badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Testing softwareThe full category
- Best Testing softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Testing software for
Compare Cucumber with
- Robot Framework
- Appium
- Selenium
- Xray Test Management
- JUnit
- TestNG
- Applitools
- Percy
- Testsigma
- Insomnia
- Puppeteer
- QA Wolf
- Ranorex
- Split
- Tricentis Tosca
- Jest
- WebdriverIO
- WebdriverIO
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Open source11 researched notesOpen source Node.js browser and mobile automation framework, governed under the OpenJS Foundation with Sauce Labs as a premium sponsor
Open source11 researched notes
Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Cucumber, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on Cucumber
Cucumber alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
Cucumber pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare Cucumber
Put it head to head with anything we hold
Cucumber badge
Its rating, and an embed for your own site
Best Testing software alternatives
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