Cypress testers, don’t rush to argue or debate with me. I didn’t start the “Cypress.io is Dying” statement, see below. This article is a compilation of facts ( Cypress’s financial numbers & own announcements and opinions from others, including your well-known Cypress authority) and common-sense business reasoning. For die-hard Cypress fans, what you use Cypress is just for a job, Cypress.io does not care about you, it even cut a number of its own staff earlier this year. Knowing the facts, even if you may treat them as rumours, is good, for yourself.
Update 2023–08–07: Part 2, Exit Strategy for Cypress Testers, is available.
I read a Reddit post, “Cypress.io is about to die, you should migrate your projects” by throw_away_and_away- three months ago. Recently, Gleb, a former distinguished engineer of Cypress.io, responded to this post.
It seems Cypress.io (the company behind Cypress) is in serious trouble. Many Cypress testers knew but tend to ignore the fact that Cypress is a commercial product from a commercial company. The model is fine, I do not object to that for tools, but for framework, I much prefer the free, Standard-based and open-source model of Selenium WebDriver. Anyway, the common sense is if a software company dies, often its product goes with it.
Recently, someone talked about Cypress as a potential candidate for a project, which reminded me of that post. In this article, I will share some facts and common-sense opinions based on that, which might help Cypress testers to decide the next move.
Table of Contents:
∘ Fact 1. Playwright is taking over Cypress
∘ Fact 2. Cypress.io Miserable Financial Numbers
∘ Fact 3. Cypress.io downsizing in January 2023
∘ Fact 4. There is a “parasite company” for Cypress’ monetization service
∘ Fact 5. More competitors in the field of faking test automation
∘ Rumours