Cypress was created by Brian Mann and launched publicly in 2017. Cypress.io, Inc. is based in Atlanta, Georgia and has raised over $65 million in funding, including a $40 million Series B in 2021.
Cypress takes a fundamentally different approach to browser testing. Instead of controlling the browser from outside (like Selenium), Cypress runs directly inside the browser alongside your application. This gives it access to everything — the DOM, network requests, local storage, and even your application code. The result is faster, more reliable tests.
The test runner’s UI is genuinely delightful. You can see your tests executing in real-time, time-travel through each step by hovering over commands, and inspect the DOM at any point during the test. When a test fails, you get automatic screenshots and videos without any configuration.
Cypress automatically waits for elements to appear, animations to finish, and network requests to complete. You don’t have to sprinkle your tests with explicit waits. The .intercept() command lets you stub and spy on network requests, making it easy to test edge cases without hitting real APIs.
Cypress Cloud (formerly Cypress Dashboard) provides parallel test execution, test analytics, and flaky test detection. It identifies which tests are unreliable and helps you prioritize fixes. The platform has over 47,000 GitHub stars and is used by teams at DHL, Slack, and NASA. While Playwright has become a strong competitor, Cypress’s developer experience and debugging tools keep it popular.
