PEST is a modern testing framework for PHP that focuses on clean syntax, readability, and developer experience. It builds on PHPUnit but provides a much more expressive and minimalistic interface.

📌 PEST = "PHP Testing for Humans"
It’s designed for developers who want to write fast, readable, and elegant tests — with less boilerplate.

🚀 Why Use PEST Instead of PHPUnit?

PEST is built on top of PHPUnit, but it:

• Provides a cleaner, simpler syntax

• Removes unnecessary structure

• Encourages a functional, behavior-driven style

• Still supports traditional PHPUnit classes if needed

🔍 Example – PHPUnit vs. PEST

PHPUnit:

class UserTest extends TestCase
{
    public function test_user_has_name()
    {
        $user = new User('John');
        $this->assertEquals('John', $user->name);
    }
}

PEST:

it('has a name', function () {
    $user = new User('John');
    expect($user->name)->toBe('John');
});

👉 Much shorter and easier to read — especially when writing many tests.

🧩 Key Features of PEST

• ✅ Elegant, expressive syntax (inspired by Jest/Mocha)

• 🧪 Supports unit, feature, API, and browser-based testing

• 🧱 Data-driven testing via with([...])

• 🧬 Test hooks like beforeEach() / afterEach()

• 🎨 Fully extensible with plugins and custom expectations

• 🔄 Fully compatible with PHPUnit — you can run both side by side

🛠️ Installation

In a Laravel or Composer project:

composer require pestphp/pest --dev
php artisan pest:install  # for Laravel projects

Then run tests:

./vendor/bin/pest

🧠 Summary

PEST is ideal if you:

• Want to write tests that are fun and easy to maintain

• Prefer clean, modern syntax

• Already use PHPUnit but want a better experience

💡 Many Laravel developers are adopting PEST because it integrates seamlessly with Laravel and truly makes testing feel "human" — just like its slogan says.