Cucumber

Name: Cucumber
Author: Smartbear

Behaviour-driven development with Gherkin scenarios shared by business and engineering.

E2E & UI TestingFree tierOpen sourceSelf-hostable

What it is

Cucumber executes specifications written in Gherkin — Given/When/Then plain-language scenarios — by mapping each step to code. It is not a browser driver; it sits on top of Selenium, Playwright or an API client and provides the specification layer and living documentation. Implementations exist for Java, JavaScript, Ruby, .NET and more.

Best for

Teams genuinely practising BDD with three-amigos sessions, not teams who just want prettier test names.

Where it is strong

Shared vocabulary between product, QA and engineering when the practice is actually followed.
Scenarios double as living documentation that stays honest because it executes.
Available in every major language.

Where it falls short

Almost always adopted as a syntax rather than a collaboration practice, at which point it is pure overhead on top of your real tests.
The step-definition layer is a second codebase to maintain and refactor.
Gherkin obscures technical detail that developers need when a test fails.

Pricing

Free tier available

Free tier

Free tier: The Cucumber libraries are open source and free.

What drives the bill: Open source core. SmartBear sells CucumberStudio for collaborative scenario authoring, priced per user on request.

Check current pricing on Smartbear’s site

Figures are indicative and were last reviewed August 2026. Vendors change pricing often; confirm before you commit.

Works with

SeleniumPlaywrightJiraXrayJenkins

What people who use Cucumber say

No reviews of Cucumber yet. If you have used it in anger, yours would be the first.

Alternatives to Cucumber

If Cucumber is not the right fit, these solve the same problem differently.

Robot Framework

E2E & UI Testing

Keyword-driven acceptance testing that reads like structured English.

Open sourceNo-codeSelf-host

Playwright