Side by side

Cucumber Open vs Karate

Both stand on bdd testing tools. Which one you can start free with, which one lets you read the code, and what each costs once you pay.

Cucumber Open

Free plan AndroidAPILinux+2

Cucumber Open pairs readable Gherkin specifications with code-backed test steps and reporting options. Consider the public, short-lived report links when deciding how to share test results.

Visit Cucumber Open

Karate

Free plan Open source APIExtensionLinux+3

Karate offers a free framework spanning API, UI, mock, and performance testing, with paid plans for additional IDE and client features. The production CI/CD license condition for async protocols matters for teams evaluating Kafka, gRPC, or WebSocket testing.

Visit Karate

The facts

	Cucumber Open	Karate
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Open source	Not published	Yes
Runs on	Android, API, Linux, Mac, Windows	API, Extension, Linux, Mac, Self-hosted, Windows
Lowest paid plan	Free or on request	IDE Plus: $100 per user a year
Plans published	1	5
Maker	Not published	Not published
Website	cucumber.io	karatelabs.io
On bdd testing tools	#4 of 30	#1 of 30

Cucumber Open: what it does well

Free and open source
Gherkin keywords support different spoken languages
Built-in HTML, JSON, and JUnit formatters
Can run in continuous integration environments

What to know first

Published reports use public URLs without authentication
Published reports are deleted after 24 hours
Report data is stored in US data centers

Karate: what it does well

Free MIT-licensed framework for commercial projects
Supports REST, GraphQL, and SOAP testing
Combines UI and API steps in tests
API tests can be reused for performance testing
Products run locally or in customer infrastructure

What to know first

Free tier includes community support
IDE Plus costs $100 a year
Pro costs $640 a year
Production CI/CD async testing requires an Enterprise runtime license

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