What it does
Behat is an open-source behavior-driven development tool for PHP. It executes Gherkin feature files written as readable scenarios, helping a team check whether an application behaves as agreed in user-facing examples. The framework can be connected to browser automation, HTTP APIs, shell commands, databases, filesystems, or PHP code, depending on how the project implements its checks.
Behat is useful when a team wants to discuss behavior before binding its checks to a particular implementation layer. Start by writing a feature in Gherkin with a scenario that describes context, an action, and an expected outcome. The official quick start illustrates this with a shopping-basket feature, then recommends Composer as the installation route. Behat runs the examples against the PHP application as it is developed.
The user supplies the application and the behavior examples that matter to it. The project also needs to connect those examples to its own behavior, whether by driving a browser, calling an HTTP API, or using another documented approach. That flexibility is valuable for acceptance tests, but it means a feature file alone is not a complete test of a real application. It is the framework, not a hosted browser grid or a ready-made set of tests for arbitrary software.
The official project describes Behat as open source, and its repository license is MIT. The opened documentation did not establish a separate hosted plan or paid tier.
Strengths
- Gherkin scenarios are intended to express behavior in language that business and development teams can discuss together.
- The official docs describe connecting behavior checks to browser automation, HTTP APIs, shell commands, databases, filesystems, or PHP code.
- The project license is MIT.
Watch out for
- Teams must provide the PHP application and connect scenario steps to the behavior they want to verify; Behat does not supply those application-specific checks.
Best for
- PHP teams that want executable acceptance scenarios agreed with product or business stakeholders
- Projects where the same behavior examples should be exercised through different layers such as HTTP and browser automation
Sources
- Behat - a collaborative specification tool — Behat documentation (Oct 25, 2026)
- Quick Start — Behat documentation (Oct 25, 2026)
- Behat/LICENSE at 3.x · Behat/Behat · GitHub (Oct 25, 2026)