The Web3 landscape is continually evolving, and developer tools are advancing to meet the demands of blockchain development. While tools like Truffle have been widely used in the past, developers are increasingly turning to Hardhat for its enhanced features and developer experience. Foundry, on the other hand, stands out as another toolkit offering a range of capabilities for smart contract development and testing.

In this guide, we’ll explore how you can combine Foundry’s strengths with Hardhat’s power to create a seamless and efficient development environment for your blockchain projects. Let’s dive in and unlock the full potential of web3 development.

What is Hardhat?

Hardhat is an Ethereum smart contract development environment built and maintained by Nomiclabs. It is an extensible Javascript framework that provides a set of tools and features for managing the smart contract lifecycle, including compiling, deploying, testing, and debugging. Here is an example of how to install and initialize Hardhat using npm:

npm install hardhat
npx hardhat init

Hardhat’s plugin system allows developers to extend its functionality with custom plugins, making it highly customizable for different development needs.

What is Foundry?

Foundry is a smart contract development toolkit developed by Paradigm for developing applications on the Ethereum blockchain. Foundry operates on Rust offering various tools to develop and test solidity smart contracts.Foundry has a set of CLI commands that make it easy to create new projects, compile, deploy, and interact with contracts.

To install Foundry, run the following command in your terminal.

curl -L <https://foundry.paradigm.xyz> | bash
foundryup

Hardhat Vs Foundry: A Quick Comparison

1. Hardhat is a Javascript framework that offers familiar developer usage experience. Foundry appeals to developers who prefer Rust and low-level languages.

2. Using hardhat one can write Javascript scripts & unit tests. In Foundry, tests are written in solidity keeping the same language as the code.

3. Hardhat has an extensive plugin ecosystem via npm while Foundry possesses native fuzz testing of function inputs.

4. In Hardhat, standard unit tests run in seconds, generally with good performance on the other side Foundry excels in performance by executing tests and scripts faster.

How to Use Hardhat and Foundry in Your Project: A step-by-step Guide

Let us see how we can integrate foundry into the hardhat project, for that we will be using Hardhat x BuildBear repository which lets you create your own private testnet, forked from the mainnet, with your own Native and ERC20 Token faucet and blockchain Explorer

Note: Make sure the foundry and hardhat are installed in your system.

• Fork and clone the Hardhat x BuildBear repository.

git clone <Paste the URL>
cd Hardhat-BuildBear
git init
npm install

• Add the following to the Hardhat Config file

require("@nomicfoundation/hardhat-foundry");

• To initialize the foundry into your project, run the command

npx hardhat init-foundry

• Create your private testnet and after the testnet is live the details of the sandbox will be stored in testnet.json file

npm run createTestnet

• To Deploy the Greeter.sol smart contract using hardhat, run

npx hardhat run scripts/deploy-greeter.js

After successful deployment, click on the explorer link to interact with the contract.

• Use the foundry to run tests that are written on the solidity

forge test

After running the test you will get an output as shown below. Find the repository for this tutorial here.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the choice between Hardhat and Foundry depends on the developer’s preference for language and their focus on building applications or conducting smart contract analysis and auditing. Hardhat is great for building Ethereum applications with JavaScript familiarity and extensive tooling while foundry is ideal for advanced smart contract analysis, auditing, and fast execution of Solidity tests. Using the hardhat-foundry plugin it is possible to have your Foundry project work alongside hardhat benefiting the best from both.

About BuildBear

BuildBear is a platform tailored for DApp development and testing. Developers gain the freedom to construct a personalized Private Testnet sandbox across a variety of blockchain networks. The liberty to mint unlimited Native and ERC20 tokens, coupled with rapid transaction times on BuildBear (under 3 seconds!), enhances the DApp development lifecycle manifold. The platform comes equipped with tools designed for real-time testing and debugging, ensuring developers can keep tabs on intricate blockchain transactions with unparalleled ease.

Connect with us on Twitter | LinkedIn | Telegram | GitHub

Author: Sana