diff --git a/ChangeLog.md b/ChangeLog.md
--- a/ChangeLog.md
+++ b/ChangeLog.md
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
+## 1.6.5
+bodyEquals prints out actual body in addition to expected body in failure msg
+[#1525](https://github.com/yesodweb/yesod/pull/1525)
+
 ## 1.6.4
 Add yesodSpecWithSiteGeneratorAndArgument
 [#1485](https://github.com/yesodweb/yesod/pull/1485)
diff --git a/Yesod/Test.hs b/Yesod/Test.hs
--- a/Yesod/Test.hs
+++ b/Yesod/Test.hs
@@ -138,6 +138,7 @@
 import Data.ByteString (ByteString)
 import qualified Data.Text as T
 import qualified Data.Text.Encoding as TE
+import qualified Data.Text.Encoding.Error as TErr
 import qualified Data.ByteString.Lazy.Char8 as BSL8
 import qualified Test.HUnit as HUnit
 import qualified Network.HTTP.Types as H
@@ -153,7 +154,7 @@
 import Yesod.Test.TransversingCSS
 import Yesod.Core
 import qualified Data.Text.Lazy as TL
-import Data.Text.Lazy.Encoding (encodeUtf8, decodeUtf8)
+import Data.Text.Lazy.Encoding (encodeUtf8, decodeUtf8, decodeUtf8With)
 import Text.XML.Cursor hiding (element)
 import qualified Text.XML.Cursor as C
 import qualified Text.HTML.DOM as HD
@@ -439,9 +440,14 @@
 -- | Assert the last response is exactly equal to the given text. This is
 -- useful for testing API responses.
 bodyEquals :: HasCallStack => String -> YesodExample site ()
-bodyEquals text = withResponse $ \ res ->
-  liftIO $ HUnit.assertBool ("Expected body to equal " ++ text) $
-    (simpleBody res) == encodeUtf8 (TL.pack text)
+bodyEquals text = withResponse $ \ res -> do
+  let actual = simpleBody res
+      msg    = concat [ "Expected body to equal:\n\t"
+                      , text ++ "\n"
+                      , "Actual is:\n\t"
+                      , TL.unpack $ decodeUtf8With TErr.lenientDecode actual
+                      ]
+  liftIO $ HUnit.assertBool msg $ actual == encodeUtf8 (TL.pack text)
 
 -- | Assert the last response has the given text. The check is performed using the response
 -- body in full text form.
diff --git a/yesod-test.cabal b/yesod-test.cabal
--- a/yesod-test.cabal
+++ b/yesod-test.cabal
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 name:               yesod-test
-version:            1.6.4
+version:            1.6.5
 license:            MIT
 license-file:       LICENSE
 author:             Nubis <nubis@woobiz.com.ar>
@@ -19,16 +19,15 @@
                    , base                      >= 4.3      && < 5
                    , blaze-builder
                    , blaze-html                >= 0.5
-                   , blaze-markup              >= 0.5.1
                    , bytestring                >= 0.9
                    , case-insensitive          >= 0.2
+                   , conduit
                    , containers
                    , cookie
                    , hspec-core                == 2.*
                    , html-conduit              >= 0.1
                    , http-types                >= 0.7
                    , network                   >= 2.2
-                   , persistent                >= 1.0
                    , pretty-show               >= 1.6
                    , semigroups
                    , text
@@ -39,7 +38,6 @@
                    , xml-conduit               >= 1.0
                    , xml-types                 >= 0.3
                    , yesod-core                >= 1.6
-                   , conduit
 
     exposed-modules: Yesod.Test
                      Yesod.Test.CssQuery