diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index c5baaa02..6ce88898 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -9,6 +9,17 @@
 ## Other changes
 - None
 
+# Unreleased
+
+## Breaking changes
+- None
+
+## New features
+- None
+
+## Other changes
+- Speed up unit tests by adding default parallelism - [164](https://github.com/jertel/elastalert2/pull/164) - @ferozsalam
+
 # 2.1.0
 
 ## Breaking changes
diff --git a/requirements-dev.txt b/requirements-dev.txt
index a64fe430..c94d8dc3 100644
--- a/requirements-dev.txt
+++ b/requirements-dev.txt
@@ -5,7 +5,8 @@ m2r2
 pluggy>=0.12.0
 pre-commit
 pylint<2.9
-pytest<3.7.0
+pytest==6.0.0
+pytest-xdist==2.2.1
 setuptools
 sphinx_rtd_theme
 tox==3.23.1
diff --git a/tests/base_test.py b/tests/base_test.py
index b86498b1..cbb41272 100644
--- a/tests/base_test.py
+++ b/tests/base_test.py
@@ -1159,7 +1159,7 @@ def test_wait_until_responsive(ea):
     ]
 
 
-def test_wait_until_responsive_timeout_es_not_available(ea, capsys):
+def test_wait_until_responsive_timeout_es_not_available(ea, caplog):
     """Bail out if ElasticSearch doesn't (quickly) become responsive."""
 
     # Never becomes responsive :-)
@@ -1175,8 +1175,8 @@ def test_wait_until_responsive_timeout_es_not_available(ea, capsys):
         assert exc.value.code == 1
 
     # Ensure we get useful diagnostics.
-    output, errors = capsys.readouterr()
-    assert 'Could not reach ElasticSearch at "es:14900".' in errors
+    user, level, message = caplog.record_tuples[0]
+    assert 'Could not reach ElasticSearch at "es:14900".' in message
 
     # Slept until we passed the deadline.
     sleep.mock_calls == [
@@ -1186,7 +1186,7 @@ def test_wait_until_responsive_timeout_es_not_available(ea, capsys):
     ]
 
 
-def test_wait_until_responsive_timeout_index_does_not_exist(ea, capsys):
+def test_wait_until_responsive_timeout_index_does_not_exist(ea, caplog):
     """Bail out if ElasticSearch doesn't (quickly) become responsive."""
 
     # Never becomes responsive :-)
@@ -1202,8 +1202,8 @@ def test_wait_until_responsive_timeout_index_does_not_exist(ea, capsys):
         assert exc.value.code == 1
 
     # Ensure we get useful diagnostics.
-    output, errors = capsys.readouterr()
-    assert 'Writeback alias "wb_a" does not exist, did you run `elastalert-create-index`?' in errors
+    user, level, message = caplog.record_tuples[0]
+    assert 'Writeback alias "wb_a" does not exist, did you run `elastalert-create-index`?' in message
 
     # Slept until we passed the deadline.
     sleep.mock_calls == [
diff --git a/tests/loaders_test.py b/tests/loaders_test.py
index 834dbc8c..e93a4f69 100644
--- a/tests/loaders_test.py
+++ b/tests/loaders_test.py
@@ -348,7 +348,7 @@ def test_raises_on_missing_config():
                 mock_rule_open.return_value = test_rule_copy
                 with mock.patch('os.walk') as mock_walk:
                     mock_walk.return_value = [('', [], ['testrule.yaml'])]
-                    with pytest.raises(EAException, message='key %s should be required' % key):
+                    with pytest.raises(EAException):
                         rules = load_conf(test_args)
                         rules['rules'] = rules['rules_loader'].load(rules)
 
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 47e62caa..52a8cbbe 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ envlist = py39,docs
 [testenv]
 deps = -rrequirements-dev.txt
 commands =
-    coverage run --source=elastalert/,tests/ -m pytest --strict {posargs}
+    coverage run --source=elastalert/,tests/ -m pytest --strict -n 4 {posargs}
     coverage report -m
     flake8 .