k6 Alternatives:
LoadView: Real Browser-based Load Tests

Understand your performance limits and scale with confidence

Searching online for a load testing solution? Or are you a current k6 user searching for a more economical solution?  LoadView is an excellent alternative to many of the legacy website, web application, and API load testing tools in the market today.

k6 is a solid performance testing solution for DevOps and engineers. When comparing LoadView and k6, you’re bound to see some commonalites between the two platforms, but there are also a lot of features LoadView has to offer that we’ll get into further in this article.

LoadView versus k6: Web Page, Web-App, and API Load Testing

The LoadView platform was developed with the focus on the user.  LoadView uses a fully-managed cloud, so you don’t have to worry about setting up load generators, creating global agents, or manage any add-on hardware. Eliminating these tedious steps frees up time for developers and engineers so they can manage their time more effectively by designing, executing, and analyzing their tests.

Determining how many visitors your page, web application, or API can manage during spikes in traffic, as well as how quickly your system reponds, are important to know for many performance testing aspects, as well as the following:

• Infrastructure

Deciding if upgrades are needed.  Additional hardware or software resoucres could be unncessary and costly.

• Scalability

Recognizing what happens to performance when hundreds, or thousands, of visitors access your pages, appliations, and web services.

• Production Environment

Your site or application can handle a few users without concerns, but what about in real-world situations?

• Third-party Services

Often times, third-party services get overlooked, but their performance is critical to other services that your applications use.

k6 helps to simplify load testing for DevOps teams by integrating with automation and Continuous Integration (CI) tools, such as Jenkins, Circle CI, Team City, GitLab, and Azure Pipelines. k6 allows developers to execute performance tests through the development process, allowing them to discover any performance hiccups early, so as to fix them before being put  into production. For APIs, k6 uses Postman for functional testing. Users have to export their Postman collections and convert them into JavaScript scripts in order to run load tests.

Scripting: The EveryStep Web Recorder Versus k6

The EveryStep Web Recorder is an easy-to-use scripting tool that records each step of a user path or transcation, and then replaying that script in an actual browser. The EveryStep Web Recorder is web-based, there are no additional plugins or downloads, and although it’s best to have scripting experience, there’s no scripting experience required to use it.

Record the  actions your users take while navigating your web pages, like clicks, menu selections, filtering, text inputs, form submissions, shopping carts, and more.  The scripts are then uploaded into the LoadView platform to run load against those scripts. Scripts can be recorded to test compatibility for over 40 desktop and mobile browsers, as well as many popular devices. The recorder supports nearly anything that can be rendered in a browser, including many popular languages/technologies such as Flash, Java, HTML5, PHP, Silverlight, AJAX, Ruby, and many more.

Learn More About the EveryStep Web Recorder

Unlike the EveryStep Web Recorder, the k6 test scripts utilize the ES6 JavaScript command line interface, so knowledge of JavaScript language is required, which, depending on your team’s skills, may require a higher learning curve. Due to this limitation, k6 does not run in a browser, therefore, will not render web pages like a real browser would. Also, k6 does not run NodeJS, however, users have a workaround to import npm modules (with browserify or webpack) or libraries utilizing a NodeJS API for tests.

Users can also choose to script manually or use the k6 HAR converter. All modern browsers are able to export a HAR file. This functionality allows k6 users to go to a web page and browse like an actual user would. That HAR file can then be exported and converted right from the command line. There is also a k6 Chrome Extension that users can download that essentially does the same thing by creating a HAR file and using the same conversion operation.

Additionally, developers can run smaller load tests from on-premises machines and from behind a firewall, giving developers the ability to run regular load tests as part of their automated CI process to uncover bugs or get quick performance baselines prior to moving code into staging or production environments. Additional features of k6 include:

• Support for HTTP/S and WebSockets protocols
• Users can generate random numbers and parameterize data
• Scripts can become custom modules for common actions to share

These additional steps and downloads aren’t necessary with the EveryStep Web Recorder, as everything is already recorded from the browser, and users don’t have to work from a command line interface, saving you valuable time. Also, k6 does not support RIA’s, such as Flash, Silverlight, Java, HTML5, PHP, and Ruby. And lastly, load testing a mobile site or application requires users to use an actual device, which means another myriad of steps and requirements. With the EveryStep Web Recorder, you can choose from a the most popular mobile browsers and devices, no additional steps or requirements necessary.

Executing a Load Test: LoadView versus k6

Many open-source load testing solutions will only run protocol-based user simulations, which is not enough. It’s fine for testing the server at the protocol level, but you’d be missing the end-to-end client-side response times.  This is critical when it comes to testing web applications. LoadView users have the option to run the following user simulation options:  HTTP/S and real browser-based tests. And to give users more customization and flexibility, and depending on your specific load testing needs, LoadView also provides several load type options (Load Step Curve, Goal-based, and Dynamic Adjustable) based upon the goals/requirements of your tests.

k6 can also simulate protocol and real browser-based tests, and you can define your ramp pattern, but users don’t have the option to adjust load up or down during a test, as you can do with LoadView. And the k6 tests must be configured within the command line, there’s no interface to just point, click, and select from various options to customize your test like users can do with LoadView.

Generate User Traffic from Around the World

Once you’ve determined the load type, number of virtual users, and defined your scenario, one of the final steps is to decide where you’re going to test from. LoadView gives users the option to distribute user load between geographic locations. LoadView utilizes load injector servers in over 15 geo-locations around the world, helping you to see actual performance resutls from the areas your users/customers are located in. 

k6 users can move scripts to run on their global cloud infrastructure, allowing for much larger load tests, up 5,000 virtual users, to be run later in the development and QA cycles. Like the LoadView platform, this is managed for users, so there’s no need to create or manage separate cloud accounts. Choose from one of 14 load zones located across the world. However, if you need additional virtual users, k6 offers multiple add-on packages. With LoadView, this isn’t necessary, as you pay for only what you need and use.

LoadView Pricing 

LoadView has subscription-based plans, starting at $199 per month.  With our subscription-based plans, unused virtual user minutes and load injector hours roll over from one month to the next as long as your plan stays valid.  Alternatively, you can also select from a pay-as-you-go plan. Pricing is calculated and displayed before you begin new test, so you know exactly what you’re paying for.

LoadView Professional Services 

For customers that need additional load testing support or don’t have the teams or resources to carry out the entire load/stress testing proces, you can utilize our team of performance engineer to manage the process for you.  Anything from scripting assistance to running the entire test, we support any level of assistance you need dependent on your needs.

k6 Plans and Pricing

Free Trial

• 50 free cloud tests

Developer – $59 per month ($49 per month with annual plan)

• Up to 200 virtual users
• Test runs: 50/month with monthly plan, 1200/year with annual plan
• 15-minute max duration
• 1 test concurrency
• 1 load zone
• Unlimited team members
• 1 month data retention

Team – $399 per month ($299 per month with annual plan)

• Up to 1,000 virtual users
• Test runs: 100/month with monthly plan, 2400/year with annual plan
• 60-minute max duration
• 1 test concurrency
• 2 load zones
• Unlimited team members
• 3 months data retention

Pro – $1099 per month ($829 per month with annual plan)

• Up to 5000 virtual users
• Test runs: 100/month with monthly plan, 2400/year with annual plan
• 60-minute max duration
• 2 test concurrency
• 10 load zones
• Unlimited team members
• 6 months data retention

Enterprise – customized for your needs. Contact k6 for pricing.