Alternatives to SoapUI
Performance testing for your APIs and Web Services with LoadView by Dotcom-Monitor

Dynamic API testing.
No licenses to manage or cloud accounts to set up. 

Are you a current SoapUI user looking for an alternative API performance testing solution? Or just searching for a testing platform that does more than just test APIs? LoadView by Dotcom-Monitor is a powerful, cloud-based load testing platform for Agile and DevOps teams that can be used to test everything from APIs to websites and web applications. Below, we’ll cover the features and benefits of both the SoapUI Pro and LoadView tools, so you can decide which option is best for you!

Why Load Testing APIs is Important

Before we get into the specifics of the SoapUI and LoadView platforms, let’s take some time to understand the importance of load testing APIs. APIs take on many forms, but they are essentially the messengers behind the scenes of your websites and applications, delivering and sending messages. For example, when your customers log into their account, browse your site, and eventually go through the process of ordering an item, that’s all handled by APIs. APIs are the connections between the user and the back-end systems and servers that are critical to not only the user experience, but also to the business. That’s why it’s important to ensure that your systems can handle an expected increase in concurrent API calls.

Load testing is just one of the many different types of tests that can be performed. Depending on where you are in the development process, you may need to incorporate integration testing, functional testing, regression testing, or security testing, just to name a few. The LoadView platform typically focuses more on automating functional, load, and stress tests, and testing your APIs from outside your network. This ensures you get the most realistic data and results from the end user perspective. Furthermore, LoadView, along with the Dotcom-Monitor suite, supports RESTful APIs, such as XML and JSON, in addition to SOAP and Web APIs, giving users countless testing and monitoring configuration options.

Load Testing APIs: SoapUI vs. LoadView

Initially developed in 2006, SoapUI has become one of the more popular and award-winning open-source API testing tools in the market, allowing users to create functional tests, load tests, security tests, and API mocking for SOAP and REST-based web services. SoapUI supports many other popular protocols, including Flash, Web and HTTP/S, AMF, JDBC, and JMS.

SoapUI is cross-platform, and can be used on Windows, Mac, or Linux/Unix, depending on your specific needs, however, please note the specific hardware installation requirements for each environment below:

Due to the fact that SoapUI must be installed on a physical machine, the number of virtual users you can spin up for load tests is dependent on the quality of your hardware, specifically CPU and memory available.

With LoadView, users don’t have to worry about specific hardware or software requirements and removes the hassle of having to maintain additional infrastructure, as an on-premises platform would require you to do. This allows DevOps teams and performance engineers to focus solely on creating, running, and analyzing their load and stress tests for any bottlenecks. More importantly, LoadView is completely cloud-based, so you’re not bound by physical limitations as you would be with SoapUI. LoadView can spin up hundreds to thousands of API calls to your server per load testing session.

With SoapUI, because the virtual users are created within the constraints of your machine and network, these types of tests are only good for small-scale load testing. For that reason, SmartBear recommends a few different, but more expensive, options if you’re looking to create large-scale load tests. One option is to move into LoadUI Pro, which gives users the ability to run API tests from the cloud. The second option is to move into their comprehensive API testing solution, called ReadyAPI. ReadyAPI includes SoapUI Pro, LoadUI Pro, and ServiceV Pro, giving you essentially everything you would need for comprehensive API functional testing and performance testing.

This is another beneficial feature of using LoadView. There are no additional load testing tools or platforms you have to pay for or use. Everything you need for load and stress testing your APIs is done within a single interface. LoadView utilizes 15+ locations around the world, consisting of both Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Azure Cloud Services networks. There’s no need to manage the cloud network or set up additional accounts, as the platform manages it for you.

Additional Features: SoapUI vs. LoadView

As mentioned earlier in this article, SoapUI includes features above and beyond just functional and load testing for APIs. Those features include the following:

• Service Simulation/API Mocking

Allows user to create and simulate tests against web services before pushing them into production, eliminating the potential cost of building full-scale replicas of your production systems.

• API Security Testing

Protects against the most common security vulnerabilities.

• Automation

Supports advanced end-to-end automation features and integrates with Continuous Integration tools such as Maven, Hudson, Bamboo, Junit, and ANT

• Analytics/Reporting

SoapUI allows users to create easy-to-understand reports, as well as export reports into a format of your choice, including PDF, HTML, RTF, Excel, XML, CSV, etc., and are fully customizable (Some formats not available at the LoadTest level).

The LoadView platform is not limited to just API testing. The platform can perform load and stress tests for your websites and web applications. No additional tools or platforms needed.

With the EveryStep Web Recorder, users can record multi-step test scripts of complex user actions, such as button clicks, menu selections, forms, shopping carts, text inputs, and more. The EveryStep Web Recorder is a free, web-based automation scripting tool that records every step of a web transaction and replays the script using a real browser, no additional plugins or downloads required.

The scripts can be recorded in to test compatibility in over 40 desktop/mobile browsers and devices, including Chrome, Internet Explorer, Android, iOS, iPhone, Samsung, and more. The EveryStep Web Recorder supports virtually anything rendered in a browser and supports additional languages/technologies such as AJAX, Angular JS, WebSockets, Java, HTML5, Flash, PHP, Ruby, and more.

SoapUI Pricing

SoapUI Pro licenses include functional testing and automation for REST/SOAP APIs and integration with popular API management platforms.

Fixed Licenses

• 1-Year License – $599
• 2-Year License – $1,198
• 3-Year License – $1,797

Floating Licenses

• 1-Year License – $4,190

Fixed licenses can be activated by a single user, with a unique username and password, on a single machine, computing device, or virtual machine. Additional users must purchase a dedicated license.

Floating licenses can be activated for different users and machine combinations, but only one at a time.

Additional add-ons include SoapUI trainings and certifications that range from $99 to $149

LoadView Free Trial and Pricing

We offer a free 30-day trial with up to 5 free load tests. No credit card required.

We have multiple subscription-based plans that start at $199 per month. With our subscription-based plans, as long as your plan remains valid, unused virtual user minutes and load injector hours roll over from one month to the next.  In addition, users can select an annual plan with a lower per month charge. Alternatively, you can also select from a pay-as-you-go plan.

Starter - $199 per month

• Max HTTP Virtual Users: 1,000
• Max Browser Virtual Users: 100
• HTTP User Hours: 15,000
• Browser User Hours: 300
• Load Injector Hours: 30

Professional - $499 per month

• Max HTTP Virtual Users: 5,000
• Max Browser Virtual Users: 500
• HTTP User Hours: 75,000
• Browser User Hours: 1,500
• Load Injector Hours: 75

Advanced – $1,499 per month

• Max HTTP Virtual Users: 20,000
• Max Browser Virtual Users: 2,000
• HTTP User Hours: 300,000
• Browser User Hours: 6,000
• Load Injector Hours: 250

On-Demand 

• Max HTTP Virtual Users: 1,000,000
• Max Browser Virtual Users: 10,000
• HTTP User Hours: Unlimited
• Browser User Hours: Unlimited
• Load Injector Hours: Unlimited

If your specific needs require more than what is listed above, please contact us for Enterprise-level plans.

LoadView Professional Services 

The purpose of Dotcom-Monitor Professional Services is to assist you and your teams with executing performance tests, interpreting data, and fine tuning your system without our team’s involvement. Our techniques are tested and proven. You can pick and choose which elements you need assistance with, and our performance engineers will coach you through them. Our team is also available to perform the entire load testing exercise for you, offering consultation to optimize your code and infrastructure. The level of Dotcom-Monitor cooperation is entirely up to you.

Conclusion

As a free, open-source testing solution for APIs, SoapUI is great for small-scale tests, but that’s not going to be representative of your users and customers – or how they use your services. You need a platform that can simulate real-world traffic from around the world, and LoadView can do just that. LoadView can conduct dynamic API testing on virtually any type of system or infrastructure. Your API isn’t truly functional until it can stand up to real world conditions.

Not only that, the LoadView platform can be used to conduct performance testing for your websites and web applications, using real browsers. That’s something you can’t do with SoapUI. If you want to conduct large-scale load tests using the SmartBear ecosystem, you’ll have to move into a different, more expensive platform and pricing configuration altogether. And depending on your needs, that could get into the tens of thousands of dollars. You don’t have to break the bank with LoadView. We offer competitive subscription-based plans or an on-demand plan, so you only pay for the tests you run.