Best Load Testing Tools of 2023
Our enterprise-class load testing platform offers flexible cloud-based load testing for the most complex applications, websites, APIs, and more.
Load Testing Tools Covered in This Guide:
Choosing the Right Load Testing Tool
If you have been doing any research on load testing tools, you know that there are a lot of load testing options to choose from. From open-source software to free load testing tools, paid load testing tools, and even “freemium” load testing options, there is no shortage of options in the market today. With all these choices, it can be hard to determine the best load testing tool for your specific situation. To help you understand which load testing tools to use and why, we have put together what we like to call the ultimate guide to load testing tools!
In this load testing tools guide, we will break down the advantages and disadvantages of these various load testing tools and platforms. Additionally, we will explain different load testing scenarios associated with each tool and what each one brings to the table. By the end of this guide, you should be a load testing pro! And if your are not, no worries. You can always contact our team with any performance testing questions you have. Let’s get started!
Paid Load Testing Tools vs. Free Load Testing Tools: What is the Right Choice?
In the load testing world, there is an age-old question, “Should we be spending money on a paid, or commercial, load testing tool, or should we just use a free tool to save the company money?” Even though we developed LoadView and think it is a fantastic and robust load testing platform, we also realize not every organization is created equally there really is no 100 percent correct answer to this question. While budget is typically the main deciding factor; it is just one of the many factors to consider. There are situations where a free tool may get the job done without a hitch. And there are other situations where a free tool will not even come close to cutting it, so let us look at some of the differences between paid load testing tools and free load testing tools.
Free load testing tools and solutions are great for situations where you are looking to run small-scale tests. Additionally, free load testing tools require a bit of setup, so if you are tech savvy and comfortable If this is the case, then free tools may be able to get the job done for you. However, if you are looking to configure and run large-scale tests where you need to flood a website or application with a large amount of concurrent or simultaneous users, and gather a large amount of data, you are going to want to use a paid tool. Paid tools typically provide a wider feature-set than open-source or free load testing tools.
Performance Testing Tools: How Much Data Do You Need?
It is no secret that some load testing tools provide a lot more test data than others. The question is, how much data do you need? For simple HTTP load testing, you do not need a lot of data. However, if you are testing a web application, you may need an immense amount of data to get the most out of your testing, and you may also need to utilize real browsers as well, to understand true performance as your users and visitors experience it.
The bottom line is that when it comes to performance testing tools, free tools typically never provide as much data as the paid tools, but in some cases, this may be acceptable, depending upon the needs and requirements for your test. For example, if you are running a small hobby blog and are doing some light load testing, you do not need a large amount of data to make capacity planning decisions.
However, if you are running a large ecommerce website and gearing up for Black Friday or Cyber Monday, for example, chances are that you need a large data set to ensure that your websites and applications can handle the appropriate level of load leading up to that big shopping day. Again, this is a decision that you need to make based on your level of expertise and what kind of experience your users will expect.
Real Browser Load Testing vs. Headless Browser Load Testing
There are two main types of testing that can be performed with most load testing tools: real browser testing and headless browser testing. At the time of writing, the only tool on the market that can perform real browser load testing is LoadView. Most of the other tools rely on headless phantom JavaScript browsers to accomplish their load testing.
What is the difference? Well, if you are just hammering your site with HTTP requests, the difference is not much. You are simply generating load on a server with a flood of GET requests. However, if you are really trying to understand how a website performs under load and see this from a user’s perspective, then real browser load testing is invaluable. Real browser load testing allows you to simulate the actions of a real user most accuratelly, and it also allows you to see how the site behaves from a user’s perspective, something that cannot be accomplished with headless browsers.
The question of headless versus real browsers comes down to how much data you are looking to capture, and the level of details that you need to analyze this.
Web-based Recorder
Quickly create complex scripts that simulate users interacting with your website or application. Simply navigate through your website or application the same way a user does and the recorder saves all of your steps. No additional downloads required.
Scripting Flexibility
Validate keywords/images and interact with Rich Internet Applications (RIA) and dynamic web application frameworks, such as Angular, Flash, HTML5, Ruby, PHP, React, Silverlight, Java, AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), .NET, and more!
Complex Interactions
Test form submissions, perform searches, and actions based upon the location of an icon, button, or image – or manually edit the script using your own C# code.
Dynamic Variables
Provide variable data (Context Parameters) to simulate different users logging in, visitors searching for various products, or dynamic URL testing.
On-demand. No credit card. No contract.
Load Testing Tools Reviewed
In this section, we will look at the load testing tools mentioned at the beginning of this page, starting with the most robust and moving to the simplest load testing tool.
LoadView is a fully managed, cloud-based load testing tool that allows performance engineers to test a wide range of websites and web applications, as well as being one of the best API testing tools. Obviously, we are a bit partial to this tool, but the LoadView platform is used by multiple Fortune 100 companies and is about as robust as it gets. It is truly one of the best performance testing tools in the market, and you will not find something that is more capable or more robust across any of the Postman load testing tools that are available today.
LoadView gives users the option of testing everything from basic web pages and APIs to complex web applications, streaming media, Postman Collections, and JMeter scripts. In addition to a point and click scripting tool (which is not offered by many other tools in the marketplace), LoadView offers users access to load injector servers in over 40 geo-locations. LoadView is also the only tool on the market that allows users to observe actual performance using real browsers for load testing, something that is not done by any other load testing tool.
Ease of use and quick setup time are two more areas where LoadView shines. While JMeter and other open-source tools are free, they do require a larger learning curve to be able to setup and a higher level of technical expertise. Because LoadView is a fully managed load testing platform, you do not have to worry about instantiating servers or managing cloud servers because it is all taken care of for you. If you are looking for the most advanced load and performance testing platform with the most robust features, there is no other choice than LoadView.
JMeter is the Apache Foundation’s open-source load testing tool that has garnered an excellent reputation over the years for being a solid tool that provides valuable insights and high-quality results.
In addition to being free and open source, there are a lot of good load testing guides online for JMeter. Apache has a highly active user base, along with a comprehensive support forum, so it is not hard to find information on how to setup and configure JMeter performance tests. One problem here is that even if you have access to the information, you still need to be able to understand and process it, and this is not always the easiest thing to do if you are not familiar with errors that can pop up during testing. If you are looking for a load testing tool that can be set up quickly and can be used right out-of-the-box, JMeter is not that tool.
As with most other free load testing tools, there is a learning curve with Gatling that does not exist with LoadView, so if you are looking for the quickest and easiest form of load testing, that is something to consider.
Among the tools on this list, Tsung is probably the most limited, in terms of the data that it provides. It also has a steeper learning curve, like the other free performance testing tools.
Putting It All Together: What is the Best Load Testing Tool?
Clearly we believe it is LoadView based on the ease of use, the feature set, and the support we have from Fortune 100 clients around the world. While it is true that you can use a free load testing tool, and it may be good enough to get the job done and get you some data, if you believe that your site is worth load testing, then it is worth using the best performance testing tool available.
Learn more about how LoadView compares to other load testing tools and solutions, like LoadRunner, BlazeMeter, NeoLoad, and more.
Review performance test results to assist with your organization’s capacity planning.
Summary Report
Provides an overview of the execution plan, transactions per minute, average response times, and errors encountered.
Session Report
List of all user sessions along with a brief description of errors/failed sessions, waterfall charts, and more.
Device Information
Detail of the device and task(s) configurations.
Stress Test History
Review your test configuration and response details at any time.
Fully Managed Cloud
No need to set up your own third-party cloud account, manage cloud licenses, or testing infrastructure.
Virtual Load Injectors
Utilize Amazon Web Services and Azure Cloud Services servers located in more than 40 zones throughout the United States, Canada, APAC, South America, and Europe.
Dedicated Servers
When you run a performance test, the infrastructure is dedicated to you. There are no shared servers.
Distribute User Load
Set up, configure, and select the regions or countries where most of your website visitors come in from to understand performance from their perspective.
The bottom line: LoadView is a comprehensive platform that takes the stress out of load testing so developers can easily make load testing a part of their DevOps process at every stage of development. At LoadView we’ve created a platform for users with every level of technical expertise, so whether you’re an experienced developer familiar with load testing or a non-technical user new to the concept, you’ll be able to immediately benefit from our suite of tools.
LoadView allows teams to accurately load test websites and web applications from multiple geo-locations using real browsers and real user testing and to receive incomparably accurate test results in user-friendly formats. Higher quality results means less guesswork in the development process, so precious time can be saved and directed toward measurable improvements to performance and uptime. Web applications and websites that perform better rank higher on search engines and generate more user satisfaction and engagement, which directly impacts the bottom line for organizations.
Whether you’re totally new to the concept of load testing, our experts at LoadView are available to assist and help you get the most out of your load testing budget. Unlike an open-source tool like JMeter, our team stands ready to support you and works exclusively for our clients to provide innovations and assistance to our clients. Consider signing up for a one-on-one demo with a load testing experience, and start a free load testing trial. You’ll be able to run complex, accurate load tests within minutes on a comprehensive platform – no additional software or hardware required.
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