10 BEST Performance Testing Tools | Load Testing Tools (2021)

Performance Testing Tools help in the process of determining the speed, effectiveness, reliability, scalability and interoperability of the system, computer, network, program or application.

Below is a hand-picked list of Best Load Testing Tools. The list contains both open-source(free) and commercial load testing tools(paid) with latest features and download links.

Best Load Testing Tools: Open Source (Free) and Paid

1) WebLOAD

WebLOAD is an enterprise-scale load testing solution capable of generating reliable, real life load scenarios, even for the most complex systems, with smart analytics providing performance insights.

WebLOAD is based on a flexible platform with built in support for hundreds of technologies and integration with many tools from CI/CD pipelines to monitoring.

WebLOAD Features:

• WebLOAD is offered on the Cloud (SAAS) or as an On-Prem deployment
• Flexible test scenario creation
• Smart Scripting based native JavaScript with Powerful correlation, parametrization and validation engines
• Supports every major web technology and easily extendible
• Automatic bottleneck detection
• Easy-to-reach customer support

2) StresStimulus

StresStimulus targets application scenarios that are difficult to test with other tools. It automatically fixes playback errors thanks to its proprietary autocorrelation. StresStimulus records user actions and replays them to emulate variable usage patterns. It also monitors load impact on application responsiveness and server infrastructure. The result analyzer finds hidden concurrency errors left unexposed by functional testing and includes detailed application performance metrics.

Features:

• End-to-end Test Wizard covers all steps from recording to test results, which reduces the learning curve
• On-premise or cloud testing supported with multiple load generators
• Works as a stand-alone tool or Fiddler add-on
• Exports script to Visual Studio test format to help with scenarios that fail when recorded in Visual Studio directly
• Manual scripting is not required but available; supports three scripting languages

3) LoadNinja

LoadNinja by SmartBear allows you to quickly create scriptless sophisticated load tests, reduce testing time by 50%, replace load emulators with real browsers, and get actionable, brower-based metrics, all at ninja speed. You can easily capture client-side interactions, debug in real time, and identify performance problems immediately. LoadNinja empowers teams to increase their test coverage without sacrificing quality by removing the tedious efforts of dynamic correlation, script translation, and script scrubbing. With LoadNinja, engineers, testers and product teams can focus more on building apps that scale and less on building load testing scripts.

Features:

• Scriptless load test creation & playback with InstaPlay recorder
• Real browser load test execution at scale
• VU Debugger – debug tests in real time
• VU Inspector – manage virtual user activity in real time.
• Hosted on the cloud, no server machine & upkeep required
• Sophisticated browser-based metrics with analytics and reporting features

Protocols:

• HTTP, HTTPS, SAP GUI Web, WebSocket, Java based protocol, Google Web Toolkit, Oracle forms, & more

4) NeoLoad

NeoLoad is an innovative performance testing platform designed to automate test design, maintenance, and analysis for Agile and DevOps teams. NeoLoad integrates with continuous delivery pipelines to support performance testing across the life cycle - from component to the full system-wide load tests.

Features:

• Automated test design enabling 10x faster test creation and update than traditional solutions
• Integration with CI servers for automated test runtime
• Collaboration: shared test scripts and reports, in real -time and after test completion through an on-premise or SaaS web interface
• Hybrid on-premise and cloud load generation from over 70 global localizations

5) LoadView

With LoadView by Dotcom-Monitor, you can show actual performance of your applications under load — just as your users experience it. LoadView utilizes real browser-based load testing for websites, web applications, and APIs. Easily create multi-step scripts that simulate users interacting with your website or application using the EveryStep Web Recorder, or even manually edit the script using your own C# code.

• Cloud-based load testing in real browsers
• Supports Rich Internet Applications (RIA), such as Flash, Silverlight, Java, HTML5, PHP, Ruby, and more
• Quickly and easily build test scripts without touching a line of code
• Test compatibility on 40+ desktop/mobile browsers and devices
• 13+ world-wide cloud locations using Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform
• Identify bottlenecks and ensure scalability
• Performance metrics and reports that can be shared with various internal stakeholders for capacity planning

6) Apache Jmeter

JMeter is an open source tool that can be used for performance and load testing for analyzing and measuring the performance of a variety of services. It is one of the best load testing tools that is mainly used as website load testing tools for web service applications.

Features:

• This free tool doesn't demand state of the art infrastructure for load testing and supports multiple load injectors managed by a single controller
• It is one of the performance test tools which is highly portable and supports 100% all the Java based apps
• Less scripting efforts as compared to other api performance testing tools because of its user-friendly GUI
• Simple charts and graphs sufficient for analyzing key load related statistics and resource usage monitors.
• Supports Integrated real-time, Tomcat collectors for Monitoring

Protocols

Web : HTTP, HTTPS, WebServices : XML, SOAP, etc., Java based protocols, FTP

Download JMeter

7) HP Performance Tester (LoadRunner)

This is an enterprise performance testing version of Loadrunner and a platform enabled both global standardization and formation Performance CoE.

Features:

• Lower the cost of distributed load testing
• Scale from single projects to a full-scale testing Center of Excellence (CoEs) that consolidates hardware, standardizes best practices, and leverages global testing resources
• Reduce the risk of deploying systems that do not meet performance requirements through the use of effective enterprise load tester tool
• It is one of the best performance testing tools that lowers hardware and software costs by accurately predicting system capacity
• Pinpoint the root cause of application performance problems quickly and accurately
• It is one of the Effective performance test tools for utilization tracking
• Browser based access to global test resources and optimal usage of load generator farm.

Protocols:

All protocols are supported by Load Runner load test tool

Download Loadrunner

8) Silk Performer

Silk Performer tool is an enterprise class load and stress testing tool and has the ability to test multiple application environments with the thousands of concurrent users. It is one of the best load testing tools which supports the widest range of protocols.

Features:

There are many good load and stress test features in Silkperformer and those are listed as follows:

• Components -> Workbench, True Log Explorer and Performance Explorer
• Requires minimum hardware resources for virtual user simulation
• Simulates modifiable virtual users
• This load test tool Supports integrated server monitoring
• Customer friendly licensing
• Correlation and Parameterization is user friendly
• No License requirement for Controllers or Individual Protocols
• Handles Load Test in Project approach
• Generates reports with tables and graphs and allows customization.
• This stress testing tool supports six models of workloads.
• This load tester tool provides Agent Health Control
• Stress test website with server side diagnostics
• Resource Management
• It is one of the best website load testing tools that provides Version Control Management

Protocols

HTTP/HTML, HTTPS/HTML, HTTP/HTTPS, Flash, Email (SMTP/ POP), FTP, TCP/IP, LDAP, XML/SOAP, .NET and many more

Download Silk Performer

9) Rational Performance Tester

Rational Performance Tester(RPT) is a performance and load testing tool developed by IBM Corporation. It is performance test creation, execution, and analysis tool that helps development team to validate the scalability and reliability of web based applications before deployment into production.

Features:

There are good features which gives confidence to the users that all performance related bottlenecks are resolved. Following are some of the features of this tool:

• No coding involved
• It is one of the best performance testing tools that provides scheduled and event based testing
• Real time reporting for immediate performance problem identification
• It is one of the best website load testing tools that can run with large multi users tests
• Accurate user profile workloads
• This load test software has automated test data variation
• Automatic identification of dynamic server responses
• Performs the website load test with rendered HTML view of web pages visited during test recordings
• Environment and Platform support
• Entrust security protocol support
• Java code insertion for customization

Protocols:

Citrix, Socket Recording, Web HTTP, SOA, SAP, XML, Websphere, Weblogic

Download Rational Functional Tester

10) SmartMeter.io

SmartMeter.io is an alternative to JMeter and aims to fix its drawbacks. It is one of the best load testing tools that allows for easy scriptless test scenario creation using the so-called Recorder, yet still lets you make advanced edits of the test. It also excels in test reporting and makes use of functions such as automatic test criteria evaluation, test runs comparison and trend analysis. It fully supports CI/CD integration. Available for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux.

Features:

• This load test software provides scriptless test scenario creation
• Comprehensive reporting with automatic evaluation and test runs comparison
• GUI test run with real time results
• State of the art response body extractor (Boundary body extractor)
• CI/CD ready

Protocols:

• HTTP, JDBC, LDAP, SOAP, JMS, and FTP

Download SmartMeter.io

FAQ

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✔️ What is Load Testing?

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