I decided to create a performance testing tools comparison matrix because I see websites using products that are not the best products for their needs. Creating this comparison matrix will allow us to make better decisions based on facts.
Here are key matrices you need to note!
Apache JMeter
Apache JMeter is an open source, cross-platform Apache project that is developed to analyze and measure software application performance. Apache JMeter, first released in 1998, is one of the oldest open source load testing tools. The current version of Apache JMeter is 3.0, released on March 17, 2016.
Apache JMeter is an open source, cross-platform Java application that can run on Linux, Mac, and PCs. JMeter can be used to test the performance of both, static and dynamic, web pages and resources including Web services, PHP, ASP.NET, Java, database, and queries. It can be used to simulate a heavy load on a server, group of servers, network, or object to test its strength or to analyze the overall performance under different load types. You can use it to make a graphical analysis of performance or to test your server/script/object behavior under heavy concurrent load. Features include
- Ability to load and performance test many different server/protocol types
- Complete portability and 100 percent Java purity.
- Full multithreading framework allows concurrent sampling by many threads and simultaneous sampling of different functions by separate thread groups.
- Careful GUI design allows faster Test Plan building and debugging.
- Caching and offline analysis/replaying of the test results.
- Highly Extensible core
NeoLoad
NeoLoad, developed by Neotys, claims to be one of the fastest, most automated performance testing solutions on the planet.
NeoLoad comes in four different versions: Free, Standard, Professional, and Enterprise. The free version supports 50 virtual users with an unlimited number of tests. Detailed pricing of NeoLoad is listed here NeoLoad.
The current version of NeoLoad 5.2 is available now. Some of the key features of NeoLoad, as mentioned on the website, are the following.
Fast. Realistic. Powerful.
NeoLoad load and performance testing solution realistically simulates user activity and monitors infrastructure behavior so you can eliminate bottlenecks in all your web and mobile applications.
Fast and Automated
Using the scriptless GUI and a host of automation features, NeoLoad lets you design tests 5-10x faster and maintain scripts in as little as 10 percent of the original design time while helping you automate testing with your Continuous Integration system so you’re as agile as your development teams need you to be.
Supports the Latest Web and Mobile Technologies
With unparalleled support for WebSocket, HTTP/2, GWT, HTML 5, adaptive bitrate streaming and many more technologies, NeoLoad provides a full performance testing tool box for web and mobile apps so that you can fully test the technologies your apps have today and be ready for anything your dev team might use tomorrow.
Unmatched Test Realism
Capabilities to help you create real world testing scenarios so you catch performance problems early, before they show up in production.
- Complex application behavior replay
- Real device mobile app recording
- Network virtualization
- Real device/ browser metrics under load
Cloud and In-house Testing
Generating load on your on own infrastructure or on-demand from the cloud is easy with the fully integrated Neotys Cloud Platform. Pick from several locations around the globe and from multiple cloud providers through a single interface for geo-realistic tests and pay-as-you-go licensing.
SmartBear Testing Tools Smartbear provides a list of software testing tools focusing on QA, load, and API. Top three tools are QAComplete, TestComplete, and LoadComplete.
From the definition
The TestComplete Platform, which powers TestComplete Desktop, Web, and Mobile, helps you quickly create automated tests across multiple devices, platforms, and environments.
QAComplete is a test management tool with centralized planning, scheduling, and reporting available for manual, Selenium, API, and automated functional tests.
LoadComplete helps you design and run performance tests for mobile, websites, and web apps. Generates load using virtual machines, on-premise computers, or even the cloud.
TestLeft is a powerful yet lean functional testing tool for dev-testers working in Agile teams. It fully embeds into standard development IDEs. A built-in access to object and method library is also available with TestLeft. Dev testers can thereby easily and quickly create robust functional automated tests without leaving their favorite IDEs, such as Visual Studio. It also works well with other tools in dev ecosystems, such as source control or continuous integration systems.
Loadster
Loadster is a full-featured load testing solution for websites, web apps, and web services. It’s built for real web apps and effortlessly handles cookies, user sessions, custom headers, dynamic form data, and more. Loadster simulates individual user states and gathers stats for each virtual user, separately.
Load test your web apps to know ahead of time that your app can handle hundreds or thousands of concurrent users. Avoid expensive crashes, slowness, and downtime by simulating peak traffic conditions, so you can find the breaking point before your real users are ever impacted.
Loadster lets you run unlimited free load tests for up to 25 concurrent users from your own workstation.
RADVIEW ON .NET LOADING TESTING
.NET load testing can be challenging since applications typically use a large number of dynamic values that must be replaced in order to assure reliable test replay. They are also prone to a unique set of bottleneck conditions that you need to identify as soon as possible.
Performance testing for .NET applications
WebLOAD offers a comprehensive solution for performance testing .NET applications with easy test script creating and on deep server-side analytics. The WebLOAD .NET stress testing solution offers:
- A complete solution for test creation and test execution including built-in support for recording .NET applications and implementing .NET stress testing.
- Predefined correlation rules for commonly used fields such as VIEWSTATE, EVENTVALIDATION, etc. make it easy to convert dynamic values to parameters in test scripts.
- Server monitoring for Microsoft ASP.NET and Microsoft Active Server Pages and of Windows servers.
- Specialized reporting and analytics designed to identify known issues with .NET, for example: too much time spent in garbage collection, high contention rate for locks, high request wait time in queue, etc.
WebLOAD
WebLOAD is a load and web performance testing tool for web applications that enables stress and load testing using Adobe Flex, Ajax, HTML5, Oracle Forms, Microsoft .NET and other technologies. You can generate load from on-premises machines or from the cloud. The tool is pretty easy to use, and it features automatic correlation, DOM-based recording and playback, and other features. Based on JavaScript, the tool supports large-scale testing with complex and heavy user load conditions.
The tool generates a clear analysis of a web application’s performance and functionality, and it has a dedicated, strong client base. It has also won several awards. More importantly, it has a pretty attractive pricing and licensing model.
WebLOAD has an extensive range of features and supports multiple web technologies, allowing you to perform load testing and mimic massive user loads. You can quickly build tests, generate load and analyze the results with a rich set of reports that identifies specific performance issues. The load scenario is generated in JavaScript so that you can make enhancements as per your requirements. The standard language is enhanced with inbuilt load-testing methods and objects that offer HTTP functionality, DOM functionality, load methods and more. The tool also includes automated correlation to find and replace session IDs, time and other dynamic values.
HP LoadRunner
Hewlett Packard’s LoadRunner is a purchasable web performance testing tool that can understand and determine the performance of a system under load. A key advantage of this tool is that it can handle and generate thousands of users simultaneously. It enables you to gather all performance-related and infrastructure-based information.
LoadRunner consists of various separate tools: Virtual User Generator, Load Generator and Analysis, and Controller. It works by creating a scenario that contains the script that is to be executed. The number of virtual users needed is also generated, along with other prerequisites for running the test and generating the expected results. The number of virtual users to be generated could range from a few hundred to a few thousand.
The scenario could be manual or goal-oriented, in which the tool automatically generates the scenarios based on previously specified goals by the tester. The series of actions to be performed are recorded onto the virtual user script. A load generator is then used to run the users, generating the necessary level of load on the system. The processes to be measured are represented as transactions. Once the load is generated, the system behavior is monitored and analyzed.
Recommended courses
Rational Web Performance Tester
The Rational Performance Tester from IBM is an automated web performance testing tool for web and server-based applications in which there is an input and output process. The tool generates a demo of the original transaction process, gathering and analyzing statistical information to increase efficiency. Any server or website leakage can be immediately identified and rectified, and it can be used to create an error-free, effective cloud computing service.
The tool can identify the presence and root cause of bottlenecks in system performance. It combines several ease-of-use features along with detailed analysis, simplifying test creation, lead generation, and data collection processes to ensure that their web applications can accommodate the required user loads.
NeoLoad
NeoLoad by France-based Netosys is a Java-based web performance testing tool that can be used for measuring and analyzing a website’s performance. It can also be used to analyze further steps to be taken based on the performance of the website and end result of the tests. This, in turn, helps improve and optimize the performance of your web application.
The tool works by increasing the traffic on your website and then analyzing the performance of the application under heavy load. You get to understand the capacity of the application and how many users it can handle simultaneously. Written in Java, NeoLoad is available in French and English. It simulates user activity in web and mobile applications as well, and monitors the infrastructure behavior. You can choose from cloud-based load generators for the performance test.
NeoLoad can be used for automating the complete Web 2.0 suite, which includes Flex, Silver Light, Web Services, Web and Multimedia. The user can determine the number of load generators that are needed and the LGs from LAN. They can also choose to simulate 2G-4G and WiFi mobile networks with variations in signal strengths.
The tool can be integrated with third-party tools like Dynatrace, App Dynamics, Introscope and Site Scorpion for a deep dive analysis on servers. However, SLA configuration is not available on this tool for analyzing the results. Ultimately, it is a performance testing solution for mobile and web applications that can be used for running cloud-based tests. If you or your performance team needs a tool that can analyze and co-relate test results with raw data, NeoLoad would be a great choice. The tool is compatible on operating systems Solaris, Linux, and Windows.
Conclusion
One of the main problems when choosing performance testing tools is lack of definition. If you ask six people to define performance testing, you will get ten different answers! That’s why I created this performance testing tools comparison matrix where you can find various performance testing tools available on the market today.