As an SEO, you have to stay up to date with the trends in your industry. This means you likely already know the importance of ranking well against your targeted keywords . In order to do this well, you’ll need to find a way to check how well your website is performing. The good news is that there are some great tools beyond Google PageSpeed insights and site speed tools which can help you with performance issues. To compile this list, I consulted a number of different sources and asked friends in the digital marketing community – many of whom work at brands like HubSpot, Google and others. There are both free and paid options here, so let’s get right into it.
Every marketer wants to make their site faster (let’s be honest). But every time you test another plugin or tool, you realize it only made things worse — not better. Now you have to spend hours re-optimizing everything. Well, that ends today. We’ll go through the whole process and show you the exact tools I use to speed up WordPress.While WordPress is considered to be a solid Platform as a Service (PaaS) technology, things can still go wrong if your underlying server is slow, or has other issues. And when that happens, you’re going to need to use a performance testing tool. But with so many different tools on the market, how are you supposed to choose?
What is Performance Testing?
Performance Testing is a type of software testing which ensures that the application is performing well under the workload. The goal of performance testing is not to find bugs but to eliminate performance bottlenecks. It measures the quality attributes of the system.
The attributes of Performance Testing include:
- Speed – It determines whether the application responds quickly.
- Scalability – It determines maximum user load the software application can handle.
- Stability – It determines if the application is stable under varying loads.
Now let’s move ahead with our “Performance Testing Tools” article and have a look at why do we need performance testing.
Top 10 Performance Testing Tools | Edureka
This edureka video on “Performance Testing tools” will help you know about Performance Testing and the different tools available for testing. It will provide the features and protocols for the best performance testing tools.
Why do we need Performance Testing?
- Performance testing informs the stakeholders about the speed, scalability, and stability of their application.
- It reveals the necessary improvements needed before the product is released in the market.
- Performance Testing also ensures that the software is not running slow while several users are using it simultaneously.
- It also checks the inconsistency across different operating systems.
These were just a few out of the many reasons why we need performance testing. Now let’s move ahead with our “Performance Testing Tools” article and have a look at the different advantages of it.
Advantages of Performance Testing
Validate Features – Performance testing validates the fundamental features of the software. A solid software foundation is a key principle of generating software success. Measuring the performance of basic software functions allows business leaders to make key decisions about the setup of the software.
Measure the speed, accuracy, and stability – Measuring performance speed, accuracy and stability is a vital aspect of software performance testing. It helps you in monitoring the crucial components of your software under duress. This can give you vital information on how the software will be able to handle scalability.
Keep your users happy – Measuring application performance allows you to observe how your customers respond to your software. The advantage is that you can pinpoint critical issues before your customers.
Performance Testing Using JMeter
- Instructor-led Sessions
- Real-life Case Studies
- Assessments
- Lifetime Access
Identify discrepancies – Measuring performance provides a buffer for developers before release. Any issues are likely to be magnified once they are released. Performance testing allows any issues to be ironed out.
Improve optimization and load capability – Another benefit of performance testing is the ability to improve optimization and load capacity. Measuring performance can help your organization deal with volume so your software can cope when you hit high levels of users.
Types of Performance Testing
The different types of performance testing are:
- Load testing – It checks the application’s ability to perform under anticipated user loads. The objective is to identify performance bottlenecks before the software application goes live.
- Stress testing – This involves testing an application under extreme workloads to see how it handles high traffic or data processing. The objective is to identify the breaking point of an application.
- Endurance testing – It is done to make sure the software can handle the expected load over a long period of time.
- Spike testing – This tests the software’s reaction to sudden large spikes in the load generated by users.
- Volume testing – Under Volume Testing large no. of. Data is populated in a database and the overall software system’s behavior is monitored. The objective is to check the software application’s performance under varying database volumes.
- Scalability testing – The objective of scalability testing is to determine the software application’s effectiveness in scaling up to support an increase in user load. It helps plan capacity addition to your software system.
Top 10 Performance Testing Tools
The market is full of a number of tools for test management, performance testing, GUI testing, functional testing, etc. I would suggest you opt for a tool which is on-demand, easy to learn as per your skills, generic and effective for the required type of testing. Let’s have a look at the top 10 performance testing tools:
1. LoadNinja
It allows you to create scriptless sophisticated load tests and reduces testing time by half. It also replaces load emulators with real browsers and gets actionable, browser-based metrics at ninja speed. LoadNinja empowers teams to increase their test coverage without giving up on the quality by removing the tedious efforts of dynamic correlation, script translation, and script scrubbing.
| Features | Protocols |
| Scriptless load test creation & playback Real browser load test execution at scale VU Debugger debug tests in real time VU Inspector manages virtual user activity in real time It is hosted on the cloud Browser-based metrics with analytics and reporting features | HTTP HTTPS SAP GUI Web WebSocket Java-based protocol Google Web Toolkit Oracle forms |
2. 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. This tool is mainly used for web and web service applications.
| Features | Protocols |
| It supports multiple load injectors managed by a single controller Highly portable and supports all the Java-based apps Less scripting efforts as compared to other tools Simple charts and graphs for analyzing key load related statistics and resource usage monitors. Supports Integrated real-time, Tomcat collectors for Monitoring | HTTP HTTPS XML SOAP Java-based protocols FTP |
3. WebLOAD
WebLOAD is an enterprise-scale load testing tool. It features a comprehensive IDE, Load Generation Console, and a sophisticated Analytics Dashboard. This is a web and mobile load testing and analysis tool from RadView Software.
| Features | Protocols |
| Flexible test scenario creation Supports every major web technology Powerful correlation engine Automatic bottleneck detection Generate load on-premise or in the cloud Native JavaScript scripting | HTTP HTTPS XML Enterprise applications Network Technology Server Technologies |
4. LoadUI Pro
LoadUI Pro allows you to quickly create scriptless sophisticated load tests, distribute them on cloud using load agents and monitor the performance of your servers as you increase the load on them. You can access detailed reports and quickly automate your load tests.
Performance Testing Using JMeter
| Features | Protocols |
| Scriptless Load test creation Preconfigured load test templates like spike, baseline, stress, smoke Drag and drop load tests on distribution agents on cloud Sophisticated analytics and statists features for reporting Quick conversion of functional tests | HTTP REST SOAP JSON API Blueprint JSON Schema XML Schema |
5. LoadView
LoadView utilizes real browser-based load testing for websites, web applications, and APIs. It creates multi-step scripts that simulate users interacting with your website or application. With LoadView by Dotcom-Monitor, you can show the actual performance of your applications under load.
| Features | Protocols |
| Cloud-based load testing in real browsers Supports Rich Internet Applications Quickly and easily build test scripts without touching a line of code Test compatibility on mobile browsers and devices Identify bottlenecks and ensure scalability Performance metrics and reports that can be shared with various internal stakeholders | Flash Silverlight Java HTML5 PHP Ruby |
6. NeoLoad
NeoLoad is an innovative performance testing platform designed to automate test design, maintenance, and analysis for Agile and DevOps teams. It integrates with continuous delivery pipelines to support performance testing.
| Features | Protocols |
| Automated test design enabling faster test creation Integration with CI servers for automated test runtime It consists of Shared test scripts and reports Hybrid on-premise and cloud load generation from over 70 global localizations | HTTP HTTPS SOAP REST Flex Push AJAX Push |
7. LoadRunner
LoadRunner is a software testing tool from Micro Focus. It is used to test applications, measuring system behavior, and performance under load. It can simulate thousands of users concurrently using application software.
| Features | Protocols |
| Lower hardware and software costs by accurately predicting system capacity It Pinpoints the root cause of application performance problems quickly and accurately It has Effective tool utilization tracking Browser-based access to global test resources and optimal usage of load generator farm | All protocols are supported by Load Runner |
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 also supports the widest range of protocols.
| Features | Protocols |
| It requires minimum hardware resources Simulates modifiable virtual users Supports integrated server monitoring This has Customer friendly licensing Correlation and Parameterization is user-friendly No License requirement for Controllers This Handles Load Test in the project approach | HTTP/HTML HTTPS/HTML HTTP/HTTPS, Flash Email (SMTP/ POP) FTP, TCP/IP, LDAP XML/SOAP |
9. AppLoader
AppLoader is a load testing solution designed for business applications. It allows you to test any application by reproducing the same user experience from all your access points.
| Features | Protocols |
| AppLoader allows you to test the entire business flow This replicates the users’ interactions with your application Scripts are created automatically when you use your application | Citrix XenApp XenDesktop Cloud-based Infrastructure EHR Systems Customer Applications |
10. SmartMeter.io
SmartMeter.io is an alternative to JMeter and aims to fix its drawbacks. It 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.
Performance Testing Using JMeter
Weekday / Weekend Batches
| Features | Protocols |
| • Scriptless test scenario creation • Comprehensive reporting with automatic evaluation • The GUI test run with real-time results • State of the art response body extractor • It is CI/CD ready | HTTP JDBC LDAP SOAP JMS FTP |
With this, we have come to the end of the top 10 performance testing tools list. I hope you guys enjoyed this article and got an idea about the best tools available for performance testing.
Now that you know about the different performance testing tools, check out the Performance Testing Using JMeter Course by Edureka, a trusted online learning company with a network of more than 250,000 satisfied learners spread across the globe. This course provides you insights into software behavior during workload. In this course, you will learn how to check the response time and latency of software and test if a software package is efficient for scaling. The course will help you check the strength and analyze the overall performance of an application under different load types. Got a question for us? Please mention it in the comments section of “Performance Testing Tools” and we will get back to you.
CONCLUSION
While WordPress is considered to be a solid Platform as a Service (PaaS) technology, things can still go wrong if your underlying server is slow, or has other issues. And when that happens, you’re going to need to use a performance testing tool. But with so many different tools on the market, how are you supposed to choose?
Are you testing the speed of your web pages? If not, you better get going! Your users will thank you for making their experience faster. Here are some tools to help you start testing the performance.