There are some performance testing java applications that every web developer needs to know about. If you want your site to be more than just a mediocre site getting mediocre results, performance testing is something you need to consider.
Here, I’ve listed some of the best tools that you can use to monitor and fine-tune your web apps for improved usability and conversions.
JMeter
First on our list is JMeter. It is an open-source java performance testing tool by Apache. It is mainly used for load and stress testing of Java applications. Along with applications, JMeter can also be used for many different java technologies. It offers a variety of extensions that have some great features for recording and visualizing the resulting test data, making it more readable.
Being an open-source tool, J-Meter is one of the most preferred Java Performance Testing Tools and it is widely used within the Java development community.
LoadNinja
LoadNinja is a cloud-based load testing and performance testing tool for java web applications and web services. It helps Java developers and performance engineers to ensure if their Java web applications are robust and scalable. Its unique features include script-less testing and the use of real browsers instead of load emulators. LoadNinja assists java developers with Browser-based metrics with some great analytics and reporting features.
Gatling
Gatling is another open-source java performance testing tool that primarily focuses on load testing. It offers a free version along with a premium paid version. The free version is more focused on local testing environments and comes with integrations for Gradle, Maven, SBT and also Jenkins, while the premium version is inclined towards more complicated CI/CD environments. It also offers integrations for TeamCity, Bamboo and Grafana. It is to be noted that the free version does not support distributed applications.
BlazeMeter
BlazeMeter is one of the fully paid java performance testing tools that offers java performance tests for web and mobile applications along with java microservices and APIs. It also integrates well with some well-known open-source tools like JMeter and Selenium.
The UI is also relatively better but that’s to be expected since it is a paid product. BlazeMeter is the preferred choice for companies who can afford it in exchange for reliable load testing solutions but it’s not that popular within small companies and individual developers.
JProfiler
JProfiler is one of the most popular Java performance tuning tools developed by EJ Technologies. It is used for assessing and monitoring system performance, profiling threads and processes, and it is quite effective in finding and removing memory leaks in the system. Although it is primarily used for performance tuning; it can also provide enough information for successful java performance tests, enabling java developers to identify any inefficient memory consumption.
The only drawback of JProfiler is that it comes with a large overhead which would not be a good choice for most of the development machines.
XRebel/JRebel
The combination of XRebel and JRebel can be considered as one of the best java performance testing tools. XRebel offers end-to-end performance checks to discover any performance issues present during development. JRebel also allows the java developers to skip the redeploy process by previewing the required applied changes instantly. It is a great feature to preview whether the changes are providing the expected enhancement in performance or not before applying it.
Stagemonitor
Stagemonitor is an open-source application performance monitoring tool. While it comes with some similar testing features that XRebel offers during the development phase, the user experience and functionality is not that smooth as compared to XRebel.
However, for production performance monitoring, Stagemonitor provides quite stable functionality, that became the primary reason for its popularity among other Java APM tools.
Zipkin
Zipkin is a distributed tracing system for java applications that are used for troubleshooting performance issues in the distributed service architectures. Its highlighted feature that separates it from other testing tools is that it allows searching for trace criteria by log file ID, service, operation name, or duration. It also allows java developers to visualize traces via a dependency diagram and offers a list of java performance tests for application testing. Zipkin also offers an open-source version called OpenZipkin.
Prefix by Stackify
Stackify Prefix is a highly capable Java performance testing tool. It is a lightweight profiler for Java developers. With providing good features for tracing distributed requests, it also offers some useful code improvement suggestions for small and easy fixes in the code along with some useful java performance tests. It also provides great ease for java developers by offering a fast feedback loop so that developers can understand the efficiency of their code and how much time it’s taking to perform. This feature is best for assisting java developers in identifying the application problems way early in the development cycle.
Currently, there are two versions of Prefix available, standard and premium.
Retrace by Stackify
Retrace is another excellent Java performance testing tool by Stackify. It is an application performance management (APM) product for Java applications. APM software is specifically designed to guide java developers in understanding the performance of all their applications in a better way. Developers can quickly and easily identify which web requests are taking the most time and the reasons behind them.
Retrace is a unique product as compared to several other APM products because it is primarily designed for developers to use. More often than not, APM solutions are used by IT operations for the reason that it does not give much control to the users. But in the case of Retrace, it’s actually quite the opposite. Whereas APM products are usually extremely expensive, retrace is purposely made simpler with just core features for performance testing, which makes it very affordable.
Java Application Performance Management tool by AppOptics
This Java Application Performance Management tool by SolarWinds AppOptics offers complete infrastructure and application performance monitoring tools. AppOptics also operates as a Java performance monitoring tool, attracting java developers by allowing the analyses of Java application performances to the code level.
AppOptics also offer features of a Java performance tuner that provides great assistance to Java developers to get end-to-end level insights of their Java infrastructure. This real-time information is also very helpful for optimizing the troubleshooted practices for any Java application.
AppOptics Java performance monitor also comes with a simple and easy user interface that features open integrations for Snap and Telegraf ecosystems. It allows users to add their custom and pre-configured plug-ins, or they can create their own plugins which increases the flexibility for java developers to a great extent.
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 browsersSupports Rich Internet ApplicationsQuickly and easily build test scripts without touching a line of codeTest compatibility on mobile browsers and devicesIdentify bottlenecks and ensure scalabilityPerformance metrics and reports that can be shared with various internal stakeholders | FlashSilverlightJavaHTML5PHPRuby |
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 creationIntegration with CI servers for automated test runtimeIt consists of Shared test scripts and reportsHybrid on-premise and cloud load generation from over 70 global localizations | HTTPHTTPSSOAPRESTFlex PushAJAX Push |
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 capacityIt Pinpoints the root cause of application performance problems quickly and accuratelyIt has Effective tool utilization trackingBrowser-based access to global test resources and optimal usage of load generator farm | All protocols are supported by Load Runner |
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 resourcesSimulates modifiable virtual usersSupports integrated server monitoringThis has Customer friendly licensingCorrelation and Parameterization is user-friendlyNo License requirement for ControllersThis Handles Load Test in the project approach | HTTP/HTMLHTTPS/HTMLHTTP/HTTPS,FlashEmail (SMTP/ POP)FTP, TCP/IP, LDAPXML/SOAP |
Conclusion
Performance testing is the process of evaluating the performance and scalability of your Java application. It can be used prior to releasing a new version of an application; it can be used while new features are being deployed; and it can be used after updating one or more of the application’s services. Performance testing involves various tools and practices such as load testing, system monitoring, page-load time analysis, timings analysis, etc