There are many free and scalable performance testing tools available to web developers and other types of website analysts. It can be hard to decide which ones to choose; the following article presents the best performance testing tools and software for your needs and other information you need to know before making a decision.
Load testing is a process of testing how an application performs under various loads. Load tests are conducted to check the performance of software or application under normal, peak or at any other specified load depending upon the requirement. Load Testing tools are used to analyze the load behavior by creating artificially generated loads on the web application.
SoapUI Pro
SoapUI Pro is a very popular and most powerful testing tool for SOAP web services functional testing as well as REST API functional testing. It provides complete API Test Automation Framework for SOAP and REST.
Tool Highlights:
- World’s leading tool for REST & SOAP web service testing
- Easy to use GUI, with features like point-and-click, drag-and-drop, and pre-built security scans
- Quick creation and execution of automated tests – functional, regression, load, and security
- Powerful data-driven testing allows you to use external data sources to keep your tests more maintainable
- Provides end to end test coverage under a single test environment
- Easily reuse functional tests as load tests in LoadUI Pro
- Built on the same foundation as the award-winning SoapUI open source
- Supports all protocols and standards
Source code: SoapUI Pro has both open source and licensed version.
Katalon Studio
Katalon Studio is an all-in-one automation tool that has simplified API and web testing for over 850,000 teams and businesses.
Also extending capabilities to help scale mobile and desktop testing, some of it key features are:
- A friendly UI and simple test creation with record & playback, built-in keywords, pre-defined project templates.
- Easy tests migration from SoapUI, Postman and WSDL.
- Handles REST, SOAP/1.1 and SOAP/1.2 requests.
- Support self-healing mechanism, data-driven testing, page-object model pattern and BDD to ease maintenance efforts.
- Maximize test reusability with shared capabilities and test objects across projects.
- Generate reports with insightful graphs of essential metrics and real-time notifications after each execution (Slack, Git& Microsoft Teams).
TestMaker
Testmaker supports Web Service testing for SOAP and REST services.
Tool Highlights:
- A single test script can be put as an answer to functional, load & performance testing as well as production monitors.
- Surfaces performance & functional issues in web services
- Works on push to test methodology
- Offers easy migration
- Tests can be executed on grid and cloud.
Source code: Open
LoadNinja
LoadNinja helps users diagnose web and API performance issues. It is simpler to use than conventional load testing tools and uses real browsers, which delivers a more accurate representation of load.
Creating performance tests via record and playback enhanced with AI can save around 60% of time vs traditional tools, and also reduces time maintaining tests as the application changes. Using real browsers at scale to generate load gives you the most accurate representation of load. Test results reflect true end-user experience and allow you to quickly diagnose bottlenecks and performance issues. The tool was designed with ease of use in mind, and is accessible to users of all skill levels.
Tool costs starting from $239/month for 100 virtual users. They also offer a free 14-day trial
WAPT
WAPT lets users design or run tests locally or in the cloud. Users are enabled to create tests using a browser or a mobile application; employ remote, distributed and cloud-based testing; launch server and database performance monitoring; and more.
Some of the most exemplary elements of the software are the usefulness of auto-parameterization of most dynamic values, the extensibility via Javascript, and point-and-click recording capabilities.
The WAPT interface, as seen from the associated screenshot, comes across quite dated in the color, look, feel, and even text orientation. For those used to modern tech UI, it may be a bit of an eyesore; thus, they lost a few points per the UX review criteria.
WAPT starts at $700 and has a free trial.
WebLOAD
WebLOAD generates a test script in JavaScript, with the flexibility to add a wide range of protocols and easily extend to additional protocols as needed. The recording is transparent and automatic with any web technology, including HTTP/HTTPS (SSL, TLS) and more.
This tool does particularly well with building any simulated load for load and performance testing in an intuitive and easy way. Additionally, the play and record features are useful for tracking results.
As the only tool with no pricing information available, WebLOAD lost some points in cost transparency, meaning their review results for Value for Cost dropped a bit.
WebLOAD offers pricing upon request and has a free trial.
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 |
WebInject
This is a free Web service testing tool that provides automated testing for web services and web applications.
Tool Highlights:
- Supports functional, acceptance and regression testing.
- Also, allows testing distinct system modules that possess HTTP interfaces.
- Real-time monitoring of response times.
- Real-time results display.
- Can be used as a completed WebInject GUI test framework.
- Also, offers integration with other test frameworks and applications.
- Suitable for testing web service protocols like SOAP or XML-RPC.
Source code: Open
SOAPSonar
SOAPSonar allows you to rapidly test the web services.
Tool Highlights:
- It is machine independent, sends requests and receives a response directly.
- Test cases can be easily setup and saved to run functional and regression tests of web services.
- Enables rich security testing of web services.
- Test results can be aggregated in pdf, CSV and XML reports.
- Also, lets you perform scalability and robustness testing of web services.
- Can figure out and report interoperability issues while loading WSDL.
- Detects the vulnerabilities in web services.
Source code: Licensed
Neotys Neoload
Neotys Neoload helps to design, maintain and run performance tests as code and analyze results within continuous integration pipelines using pre-packaged plugins for CI/CD tools and the NeoLoad API. Easily set up testing resources as needed.
This tool has a clean, colorful, and strategically organized user interface that makes returning to the software for each task a pleasure. Thus, they scored well in the UX segment of the evaluation process.
One critique of this software to be wary of is that the charging mechanism on the cloud is not atomic in nature and has a dependency on a local machine. Additionally, the project gets harder to manage as the script grows.
Neotys Neoload starts at $6024/month and has a free 30-day trial.
Conclusion:
Web app performance testing is an important part of ensuring that your site or web application will deliver high quality, reliable, and secure service. It is also one of the critical elements to ensure users who access your site receive a fast, responsive experience. Comparing your website’s performance with that of your competitors is another way of finding out how yours measures up. Doing so can help you spot strengths and weaknesses in your website’s functionality and can help you rectify any issues.