Free software load testing tools

Only you can decide if it makes sense to use open source —and if your organization has the engineering resources required. If you do, many of the tools I've discussed above should go right into your toolbox. Taken together, these free and open-source tools offer a path to get started on capacity planning and load testing the server side, optimizing and performance testing the client side, and monitoring performance from end to end to derive meaningful insights from performance tests.

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Skip to main content. Our Contributors About Subscribe. When every second counts. Web performance testing: 18 free open-source tools to consider. Joe Colantonio Founder, TestGuild. The failure of a mission-critical web application can be costly.

The value of performance Before talking tools, let's consider load times and the value of performance. Here's a quick overview of key performance metrics : Under milliseconds is perceived as instantaneous. A ms to ms delay is perceptible. One second is about the limit for the user's flow of thought to stay uninterrupted. Users expect a site to load in 2 seconds. So, as you can see, most software users want instant response. Tools for understanding client-side performance Most modern applications spend more time in the browser than on the server side.

Two of the best tools to use to understand client-side performance are: Google PageSpeed Insights , a service that analyzes the content of a web page and generates suggestions to make your pages load faster. Reducing page load times reduces bounce rates and increases conversion rates. Google Lighthouse is an open-source, automated tool for improving the quality of web pages. Your front-end developer should at a minimum be using Lighthouse metrics, which are available in Google Chrome tools.

Tools for understanding real-world performance Sitespeed. And this open-source nginx server module for this Pagespeed tool automatically applies web performance best practices to pages and associated assets CSS, JavaScript, images without requiring you to modify your existing content or workflow. This open-source Apache HTTP server module automatically applies web performance best practices to pages and associated assets CSS, JavaScript, images without requiring that you modify your existing content or workflow.

This utility will test a web page in any browser, from any location, over any network condition—and it's free. Reuse your functional tests to get performance data When getting started with performance testing, don't overlook another asset your software team probably already has—a functional testing script.

Cypress has a method that can capture Google Chrome's performance data for test runs. It currently has 6k stars on GitHub. For enterprise-wide performance testing tools, LoadRunner tends to be one of the most common but many of these open-source tools can get you most of the functionality you need. Also, most of these tools protocols can be used for both performance testing web application and performance testing web services.

Fortio is a cool load testing library, command-line tool, advanced echo server and web UI in go golang. This tool allows to specify a set query-per-second load and record latency histograms and other useful stats. With most modern applications using javascript heavy front-ends the needs for client-side performance measurements have never been greater.

You can use Puppeteer WebPerf to collect web performance stats like a trace for a page load, grab a dev tools trace with screenshots, get runtime performance metrics, and a bunch more. Also, check out my complete front-end performance testing guide for more info. Flood created this open-source solution to help specifically with mimicking user behaviors using real browser load testing.

Element is an open-source Playwright that uses a browser-based load testing tool. You can use it against your Web app in the same way that your customers do, opening a browser and interacting with page elements. It's written like a functional test script, but with the help of Flood, you can quickly run load testing scripts on as many nodes as you want in the Cloud. One of the few open-source tools that allow you to create performance testing using real browsers to more closely mimic how real users interact with your application.

Peak performance testing to handle maximum traffic for your back-end application for stability and reliability. It has the ability to write custom logic, post, and pretest scenarios using JavaScript, which has a wide variety of NPM modules that you can use.

These are, in my opinion, the top ten performance load tester tools for load testing free options. Are you feel overwhelmed with staying up to date with all the latest performance testing and performance testing tools and best practices?

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Back Blog. What is load testing? Load testing is used to help determine if: The response time returned from critical actions in your application is acceptable compared to specification, user requirements, or KPI. Are your key business functionality behave properly under heavy load Is your infrastructure designed to scale under stress Performance testing in general is critical to customer satisfaction.

It can also measure how the system performs with large data requests or data transfers. Load testing software enables you to perform load testing on your software applications to measure the system's behavior when handling different amounts of activity. Essentially, this type of software simulates an environment with a large number of users, and allows organizations to understand what applications are performing well under a real-time user load.

Ultimately, load testing software allows you to test how your application performs with a large number of users by creating a simulation, without actually having to recruit that many real users to test your platform. Free versus paid load testing: You may be wondering which is right for you: a free vs. Both tools have their pros and cons. Open source load testing tools exist for free, but they may not have all the functionality or features you need.

Get Advice. Other Software. Loadster Loadster is a cloud-based software designed to help enterprises create, launch and manage performance tests for websites, applications and APIs. Visit Website Learn More. BlazeMeter BlazeMeter is a load testing solution designed to help businesses create and run functional, performance and API tests on a unified platform. Learn More. Load Impact k6 is a cloud-based load testing tool designed to help software engineers monitor and test the performance of APIs and microservices.

NeoLoad NeoLoad is a load testing software that provides DevOps teams with tools to design and conduct code-less performance tests for complex applications. Flood Flood is a load testing platform that helps enterprises create, launch and manage performance tests for websites, applications, APIs and more. WebLOAD WebLOAD is a cloud-based and on-premise website performance testing tool designed to help businesses create, run and manage test environments for a variety of technologies, websites and applications.

Apica Apica LoadTest is an application and website load testing solution that helps businesses test application scalability, identify performance issues, create load testing scripts, and improve overall customer experience. LoadRunner Cloud LoadRunner Cloud is a load testing solution that provides businesses with performance engineering tools to plan and run load tests across the system. Loadmill Loadmill is a load testing software designed to help businesses across the IT sector record and replay application interactions to automate backend regression testing processes.

TestBench TestBench is a load testing solution designed to help testers, developers and product owners create, conduct and evaluate test sessions. Popular Comparisons.

Buyers guide. Common features of load testing software What type of buyer are you? Benefits and potential issues Pricing and purchasing options Market trends to understand What is load testing software?