Best Performance Testing Tools

A performance test is a non-functional sort of testing that is carried out to examine how well an application will run when subjected to a high level of load. Performance parameters such as speed, stability, and scalability are evaluated throughout the testing. The correct performance testing tools may carry out a broad range of tests on a variety of systems.

In this article, we have explained the types of performance tools, why you need performance testing, and the best performance testing tools available, along with their key features and protocols. So, let’s begin!

What is Performance Testing?

Performance testing is a non-functional software testing approach that examines how well an application’s stability, speed, scalability, and responsiveness hold up under a particular amount of workload. It is also known as load testing.

Despite the fact that it is an important stage in assuring software quality, it is sometimes overlooked, treated as an afterthought, and only begun after functional testing has been finished, and in most instances, after the program is ready to be released.

Performance testing has many objectives: analyzing application output, processing speed, data transfer velocity, network bandwidth consumption, maximum concurrent users, memory use, workload efficiency, and command reaction times. It is a subset of performance engineering, and it is sometimes referred to as “Perf Testing.” 

Types of Performance Testing

• Load testing: It evaluates an application’s capacity to handle expected user loads. Before the software program goes online, the goal is to identify performance bottlenecks.
• Stress testing: It is putting an application through its paces to assess how it reacts to excessive traffic or data processing. The goal is to figure out where an application’s breaking point is.
• Endurance testing: This type of performance testing ensures that the program can withstand the predicted load for an extended length of time.
• Spike testing: It examines the software’s response to big spikes in user-generated load.
• Volume Testing: Data is entered into a database, and the general behaviour of the software system is monitored. The goal is to test the performance of a software application with varied database sizes.
• Scalability testing: The goal of scalability testing is to see how well a software program “scales up” to sustain an increased user load.

Why do we need Performance Testing?

Performance testing is carried out to offer information to stakeholders about their application’s performance, stability, and scalability. Performance Testing, furthermore, reveals what has to be addressed before a product is released to the market. Without performance testing, the software is more likely to have problems like slowness when several people are using it simultaneously, inconsistencies across various operating systems, and poor usability.

Under predicted workloads, performance testing will establish whether their software satisfies speed, scalability, and stability criteria under predicted workloads. Applications that are released to the market with poor performance metrics due to insufficient or non-existent performance testing are likely to earn a negative reputation and fail to fulfil the sales targets of the software.

Mission-critical applications, such as space launch programs or life-saving medical equipment, should also be performance tested to verify that they operate without interruption for an extended length of time.

8 Best Performance Testing Tools

The following are the 8 best performance testing tools that will be frequently utilized by performance testing services in 2023, along with their important features and protocols:

1. WebLOAD

This large-scale load testing tool can create realistic and repeatable stress situations in even the most complicated systems. Its clever analytics provide you with a lot of information about how well you’re doing. Hundreds of technologies are already supported by the tool. It also interfaces with several programs to make monitoring easier.

The following are the primary characteristics of this tool for performance testing:

• It’s offered as a cloud-based or on-premise solution.
• Extensible and compatible with all main web technologies
• It creates a manageable test environment
• Native JavaScript with validation engines, parameterization, and sophisticated correlation based on smart scripting
• Automatically detects bottlenecks

Performance testing services with complicated and significant user load requirements often employ WebLOAD. You can stress and load test any web-based application by generating demand from on-premise systems and the cloud. It works with a variety of technologies, from business applications to web protocols. In addition, it integrates with various technologies, including Selenium, Jenkins, and others, to provide continuous load testing for DevOps.

2. LoadNinja

LoadNinja enables you to create load testing without using any scripts. As a result, performance testing services favour it since it helps cut testing time in half. Other benefits include the ability to replace load emulators with actual browsers and provide actionable analytics.

You may use this tool to debug in real-time, record client-side interactions, quickly detect performance problems, and much more. With LoadNinja, you can increase your testability without sacrificing quality. It automates the tedious, time-consuming activities of script translation, dynamic correlation, and script cleaning. It helps you to focus on constructing scalable apps rather than writing load-testing scripts.

The following are the main characteristics of LoadNinja:

• At-scale browser load testing.
• Create a load test and playback feature that doesn’t need any scripting.
• Management of virtual user activities in real-time.
• Debugging tests in real-time.
• Metrics for advanced browsers with reporting and analytics.
• The server is not maintained using cloud-based hosting.

LoadNinja supports the following protocols:

• HTTPS
• HTTP
• Java-based protocol
• SAP GUI Web
• Google Web Toolkit
• WebSocket
• Oracle Forms

3. LoadView

Performance testing companies also use LoadView. This is a completely controlled load and stress testing tool. Unlike most other load-testing tools, it uses actual browsers. The outcome is a very realistic simulation of actual users. It’s 100% cloud-based and can be set up in minutes. Simulate user interaction with your application or website using multi-step scripts.

LoadView has the following major features:

• With real-time web browser testing and sophisticated load testing capabilities like worldwide cloud infrastructure.
• Create test scripts without coding in seconds.
• Supports Java, Flash, HTML5, Ruby, Silverlight, and PHP.
• Several Google Cloud Platform and Amazon Web Services worldwide cloud sites
• Compatibility with hundreds of devices and browsers
• Ease of sharing performance metrics
• Finding bottlenecks and scalability.

4. StresStimulus

StresStimulus is popular among performance testing tools because it can handle cases that other tools cannot. It automatically corrects playback faults using autocorrelation. To simulate shifting use patterns, the program captures user activities. It also monitors the demand for the software and server infrastructure. It can also find hidden concurrency issues and offer detailed performance data.

This tool’s primary features are as follows:

• Multiple load generators in the cloud or on-premise
• End-to-end Covering all processes decreases the learning curve.
• The tool supports three scripting languages.
• It allows to Export scripts as Visual Studio tests
• You can use the tool as a Fiddler add-on or a standalone tool

5. Apache JMeter

JMeter is a popular open-source load and performance testing tool. It can examine and benchmark a wide variety of software, including networks and servers. It is usually used to test web service applications for the load.

Incorporate JMeter, a Java platform application. Beyond load tests, it enables you to develop function tests.

Among the essential aspects are:

• Multiple load injectors handled by a single controller
• Load testing infrastructure is not required.
• Its user-friendly UI means it requires less programming than other API performance testing tools.
• Supports all Java apps
• Simple graphs and charts give vital load-based statistics and resource utilization monitoring.

The protocols it supports:

• HTTPS
• HTTP
• XML
• Java-based protocols
• SOAP
• FTP

5. SmartMeter.io

SmartMeter.io is the ideal choice for performance testing services looking to overcome JMeter’s shortcomings. With its Recorder, the tool enables the establishment of a basic scriptless test environment. It generates test results and includes automated test criteria evaluation and trend and comparative analysis for test runs. In addition, CI/CD integration is fully supported by the tool. The following are some of its essential characteristics:

• Make a test environment that isn’t scripted.
• Extractor of advanced response bodies
• GUI test runs and real-time results
• Test execution comparisons, comprehensive reporting, and automated evaluation
• CI/CD integration is supported.

The protocols it supports:

• HTTP
• FTP
• LDAP
• JDBC
• JMS
• SOAP

6. Rational Tester

IBM’s Rational Performance Tester creates and runs performance tests. It’s also an analytical tool. The program verifies the stability and scalability of web applications before deployment. This is an automated performance testing tool that produces a demo of the web service-user transaction process.

It can collect data and analyze it to assist in increasing efficiency. It helps find and fix application or server leaks. Performance testing services employ Rational Performance Testers to provide error-free cloud computing services. This tool’s primary features include:

• It has event-driven and scheduled testing.
• Tests without scripts
• Runs huge tests with many users
• Supports real-time reporting to identify performance issues
• Supports automated server response detection
• Auto-test data variation support
• Opens HTML versions of websites during test recordings.

The protocols this performance testing tool supports are:

• Web HTTP
• Citrix
• XML
• SOA
• Weblogic
• Websphere
• Socket Recording.

7. Silk Performer

Silk Performer is a stress and load-testing solution for businesses. It can test application environments with hundreds of thousands of simultaneous users. It includes the CloudBurst functionality, allowing QA teams to quickly execute any high-load performance test without worrying about complicated infrastructure. You may run tests from more than 50 different places across the world. It works with Google, AWS, and Azure.

The following are the main characteristics of Silk Performer:

• Workbench, Performance Explorer, and True Log Explorer are the components of the tool.
• Virtual user simulation requires very little hardware.
• It has an integrated server monitoring feature.
• It supports six different workload models.
• Server-side diagnostics are used to stress test a website.

The protocols these tools support are:

• HTTP/HTML
• HTTPS/HTML
• HTTP/HTTPS
• Flash
• Email (SMTP/ POP)
• FTP
• TCP/IP
• LDAP
• XML/SOAP
• .NET

8. Gatling

Gatling is a 2012 open-source load testing tool. It lets you simulate concurrent user loads against the system via JMS, HTTP/S, or JDBC. This application simulates online users of a system to discover and improve bottlenecks.

It runs on Java and is thus cross-platform. Gatling features two executables: one for recording and one for running. All tests are in Scala. Upon completion of the exam, an immersive and graphical report is produced.

Gatling’s main characteristics are:

• It works with any OS or browser.
• Scala scripting language has its own DSL
• Can run tests in several clouds

The protocols it supports are:

• HTTP/S
• JMS
• JDBC.

Conclusion

The best tools for performance testing are listed above. When selecting one of these tools, you need to consider many criteria. This covers protocol support and license fees. Consider the tool’s hardware and software needs. Also, evaluate the tool vendor’s assistance. It would be best if you also considered the expense of training your teams.

Performance testing is required in software engineering before marketing. It guarantees consumer pleasure and preserves an investor’s investment. In addition, performance testing frequently pays for itself with increased client happiness, loyalty, and retention.

FAQs

Q1: How to select the best Performance Testing Tool?

Ans: The following are crucial elements to consider when choosing a performance testing tool, whether it’s open-source or commercial:

• Budget.
• Licensing types.
• Online forums and vendor assistance.
• Support for the protocol.
• Languages for writing scripts.
• The analyzer of protocols.
• Option to record and playback.
• Parameterization of data.

Q2: Why is choosing the correct Performance Testing tool important?

Ans: It is important to choose the correct performance testing tool because this ensures your program fulfils the specified service levels and provides a good user experience. They will advise you on enhancing your apps’ performance, reliability, and scalability before releasing them.

Q3: Which factors should you consider while selecting a Performance Testing Tool?

Ans: 8 Things to Think About When Choosing a Performance Tool

• Tool for determining customer preferences.
• Licenses are available on the customer’s machine.
• The Test Environment is available.
• Support for Additional Protocols
• The price of a license.
• Tool effectiveness.
• Testing Options for Users.
• Vendor Assistance.

Q4: Which Performance Testing is easiest?

Ans: All the performance testing listed above is the easiest.

Additional Resources

• Testing Tools
• Manual Testing Tools
• API Testing Tools
• Automation Testing Tools
• Automation Testing Interview Questions
• Selenium Interview Questions
• Software Testing Interview Questions
• Principles of Software Testing
• Difference Between Testing and Debugging
• Difference Between Alpha and Beta Testing