Top 7 Performance Testing Tools for 2022

Nowadays there is a popular term, every software developing companies are familiar with “Performance testing”. So what is performance testing? In simple words, it is a crucial aspect of the software development process because building high-quality software alone is not enough. You must also ensure they’re always working and always at the peak of performance.

A myriad of tools is available for performance testing. Each solves different needs, works in different scenarios, and suits various budgets. Therefore, choosing the most appropriate performance testing tool is a challenge.

In this blog, we’ll compare the seven best performance testing tools by their features and benefits so that you can make the best decision. Let’s begin:

Most Popular Performance Testing Tools

1. Web Load

WebLOAD is a load and performance testing tool for testing services with heavy user load and complex requirements. It generates highly reliable, real-life scenarios for complex systems.

WebLOAD can simulate thousands of users concurrently. Therefore, you can use it to test heavy traffic loads and report weak points, constraints, and performance bottlenecks on your website/application. The performance testing tool is used mainly for website load testing, continuous testing, and cloud load testing.

Features of WebLOAD

• Conduct load and stress testing on any web-based software.
• Support for HTTPS, HTTP, and XML protocols.
• Integration with Jenkins and Selenium.
• An integrated development environment (IDE) for recording, editing, and visually debugging test scripts.
• A proxy-based recorder for keeping track of your HTTP activities and generating tests in JavaScript.
• Analysis reports for performance data that helps users identify bottlenecks.

Pricing: Free trial option for up to 50 users. To get a quote on professional and enterprise options, you can reach out to the WebLOAD team.

2. LoadView

LoadView is enterprise-grade on-demand stress and load testing solution. It allows you to test your websites, web apps, and APIs for stress and loads with thousands of concurrent connections in your browsers. Moreover, it enables you to define users, duration, and behavior for a more specific output.

The outcomes from Loadview are the close emulation of highly accurate user data. Therefore, users also tout it as a completely managed and on-demand stress and load testing solution.

Features of LoadView

• Quickly and easily build test scripts without touching a single line of code.
• Supports 40+ desktop or mobile browsers and devices for performance testing.
• Supports 12+ worldwide cloud locations supported by AWS and cloud.
• Load injectors from over 30 global locations (US, Canada, Europe) to help you simulate users virtually.
• Design multiple tests, even on complex apps.
• Three load curves: Load step curve, dynamically adjustable curve, and Goal-based curve to check traffic spikes, scalability, and infrastructure limits.
• Advanced firewall supporting dedicated IPs that you can allow and configure.
• Video recording for better analysis and review.
• Reference server, detailed waterfall charts, dynamic variables, and load injectors.
• Quickly and immediately develop test scripts without any need for coding.
• Easy to understand & simple to share performance reports.

Besides, LoadView also has advanced loading features like accurate browser testing, click scripting, and cloud-based infrastructure.

Pricing: Starting at $199/Month for 1000 concurrent users.

3. NeoLoad

NeoLoad is an automated testing tool for continuously testing applications and APIs for load and performance. It lets testers and developers intuitively design and maintain test cases. With Neoload, you can also use realistic user behavior simulation to faster identify the root cause of failure. 

NeoLoad Features

• Simplified test creation with conditions, loops, and drag-and-drop controls with a robust cordless design. 
• Using a readable and domain-specific YAML-based format.
• Detailed reports after test completion.
• You can integrate APM to better analyze and validate builds with automatic SLAs.
• Supports for web frameworks and protocols like HTML, Angular, HTTP/2, WebSocket, and packaged apps like Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, IBM, etc.
• Integration with DevOps tools like Jenkins, Bamboo, TeamCity, Git, Selenium, Tricentis Tosca, Dynatrace, Azure, Jenkins, Git, etc.
• Support for SOAP/REST APIs.
• Automated API Tests
• Dynamic Infrastructure
• Resource Reservation

Pricing: NeoLoad offers highly customized pricing plans, and you can avail of them by sharing your requirements with their team.

4. Apache JMeter

Apache JMeter is a highly-efficient testing tool for performance and load testing. It helps you test and measures the performance of various web apps. 

The performance testing tool can test a website/web app for static and dynamic resources. You can also use it to test the strengths of different servers and analyze your web app’s performance under various load types. For this, you can simulate heavy loads over a server. 

ApacheJMeter Features

• Easy to use and doesn’t demand highly sophisticated infrastructure for testing.
• Compatible with many load injectors manageable with one controller. 
• A user-friendly GUI that requires less scripting compared to other load testing tools. 
• Simple graphs and charts are enough to help you analyze primary load-related data and resource utilization stats.
• A Fully-featured IDE for faster testing creation, recording and debugging.
• CLI support for loading the performance test from an OS compatible with Java.
• Supports SOAP, TCP, FTP. SOAP, LDAP MOM, shell scripts, Mail Protocols, Java objects, and database.

Pricing: Apache JMeter is free and open-source.

5. AppLoader 

AppLoader is another performance testing tool that lets you gather actual stats on your app. The best thing is that it takes away all the pain of installing or coding on your app servers. Also, you can create custom workflows using canned scripts and customize these workflows to suit your workload.

AppLoader Features

• Code-free scripts to help you create automated test cases in minutes.
• Screenshot to help you quickly detect the cause of failure and resolve it.
• Dashboard to help you have a complete overview of your app’s performance.

Pricing: A free trial is available. You can also contact the AppLoader team to get a quote based on your requirements.

6. LoadNinja

LoadNinja can help you quickly create and run scriptless load tests, thus significantly reducing the testing time. The tool is highly efficient and can help you diagnose issues with accurate, actionable data. 

LoadNinja Features

• Ability to record client-side interactions, identify performance issues quickly, and debug in real-time without sacrificing test quality.
• TrueLoad technology using which you can test the actual end-user experience on multiple browsers to save more than 60% of your effort. 
• A machine learning assistant to help you analyze software performance data and diagnose issues.
• No need for setup or maintenance as the service is cloud-based
• Custom CI/CD plugins or REST APIs for automating tests.

Pricing: LoadNinja starts at $1,439/year for 100 virtual users and 100 load hours. 

The pro version is available for $6539/year for 1000 virtual users (per test) and 100 load hours (per year), while the premium version pricing is $9,359/year for 2500 virtual users (per test) and 100 load hours (per year).

7. SolarWinds

SolarWinds is another efficient performance testing tool that helps you gain better visibility of your app. With this tool, you can also discover and resolve issues quickly. Easy to understand, actionable insights are another significant feature of SolarWinds that can help significantly decrease your network downtime.

SolarWinds Features

• Continuous monitoring of device performance and network availability for extensive network performance testing.
• Intelligent network alerting features that notifies you when critical performance metrics exceed the predefined thresholds.
• Data analytics to help you identify and resolve issues faster. 

Pricing: The pricing for SolarWinds starts from $1,638. Although, you can also avail of the free trial for 30 days to see if it suits your needs.

In a NutShell

So, these are the seven best performance testing tools available in the market at present. As you can see, each brings a different set of pros and cons. The key to making the right choice is to use them and see which one best suits your requirements. Since most of these tools come with a free trial, making the right choice shouldn’t be challenging. Best of luck!