The Top 8 Load Testing Tools in 2019

In the modern cloud computing era, it’s essential to optimize IT infrastructure for speed, efficiency and reliability to meet rising consumer expectations. To do so, IT professionals must conduct performance measurement tests with specialized tools. For help selecting the right one, we’ve created a list of the top 8 load testing tools for 2019.

Who uses load testing tools?

There are many different kinds of professionals who use load testing tools, including:

• Testers employed in a corporate Center of Excellence for Testing (CoE)
• Developers testing APIs
• DevOps team members
• Performance Engineers
• QA professionals who know how to use load testing tools

When selecting a load testing tool, it’s important to consider the profiles of potential users as their competency levels will vary.

When should you use a load testing tool?

Load tests are used to determine how an application will behave under realistic load conditions and to identify the threshold at which the load exceeds the application’s or website’s ability to function properly. Some examples use cases for performance testing are:

• Testing a new feature or API within an agile software development environment
• End-to-end testing a complete and complex application
• Checking for updates to existing packaged and/or desktop applications
• Migrating an applicationlication to a new infrastructure for example in the cloud
• SAP S / 4 Hana application migrations
• Deploying a new application
• Custom development of an application

It’s important to perform tests with powerful tools in order to obtain reliable data before releasing your product to the users. In fact, the launch of your new application could be severely impacted if it’s found to be incapable of dealing with heavy loads.

Why use load testing tools?

The load test identifies bottlenecks in a system by applying different scripts. This helps minimize the risk of malfunctions after your application goes live in production with real users.

A modern load testing tool follows an agile process to leverage the ability of the performance test and provide a competitive advantage – focusing on quality and speed of execution. Your chosen tool should let you establish reliable performance tests that optimize the entire software delivery chain. It should also be adaptable to additional performance management and application monitoring strategies.

What are the different types of load testing tools?

There are two broad categories of load testing tools:

• Graphical user interfaces
• Coding environments

Performance testers either use a graphical interface tool or manually code their performance tests.

Depending on the complexity of the tests you want to run, the technologies that you want to test, your testing team organization and skill set, there are different subcategories of load testing tools to consider:

• Open Source tools—such as Jmeter—suitable for simple tests that don’t require advanced testing capabilities.
• More comprehensive tools capable of meeting even the most complex of testing needs for advanced Enterprise requirements. NeoLoad, one of the emerging leaders in this field, is a great alternative to the likes of LoadRunner and Performance Center that have existed for decades.

What are the main features of load testing tools?

Features will depend on the tool you choose. There are some tools that boast a wide range of additional features, however there is a baseline set of features you should be looking for in any load testing tool. Consider load testing software that has the ability to:

• Create a variety of realistic performance test scripts
• Conduct performance and load tests with realistic load and scale of virtual users for the application being tested
• Update and maintain performance scripts as code changes
• Integrate with other pieces of software to test applications in realistic environments, similar to those used in production
• Automate performance tests as part of a continuous integration (CI) pipeline

What are the main criteria for comparing load testing tools?

In addition to the features mentioned above, that are essential for any modern-day load testing tool, there are other factors you should consider when comparing different tools. This includes: 

• The time it takes to create and update a test script
• The ability of the tool to simulate user behaviors and real-world user scenarios
• The simplicity of automation and integration of performance tests into CI environments
• The ease of integrating the tool into other testing tools—such as APM tools—and the ability to share that test data in both directions
• The level of support available for critical original use cases – such as mobile, IoT, web, desktop, SAP, etc
• The ability of the tool to reuse existing test resources as performance tests

How to choose the right load testing tool for your needs

There are a number of factors and considerations to include in your decision-making process when selecting a load testing tool for your project. Although not an exhaustive list, below is a collection of the most important factors we think will help you make the best choice: customer needs, how does it respond to issues, how often does it innovate, etc

• Speed of test design
• Ease of implementation (e.g. fast docker image)
• Required level of script maintenance
• Ability to use the tool “as code” or with a graphical user interface with Little to no code required
• No special expertise required
• Ability to collaborate in teams, and enable the sharing of test resources and results between teams
• Test support for most commonly installed website and applications – such as SAP
• Potential for integration with the main functional test tools (Selenium) and APM tools (Dynatrace, AppDynamics, NewRelic)
• CI tool integration potential
• Ability to easily connect the test tool to others through open APIs
• Quick learning curve
• Customer support: how responsive is the service provider to customer needs, how does it respond to issues, how often does it innovate, etc

List of top performance testing tools

In order to help you select the right tool for your needs, we provide a list of top load testing tools and are their strengths and weaknesses.

1. NeoLoad
2. LoadRunner/Performance Center
3. StormRunner
4. Blazemeter
5. JMeter
6. LoadNinja from SmartBear
7. Gatling
8. IBM Rational