The Performance Testing Year-End Review is Here

Ah, December. A time of laughter, joy, sugar and holiday parties. It’s also the time of year when we get to look back on the last twelve months and see how far we’ve progressed, the mistakes we made, the relationships we built, and the accomplishments we’ve had. Therefore, there’s no better time to round up the best of the best website performance testing tools of the year. When it comes to performance testing tools, there are plenty to choose from, however, these five have consistently outshone the competition. Without further ado, let’s take a look at the top 5 website performance testing tools of 2016.

1: Apache JMeter

This application is a fan favourite, and is also completely free. In its own words, JMeter is “a 100% pure Java application designed to load test functional behavior and measure performance.” Don’t get us wrong, this open source load testing tool has been around for almost two decades, but it’s still rated one of the most useful tools out there. Obviously, it holds up quite a reputation. What Does it Test?

• The performance on both static and dynamic web pages
• The performance of many different applications, servers, or protocol types, such as:
  • Web – HTTP, HTTPS (Java, NodeJS, PHP, ASP.NET, …)
  • FTP
  • Mail – SMTP(S), POP3(S) and IMAP(S)
  • And way, WAY, more

Why Do We Love it?

• Reliability
• Test plan building/debugging
• Very detailed test reports

2: The Grinder

We don’t mean the gay hook-up app (that’s a blog post for another time). The Grinder is a pure Java website testing framework that is 100% free to use. Basically, it’s an open-source tool that allows you to perform a variety of tests with many load injector machines using Jython as the default script language. Side note: don’t let their basic site fool you because this is a very powerful and useful performance testing tool. What does it Test?

• Anything with Java API including:
  • HTTP web servers,
  • SOAP and REST web services,
• Application servers (CORBA, RMI, JMS, EJBs),
• Custom protocols.

Why Do We Love It?

• Open-source and free
• Intuitive, easy to use
• Ability to export data results

3: NeoLoad

This site claims to be the fastest website performance testing tool in the world, but whether or not this is true, there’s no doubt that it’s amazing. In addition, Neoload simulates real user activity to provide the most realistic performance test results. There is a lite version that’s absolutely free, however, if you’re testing multiple applications at the same time, you might want to consider different pricing options, like standard, professional, enterprise or VUH. In other words, you buy the bells and whistles. What Does it Test?

• WebSocket
• HTTP/2
• GWT
• HTML 5
• adaptive bitrate streaming
• Pretty much any web and mobile app you can think of.

Why Do We Love it?

• It’s extremely fast
• Stimulates real user activity
• Mobile and website app tools

4: LoadUI

With LoadUI, you can load test your web application with this easy-to-use program that allows you to drag and drop some tested elements without any coding required. It also allows you to generate real-time test results automatically and easily run quick API load tests. Since LoadUI racks up quite a bill, you should consider taking full advantage of the free trial, which you can download here. As much as we like supporting high-quality web performance tools, we also like free stuff! Great Features Like:

• Cloud-based load testing
• Parallel load testing
• Server Monitoring
• Isolated Load Testing
• Endpoint Load Testing

Why Do We Love it?

• The ability to reuse existing functional tests
• Distributed load generators
• Easy testing and scripting

5: Loadster

And last but not least, we have Loadster. This tool is a “cloud-hybrid solution for distributed load testing of web applications, web services, and static websites from either side of the firewall.” With Loadster you can build scripts and load test scenarios, run tests, and generate test reports all on your PC or Mac. Also, their website is über sexy. What Can it Handle?

• Cookies
• User Sessions
• Custom Headers
• Dynamic form data
• An all-in-one environment right from your own workstation

Why Do We Love It?

• Free trial
• Enables testing across web apps, services, and static websites
• Cloud-based

So, do you agree with our list? What other performance testing tools have helped you out this year, or maybe last year or the year before that? Also, do you have any predictions for 2017?

What if Your Website is Testing Poorly?

If you’re a retailer with a mobile-friendly website, then chances are you don’t have your own in-house web team. While you may have the most beautifully optimized site on the web, if your website keeps crashing or is constantly underperforming, you may need to consult with a web builder to fix those issues. If you’re worried about your site’s performance, then maybe your gift to you should be handing over your site to the professionals.