Developers and QA engineers incorporate lots of tests into their continuous integration and deployment workflow. While unit tests, integration tests and UI tests are commonplace, load tests are sometimes overlooked by teams that believe functional tests are enough. The problem is that applications perform differently under real-life conditions.
Even slowdowns in production can be extremely costly for businesses. In fact, a one-second delay in load time translates to a 7% reduction in conversion rates! Big events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday can also create large loads at a critical time for generating revenue, making load testing even more necessary to ensure a good user experience and maximize revenue for the business.
Read more about the most popular free and open source load testing tools – as well as premium tools that are worth the cost – to help you find the best option.
Use these evaluation criteria when selecting a load testing platform to help you make the best decision for your organization.
- Browser vs. Protocol Based Tests
Load testing frameworks can either send HTTP traffic to a server or use an actual browser to generate a load. While protocol-based tests may be easier to scale, they do not offer the same level of accuracy as browser-based tests.
- Development or Scripting Experience
LoadNinja provides a completely visual interface for recording test scripts in a browser, whereas Gatling focuses on a purely code-based experience. The right decision depends on your test engineering team’s development experience.
- Total Cost of Ownership
Open source tools may be free of charge, but they may require scripting expertise and have infrastructure requirements. These costs could exceed the cost of commercial solutions that do not involve any of these requirements.
- Language or Framework
Some load testing frameworks only work with certain technology stacks, such as The Grinder’s suitability for Java APIs. In these instances, you may want to ensure that your load testing solution of choice works with your language or framework.
- Community and Support
Open source solutions require an active community to remain up-to-date, while commercial software solutions should offer robust customer support.
Start load testing with LoadNina – try for free today!