Software testing is an integral part of the software development lifecycle. There are high chances that you find several errors, bugs, or irregularities in software. But it is necessary to test and remove issues before the final launch.
Thus, enterprises need to invest in software testing services and check the mission-critical performance of the software in varied conditions. When we say software testing, then it is not confined to a single test only.
But a combination of integrated stages like unit testing, A/B testing, integration testing, and more. One such crucial testing stage is Performance Testing. As the name implies, this test helps to measure the software capacity, stability, and volume in different usage conditions.
What is Performance Testing & Its Importance?
Software performance matters a lot to meet customer’s expectations at all levels. It helps to determine the speed, agility, scalability, flexibility, and reliability of software under different usage conditions.
To better understand it, let’s say you have enterprise software and it runs well with 1,000 users at a time. But what if, 10,000 users access your software at the time? If it fails to load, crashes in the middle, or gets hanged, then you find the whole brand’s reputation at stake.
Thus, to prevent such trivial conditions, performance testing is essential to test your system under different scenarios, load times, stress conditions, and more.
Importance
- Fasten up the speed of software to engage more & more people
- Generate revenue with seamless & speedy performance
- Resolve technical glitches well in advance
- Enhance the application’s robustness
- Bring scalable operations
- Build a responsive application
- Identify & fix weak links within the application
Different Performance Testing Tools to Consider
The performance testing stage of software testing is classified into different types like Stress Testing, Load Testing, Spike Testing, Endurance Testing, Scalability Testing, and Volume Testing. To make sure every testing stage is conducted, here is a list of top-performing performance testing tools.
1. LoadNinja
LoadNinja is a load testing tool. It comes with extreme popularity as, “performance testing tool that reduces 50% of the load testing time”. This tool allows professional testers to build scriptless load tests and replace them with load emulators to connect with real browsers to acquire actionable results.
You can use LoadNinja to capture client-side interactions in real-time, debug the software while on the go, and identify issues at an early stage. It comes with actionable benefits of reducing testing time, improving software quality, preventing tedious efforts of dynamic correlation, and script scrubbing.
Top Features:
- Scriptless load testing
- Debug in real-time using VU Debugger
- Manage virtual user activity with VU Inspector
- Cloud Hosting testing solution
- Real browser load test execution
2. WebLoad
WebLoad is an enterprise-scale load testing tool preferred by a majority of testing experts. This tool is a favourable choice to test software during heavy load and complex testing requirements. It helps to perform detailed load and stress tests on business applications by generating load from the cloud and on-premises machines.
The tool helps to provide a complete and clear analysis of your application performance, find issues, and bottlenecks in real-time. WebLoad supports a varied range of technologies and comes well-integrated with different tools like Jenkins, Selenium, and various others.
Top Features:
- Readily available on Cloud or as an on-premise deployment
- Flexible testing environment
- Easy to extend and supports all major technologies
- Detects issues automatically
- Easy to reach customer support
Also Read : Top Software Testing Trends to Watch Out in 2024
3. Apache Jmeter
Apache Jmeter is a free and open-source load and performance testing tool. It is a Java scripted web application that helps to test varied load conditions of software in the shortest possible time.
Businesses of all sizes and groups can access free Apache Jmeter for checking the load under varying conditions swiftly.
Also, the versatile testing tool is compatible with several protocols of web applications including HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, LDAP, SOAP, and TCP. Jmeter is a useful performance and load testing tool that helps to test applications of both dynamic and static nature.
Users can utilize varied resources including queries, scripts, servers, logs, and files during the testing stage. Also, it helps to test business applications under heavy load conditions to ensure high performance and robustness.
Top Features:
- Single controller to manage multiple injectors
- No need for advanced infrastructure
- Less scripting efforts and time
- Supports all Java-based applications
- Easy analysis of key-based states and reports
4. SmartMeter.io
SmartMeter.io is an ideal alternative to the Jmeter performance testing tool. It helps to fix up the drawbacks of Jmeter. This tool enables a smart and fast way of testing applications under different load conditions and provides real-time reports for easy evaluation.
Creating a test scenario under SmartMeter.io is simple without needing the scripting work and just by clicking on the embedded browser.
The automated generated reports help to analyze the performance of software under load conditions when numerous users access the application at the same time.
Top Features:
- Auto-evaluated reports containing stats, graphs, comparison, etc
- Scriptless software testing scenario
- Comprehensive reporting for flexible analysis
- GUI test
- CI/CD ready
- Easy to adapt response body extractor (Boundary Body Extractor)
5. StressStimulus
StressStimulus is one of the advanced performance testing tools on the list that helps to test performance at extreme levels. It works by automatically fixing the playback errors by using its autocorrelation feature. This tool further helps to record user’s actions before replaying the same to emulate.
The performance testing tool tracks the record of load impact on the responsiveness of the software and the server infrastructure. Moreover, Stress Stimulus helps to detect hidden concurrency errors efficiently.
Top Features:
- On-premise or Cloud-based testing scenarios
- Offers end-to-end Test Wizard reducing the learning curve
- Manual scripting is also available
- Can be used as Fiddler add-on
And the list goes on.
Wrapping Up
Software testing is imperative to meet customer’s expectations. Checking the performance of the software is also necessary to introduce a full-fledged working software to the world. The above-mentioned list of performance testing tools is the most widely used one by expert testers.
But the final choice relies on your hand to select the best performance testing tool based on your software and hardware requirements, protocol support, licensing cost, and other major factors.
Also remember, not one performance testing tool is enough to meet your testing requirements. You ought to require the complete support of a few tools along with professional testing experts.
Rely on the Software Testing Services of TestingAgency to address all your testing requirements at a low-cost.
FAQs
1. What is Performance Testing?
Performance testing is one of the stages of software testing services that helps to find out the current performance of software under different usage conditions. It can be testing the application under low or heavy usage, find irregularities, scalability, capability, and flexibility of the system.
2. Which Performance Testing Tool is Best?
There are a plethora of performance testing tools available in the marketplace. And, each one offers a unique testing advantage as per the varied requirements of businesses. Therefore, it is difficult to determine which testing tool tops the list as every single is different in its approach.
3. What is the Cost of Performance Testing Service?
The cost depends on the requirements of enterprises that could be in terms of checking the flexibility, load, stress, capability, and other performance metrics of the software. Best on your needs, the cost of performance testing services is decided.
