Performance Testing Tool & Types

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Performance Testing Tool is a special type of software application that is used to generate the virtual traffic (load) on the software system. This software system could be a website, a middleware or a mobile application. The main objective of the Performance Testing Tool is to find out the performance of an application in terms of its responsiveness and load-handling capacity.

How does it work?

Performance testing tool simulates real-world user behaviour and sends the request to the server in the same manner as a real user does. Apart from simulating the activities of a user, it also generates the virtual load on the server. And, at last, provides the result.

A performance testing tool supports 3 major activities of PT:

  1. Scripting: To simulate real-world user activity and convert it into a code called Script.
  2. Execution & Load generation: To generate the virtual load (called Virtual Users or Threads) and run the script with a generated load.
  3. Result Analysis: After execution, prepare the result which shows the performance of the application.

This is the basic concept of any performance testing tool. 

Type of Performance Testing Tool:

Many performance testing tools are available in the market. Sometimes it is hard to find a suitable tool as per the requirement which needs PoC (Proof of Concept). PoC helps to compare the features of the tools and makes it easy to take a decision.

Basically, Performance Testing tools are of 2 types:

1. Open Source PT Tools: These tools are free to use. Simply download the tool from the official website and install it on the machine. Read More >>
Example: Apache JMeter, Gatling, K6 etc.

2. Licensed PT Tools: These tools need a license to use. For using a licensed PT tool, download the set-up (may come in the package), buy the license and install the set-up as per instruction. Licensed tools are of two types:

  • On-Premises: The set-up of the tool is deployed on personal hardware. It may cost more because extra money needs to spend to buy the hardware. Read More >>
    Example: Micro Focus LoadRunner Professional, Neotys NeoLoad etc.
  • Cloud-Based: It saves the cost of hardware but needs an amount to buy the user licenses on the cloud. Cloud-based performance testing tools provide a facility for scripting on the local machine and running the test on Cloud. Some of the cloud-based tools use open-source performance testing tools for scripting purposes. Read More >>
    Example: Micro Focus LoadRunner Cloud, BlazeMeter etc.

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