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 easy to take the 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 run the test on Cloud. Some of the cloud-based tools use open-source performance testing tool for scripting purpose. Read More >>
    Example: Micro Focus LoadRunner Cloud, BlazeMeter etc.

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