Open Source Performance Testing Tools

Measuring performance of our applications requires flexible software performance testing tools that are capable of testing common metrics such as: response time, application scalability, and estimated or higher workloads. There are many performance testing tools out there that have various features that make them solid choices for capturing meaningful metrics. In this post , we offer five key open source performance testing tools worth reviewing if you want to start adding some performance testing for your application but budget is a limitation. These tools have pros and cons to each of them but will serve as a cost effective entry point for performance testing.

locust

Locust is an easy-to-use distributed user loader tool. It is used to performance test sites or other applications. Locust can also help you determine the amount of concurrent users your system can handle. If you are familiar with the term "loader", Locust uses the term "swarm" - you can point a number of ticks to download your site.

Features:

• Suitable for testing APIs
• You can easily scale a large number of users to simulate usage patterns in your application
• Expansion is possible
• It has a nice web based UI
• Ability to create test scenarios using direct Python

JMeter

I think JMeter is the most popular open source tool for load testing. Apache JMeter describes itself as a Java application that is designed for load testing the ability to measure performance.

JMeter is an almost open-source option and it has a lot of complex features that may make adoption a bit challenging. It is a thick client application for Java and it has a lot of power. In addition, JMeter offers all of the features needed to create and run professional load tests.

Features:

• JMeter provides debris load testing features that allow you to create master slave test repairs on many devices.
• Can be used to test the performance of all types of applications, web services (shell scripts, web applications, LDAP, databases, etc.).
• JMeter is one of the most widely used market performance test tools. Flexibility and support for the online community among the benefits.

Taurus

The power of Taurus is that you can write tests in YAML. In fact, you can capture a complete script of about ten lines of text that will allow a team to describe tests in YAML or JSON files.

Features:

• Taurus is basically more effective in integrating performance testing into your CI/CD pipeline.
• This should also allow more team members to participate in performance testing. In addition, because test cases are written in YAML, the tests are more readable, which makes it easier to review the code.

siege

Siege is a command line HTTP load test and bench-marking utility. It is designed to help developers to measure their code under pressure.

Features:

• Allow users access to a server-configured number of simulated clients. These customers "set up the server."
• Support for basic authentication, HTTPS, HTTP, cookie, and FTP protocols.
• Ideal for simple, powerful types of test tools

nGrinder

nGrinder's GitHub page describes this as a business-class performance test solution. It has been developed to simplify stress testing and provide a platform for creating, implementing and tracking tests.

Features:

• Allows you to monitor the status of performance agents
• You can use Jython to write tests to create test attacks and use multiple agents to force JVM.
• It can use the client library extension to test such as jar and py

These performance testing tools have different degrees of complexity in setting them up however, the cost savings over many paid options may make it worth it try some of them out.

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