Performance is one of the aspects that shape the user experience. One of software testers’ tasks is to make sure an app, website, or database runs well under different workloads. In this article, you will learn what tools to use for the performance testing service and how to choose them.
Performance Testing Tools & APM Solutions: What’s the Difference?
There are two groups of tools used during performance testing. Let’s start with the difference between them.
Performance testing tools allow imitating traffic peaks and software overload to check whether a system under test meets the performance criteria. Usually, we run such checks before the release to expose a system to a diverse number of users. As a result, we can determine how software behaves under average, high, and changing loads.
APM (application performance management) solutions allow you to organize, optimize, and monitor the performance of software after release. These tools capture bugs and include the findings in automatically generated reports.
Using both types of tools on a project helps provide efficient test coverage that ultimately results in a positive user experience.
Best Performance Testing Tools
Each tool comes with some peculiarities. Choosing the right one for a specific case will depend on several factors. In particular, you need to pay attention to the kind of tested software and make sure a tool is capable of working with it. Below, you can find brief information about some of the top-rated performance tools.
Apache JMeter
It is an open-source tool for performance testing mainly used for web applications. It has a convenient interface, offers integration with many other load testing tools. It supports various types of servers and multiple protocols. JMeter works on Windows, Mac, and Linux and has a large community that will gladly share a piece of advice whenever you need it.
Pricing:
- Free open source
Gatling
It is a platform with a web recorder, colorful reports, and a focus on web application testing. The tool is suitable for continuous load testing. It supports HTTP(S), JDBC, and JMS protocols. Gatling works on Windows, Mac, and Linux.
Pricing:
- Free open source
- Frontline on-premises: unlimited testing, starts at $99.00/month
- Frontline cloud-based: unlimited testing, starts at $3/hour
Eggplant
This tool is enabled with AI and ML algorithms. It is suitable for testing any platform or application. Eggplant is feature-rich, powerful, and easy to learn. It is a good option for large enterprises, as QA engineers can use it to test systems with complicated architecture, those using ML and AI technologies, etc. Eggplant runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS.
Pricing:
- Free trial
- One stream license starting at $3,400
k6
It is a feature-rich cloud tool for engineering teams. k6 has a JS-based structure that makes it easy to write tests and supports almost any other tool for real-time monitoring. k6 works on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS.
Pricing:
- Free open source
- Free trial
- Cloud: from $59/month
BlazeMeter
It is a web interface for load testing that can run any JMeter script. BlazeMeter complements JMeter with real-time reporting, integration with developer tools for continuous integration (CI), and application performance monitoring.
Pricing:
- Free (50 concurrent users)
- Basic: starts at $99/mo (1,000 concurrent users)
- Pro: starts at $499/mo (5,000 concurrent users)
Best APM Solutions
APM solutions are also designed for different tasks and systems and come with varying features. Here are some frequently used tools that might be helpful in your work.
AppDynamics
AppDynamics is an easy-to-setup tool for analyzing, optimizing, and predicting bottlenecks in complex information systems. It uses an innovative approach that integrates different applications into a single reliable solution. AppDynamics allows determining the exact origin of performance issues.
Pricing:
- Free trial
- Infrastructure Monitoring Edition: $6/month per CPU Core*
- Premium Edition: $60/month per CPU Core*
- Enterprise Edition: $90/month per CPU Core*
- Real User Monitoring: $.06/month per 1,000 tokens*
* for purchases made in the USA
Dynatrace
It is a platform for Java and .NET application performance monitoring. Dynatrace lets you track transactions, detect deviations of response time, transaction speed, throughput, etc. Users appreciate its automated diagnostic features and comprehensive dashboard.
Pricing:
- Free trial
- Cloud automation: starts at $0.10/ Cloud Automation Unit
- Open ingestion: starts at $25/month
- Application security: starts at $10/month
- Digital experience monitoring: starts at $11/month
- Infrastructure monitoring: starts at $21/month
- Full-stack monitoring: starts at $69/month
Datadog
Datadog is a monitoring tool for cloud applications that helps you make a platform entirely observable and, thus, prevent downtime. In particular, it allows tracking and following logs in real-time, measuring response time, and creating custom reports.
Pricing:
- Free version
- Free trial
- Pro: starts at $15/month per host
- Enterprise: starts at $23/month per host
Progress WhatsUp Gold
This tool helps get a complete picture of your network and find bugs faster. It optimizes network traffic and bandwidth utilization, tracks dependencies, and allows working with different configurations. Users appreciate its customizable drag-and-drop dashboards and interactive interface.
Pricing:
- Free trial
- Prices discussed individually
New Relic
New Relic is a cloud-based observability platform. It provides flexible dynamic server monitoring and quick access to viewing an entire network on a single page. In particular, this tool is great at finding errors and long-running transactions.
Pricing:
- Free version
- Free trial
- Prices discussed individually
How to Choose the Right Tool for Performance Testing?
As you can see, there are a lot of different options. When it comes to choosing a performance testing or APM solution, you should pay attention to the following criteria:
- project peculiarities – type, size, tech stack, etc.;
- programming language a tool supports;
- infrastructure – SaaS, on-premise, or hybrid;
- budget and a variety of pricing options offered;
- overall functionality and ease of use;
- user reviews and community support.
To Sum Up
Performance is one of the significant aspects to test before and monitor after release. There are plenty of tools that help QA engineers do it efficiently and with the least effort. Make sure to learn enough about your project to choose the right solution.