15 Best Load Testing Tools For Web Applications In 2023

WebLOAD is a performance and load testing tool that's designed to help you test and analyze the performance of your web applications. It's a product of RadView, which has been providing load testing solutions for over two decades.

WebLOAD can simulate thousands of virtual users through distributed load testing, which leverages the computing power of multiple load injectors to generate a massive user load that accurately represents real-world usage patterns. This capability is particularly useful when testing. WebLOAD also allows you to record your actions in a browser and then play them back as a virtual user, making it easy to simulate real user behavior.

One drawback of WebLOAD is its scripting language. WebLOAD uses JavaScript as its primary scripting language for creating test scenarios. While JavaScript is a widely used language, users who are not familiar with JavaScript or have limited programming experience may face difficulties in creating and customizing scripts for their performance tests.

WebLOAD offers pricing and a free trial upon request.

Tricentis NeoLoad is a load testing tool that enables the continuous performance testing of web and mobile applications, APIs, and microservices. It uses RealBrowser technology to provide browser-based performance capabilities for advanced custom web apps as well as cloud-native ones. This provides users with the ability to capture client-side end-user metrics while using a protocol-based approach for their back-end testing activities.

A core principal the software is built upon is enabling collaboration across development, quality assurance (QA), operations, and business teams. Users can build a standardized performance testing strategy across the enterprise regardless of experience or skill set. Codeless test design using a graphical user interface (GUI) also supports this mission. The software allows users to define service-level agreements (SLAs), share test assets, and review test results while the testing process is still running and after it is done.

Teams can connect Tricentis NeoLoad with their other tools such as Cucumber, Jenkins, Jira, and Selenium using the platform's native integrations. Pricing starts at $20,000/year for up to 300 virtual users, and a free trial and demo are available.

New Relic is a comprehensive and robust observability platform that allows you to monitor the performance of your entire stack. While you can't run load tests directly through the software, it can be instrumental in your load testing process. Because you get a complete overview of your performance across operating systems, apps, and more, you'll have more context to analyze your load test results.

For example, you can set an acceptable Apdex score for your application using the results of your load test. This can then be used as a gauge for your application's response time. You can also use the software's infrastructure product to identify saturated hard resources on the different hosts and servers involved in your deployment. Essentially, you can use the various tools in the platform to identify specific bottlenecks in your load testing.

The software integrates with over 500 apps including AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Jenkins, CircleCI, Travis CI, and Slack. It also has an API you can use to build custom integrations.

Pricing starts at $49/user/month, and a free version is available with feature limitations.

HeadSpin is an AI testing & dev-ops collaboration platform that offers several loading metrics like low frame rate, low page content, poor video quality, screen freezing, slow app launch, slow downloads that can estimate how quickly your app or website responds when there are multiple connections attempted or when there is tremendous load on the network infrastructure.

CloudTest from Akamai allows you to safely simulate your largest events in production with precise control while producing a live analysis of what your site or app is capable of on your big day and helping you drill down to the source of any performance bottlenecks.

A highpoint of the software is that the software requires low resource allocation for high-performance results, which can be vital if you are working on sub-optimal systems or hardware.

Akamai CloudTest definitely has a formidable learning curve and is not necessarily ideal for users who are new to load testing ecosystems. The tool lost a few points in the Usability segment of the evaluation criteria.

Akamai CloudTest starts at $1300/user/year and has a free 30-day trial.

Neotys Neoload helps to design, maintain and run performance tests as code and analyze results within continuous integration pipelines using pre-packaged plugins for CI/CD tools and the NeoLoad API. Easily set up testing resources as needed.

This tool has a clean, colorful, and strategically organized user interface that makes returning to the software for each task a pleasure. Thus, they scored well in the UX segment of the evaluation process.

One critique of this software to be wary of is that the charging mechanism on the cloud is not atomic in nature and has a dependency on a local machine. Additionally, the project gets harder to manage as the script grows.

Neotys Neoload starts at $6024/month and has a free 30-day trial.

Parasoft Load Test enables users to take SOAtest functional test projects and leverage them for performance testing. The Load Test Continuum (LTC) web-based reporting app makes performance testing a part of the CI/CD process and implements performance test automation.

One of the best parts of the software is that minimal experience/training is needed to get started. Users can easily pull from Excel or XML files, as well, and automating the APIs is intuitive.

With a rather hefty up-front cost, Parasoft Load Test lost a few marks in the Value for Cost section of the evaluation criteria, as the price tag may deter some. It is important to note that the cost listed below includes the enterprise edition, desktop licenses, and training for a team of 5.

Parasoft Load Test starts at $50,000 and has a free trial.

Eggplant Performance provides user-centric performance testing that’s simple to use with the unique ability to simulate virtual users at both the application UI and the network protocol levels, making it a solution that gives you an understanding of the UX impact at scale.

Usability is perhaps the most satisfying element of the eggplant experience, as it is relatively easy to pick up and run with as a new user. The software scored favorably in the Usability category of the review criteria outlined previously.

A few cons to note are 1) the tool, on occasion, reports false positives since it works based on the OCR engine, and 2) it works better on macOS than on Windows.

Eggplant starts at $3400 for one test stream and has a free demo.

An easy and cost-effective way to test your websites, mobile and web applications, web services and APIs with features like load testing, website speed testing, mobile emulation, automated website testing, SEO/PWA/speed monitoring, and software consultancy services.

LoadFocus has a very reasonable price-per-month, scoring them favorably in the Value for Cost section of the evaluation review as far as paid load testing tools are concerned.

One weakness of the tool is that communication between the user and the LF team could be clearer and better implemented. For example, there have been some complaints about not receiving confirmation emails and other expected communication items.

LoadFocus starts at $22.60/month and has a free 14-day trial.

LoadImpact is a cloud service to load test the performance of websites, apps, and APIs that has specifically focused on API load testing in the new k6.io app, with a completely revamped Test Builder. Plus, they have an improved browser session recorder and an improved results page.

A standout component of this software is it’s easy to support of various ‘cl technologies’. Additionally, the reporting, graphs, and pictures are aesthetically pleasing and very readable.

This tool would benefit in some better help sections/training documents in order to outline the different components of the software and website. They lost a few marks in the evaluation for Usability but this certainly isn’t a deal-breaker, as many aspects of the tool are intuitive anyways.

Load Impact starts at $99/month and has a free trial.