Web Application Performance Testing tools

Highlights and lowlights of a few popular performance testing tools:

JMeter

• Open source, active project
• Supports HTTPs traffic via HTTPS spoofing (works quite well)
• Supports various protocols other than HTTP, like JDBC to analyze SQL bottlenecks directly
• Supports cookie and session management
• Can be executed in distributed mode from remote host to prevent the host machine from throttling the test
• Captures screen (if specified) to be used as functional test (capturing screen is not recommended during load/performance tests)

OpenSTA

• OpenSource, not actively developed or maintained
• Support for HTTPS is patchy/unreliable at best
• Good scripting interface, better than JMeter for customization and parametrization
• Falls apart easily under load even in distributed mode
• Easy access for DOM objects to be accessed from scripts
• Monitoring of servers possible

HTTPerf

• Free, open source
• Command line tool (not GUI based)
• Granular support via command line options for inputs, delays, target throughput etc
• SSL supported

Grinder

• Very similar to Jmeter; Open source JAVA based record and playback tool
• Supports HTTP and HTTPS
• HTTP(S), JDBC, LDAP and more protocols supported

Mercury Load Runner

• Not inexpensive
• Method level Diagnostics on application
• Monitoring of servers during test built in
• Record and playback via GUI

IXIA and Avalanche

• Not inexpensive :)
• Large scale/higher concurrency use, loads that JMeter cannot handle well
• More granular control over inputs and target throughput and output monitoring