Comprehensive Review of LoadRunner And List of Top LoadRunner Alternatives with Features & Comparison. Select the Best LoadRunner Alternative from this list:
LoadRunner can be used to test a wide range of applications such as web, mobile, Java, Silverlight, Ajax, etc. It is a cloud-hosted solution and best for small to large businesses.
So whether you are a small business or a big enterprise, read this in-depth review to learn more about LoadRunner as well as its competitors and then select the best tool based on your specific requirements.
Table of Contents:
LoadRunner Review
The below graph explains the detail of LoadRunner customers by industry.
Features:
- LoadRunner has a command-line interface and thus we can use the DevOps-oriented flows. This feature provides the flexibility in using scripts from any source control and dynamically allocating dockerized load generators.
- Network Virtualization report (NV Insights report) identifies potentially problematic issues. This report will also give you recommendations to optimize network traffic.
- It can be integrated into your development tools such as IDE, jUnit, Selenium, Microsoft Visual Studio, Jenkins, and nUnit.
Pricing: Micro Focus offers a free trial for the LoadRunner. Its community edition is free with 50 virtual user licenses. More virtual users are available for $1.40 per virtual user day. Volume pricing is not mentioned by the company.
Supports:
- Windows and Linux platforms.
- Wide range of applications.
- More than 50 protocols
- Latest application technologies and legacy ones.
Limitations of LoadRunner
The LoadRunner supports a lot of protocols and so can be used for testing different types of applications. But the migration of applications to the cloud has reduced the use of these protocols. This decrease in non-HTTP protocols requirement is the one reason that businesses are looking for LoadRunner alternatives.
The cost is another con of the LoadRunner. For the average deployment size, LoadRunner may cost up to mid-six figures.
List of Top LoadRunner Alternatives
- Apache JMeter
- Gatling
- Rational Performance Tester
- WebLOAD
- Locust
- LoadNinja
- MicroFocus Performance Center
- SmartMeter.io
- LoadView
- NeoLoad
- WAPT
Comparison of top LoadRunner Competitors
| LoadRunner Alternatives | Best for | Platform | Protocols | Free Trial | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
LoadRunner | Small to Large Businesses. | Windows & Linux platforms | More than 50 protocols: SOAP, Citrix, etc. | Available | Community Edition: free, Virtual users: $1.40 per virtual user day |
Apache Jmeter | Small to Large Businesses | Windows, Mac, Linux, & Web-based | HTTP, HTTPS, Web Services: XML, SOAP, etc. Java-based protocols, FTP. | -- | Free |
Gatling | Small to large businesses & freelancers. | Windows, Mac, Linux, & web-based | HTTP, WebSockets, Server-sent events, JMS, MQTT, Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP), and ZeroMQ. | Cloud-based solution: 5 days, On-premise: 4 weeks. | Open-Source: Free, On-premise: Starts at Euro 400/month, Cloud-based: Starts at $3 per hour. |
Rational Performance Tester | Windows, Mac, AIX | Citrix, Socket Recording, Web HTTP, SOA, SAP, XML, WebSphere, Weblogic. | Available for 30 days. | Get a quote. | |
WebLOAD | Small to Large Businesses. | Windows, Linux, Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, RSTATD, SSH, iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry. | HTTP/HTTPS, HTML5, XML, SOAP, AJAX, Java, web services, Network & IoT protocols like FTP, SMTP, Telnet, etc. | Free plan available | Free plan, Standard, Premium. Get a quote |
#1) Apache JMeter
Best for small to large businesses.
Price: Free
Apache JMeter is an open-source tool that is used for testing dynamic web applications as well as static or dynamic resources. It can validate the strength of the server, group of servers, network, or an object by simulating heavy load. It analyses the performance of the system using different load types.
Features:
- JMeter provides a fully-featured Test IDE.
- Test IDE has functions like fast Test Plan recording, building, and recording.
- It will allow you to load tests from any Java-compatible OS through CLI mode.
- It gives complete portability.
- JMeter provides a dynamic HTML report, ready to present.
- It will allow you to replay test results.
Verdict: Using the third-party open-source libraries for Maven, Gradle, and Jenkins, continuous integration will be easier with JMeter. It is a highly extensible platform through pluggable samplers, scriptable samplers, and pluggable timers. It is a completely multi-threading framework.
Website: Apache JMeter
#2) Gatling
Best for small to large businesses and freelancers.
Price: Gatling open-source solution is free to use. Gatling Enterprise on-premise solution has five pricing plans, Starter (Euro 400 per month), Silver (Euro 625 per month), Gold (Euro 1250 per month), Platinum (Euro 2500 per month), Enterprise (get a quote). A free trial is available for 4 weeks.
A cloud-based enterprise solution can be tried for 5 days. It has four more pricing plans, Continuous ($3 per hour), Distributed ($9 per hour), High-Scale ($19 per hour), and Annual License ($5400 per year).
Gatling is an open-source tool to test the load and performance of your web applications. There are two versions of the Gatling, Open-source version and Enterprise version. The Enterprise version can be used as an on-premise solution or in the cloud.
Features:
- There will be unlimited virtual users, an unlimited number of tests, and unlimited duration.
- It will integrate into your development pipeline.
- It can perform continuous load testing.
- It provides a web recorder.
- The reports provided by Gatling are colorful.
Verdict: There are three solutions available for your business you can choose from, Gatling Open source, Gatling Enterprise On-premise, and Gatling Enterprise Cloud-based. It also provides training and consulting services.
Website: Gatling
#3) Rational Performance Tester
Best for enterprises.
Price: Rational Performance Tester can be tried for free for 30 days. You can get a quote.
IBM Rational Performance Tester is available on cloud and hence can be used for large scale & globally distributed performance testing. Here, you can perform load testing for a wide range of applications such as HTTP, SAP, Siebel, SIP, etc.
Features:
- Test Scripts will be created without programming.
- It provides the tools for root cause analysis.
- It has real-time reporting capabilities.
- It provides a flexible graphical test scheduler that will let you specify the load.
Verdict: IBM Rational Performance Tester is used by enterprises and offers advanced features like graphical test scheduler and test scripts creation without programming.
Website: Rational Performance Tester
#4) WebLOAD
Best for small to large businesses
Price: WebLOAD offers a free plan with 50 virtual users. There are two more pricing plans, Standard and Premium. You can get a quote for pricing details. The premium plan is available as a monthly or annual subscription or for a lifetime license.
WebLOAD is the smart performance testing tool with features of actionable insights, automatic scripting, and load simulation. It has functionalities for infrastructure monitoring. It provides flexible deployment options with premium plans.
Features:
- It has functionalities for test creation and execution, analytics, and mobile load testing.
- WebLOAD can be used for Web & Application load testing, Java load testing, .NET load testing, Oracle Forms load testing, etc.
- It provides plugins for continuous integration.
- It provides a Web dashboard.
Verdict: WebLOAD provides expert support with paid plans. Its free plan is free for a lifetime where 20 Selenium WebDriver users are allowed.
Website: WebLOAD
#5) Locust
Best for developers or programmers.
Price: Free
Locust is a web-oriented, distributed, and scalable tool for load testing. It is easy to use and will provide you the number of concurrent users your system can handle. Almost any system can be tested using Locust.
Features:
- This tool helps in defining the user’s behavior through plain code.
- Locust supports load testing over multiple distributed machines.
- Millions of users can be used simultaneously for testing.
- You will get test details in real-time.
Verdict: Locust will allow you to use Python code for writing tests. With just plain code, you will be able to write your tests.
Website: Locust
#6) LoadNinja
Best for small to large businesses and freelancers.
Price: Free trial is available for LoadNinja. There are three pricing plans for LoadNinja, Pro ($2399 per year), Premium ($7399 per year), and Enterprise (Get a quote).
LoadNinja is a performance and load testing tool that uses real browsers at scale to load test the application. It will allow you to test the application in local network with the help of a private proxy.
Features:
- LoadNinja allows unlimited load tests.
- It provides a minimum of 250 virtual users and 100 load testing hours.
- It can reduce test script creation time by 60%
- You will be able to manage your performance tests efficiently and effectively with the help of LoadNinja and Zephyr integration with Jira.
Verdict: LoadNinja provides an option to attach the databank to a specific test so it will be easier to perform the Data-Driven load tests with LoadNinja. As LoadNinja uses a real browser, you will get actionable data such as browser-based navigation timings.
Website: LoadNinja
#7) MicroFocus Performance Center
Best for enterprises.
Price: Performance Center community edition is free. The virtual user’s price starts at $2.10 per virtual user day. You can contact the company for volume pricing.
MicroFocus Performance Center is an enterprise platform. It has functionalities for planning and executing the test for multiple global projects. It can be used for performance testing of native mobile applications and browser-based mobile applications.
Features:
- Performance Center will be globally accessible.
- It can be integrated with IDE, CI, or build tools.
- It has Anomaly detection tools.
Verdict: Performance Center provides the most comprehensive technical support. It has advanced scripting capabilities that will help you to test a wide range of applications.
Website: MicroFocus Performance Center
#8) SmartMeter.io
Best for small to large businesses and individuals.
Price: Smartmeter.io provides a free trial for the product. It has four pricing plans, Personal ($39 per month), Pro ($99 per month), Pro+ ($299 per month), and Corporate (Get a quote). Yearly plans are also available.
SmartMeter is a performance testing tool that provides enterprise-level features. Here, test reports are generated automatically. It provides a test scenario recorder so creating test scenarios is easy.
Features:
- Test Scenario recorder has features of mobile browser simulation, undo/redo capabilities, and separating static and dynamic resources in requests, etc.
- Distributed load testing can be performed by installing load generators on multiple machines.
- For distributed load testing, the tool will allow you to combine cloud and on-premise load generators.
- Test results(pass/fail) will be decided based on the automatically selected criteria. The criteria will be determined based on some factors like response time, the number of errors made, etc.
Verdict: Smartmeter.io provides many more features like an automatic backup of results and test scripts and easily shareable tests & test data, etc.
Website: SmartMeter.io
#9) LoadView
Best for small to large businesses.
Price: LoadView offers a free trial for the product. There are four pricing plans, Starter ($199/month), Professional ($499/month), Advanced ($1499/month), and Pay-as-you-go (On-Demand).
LoadView is a tool for load testing of websites, web-apps, and web-services. With every plan, you will get 10 Geo Zones, Amazon & Google Clouds, 180-Day Data Retention, and Dedicated Load Injectors.
Features:
- Web Services will be tested by simulating API calls.
- For web services testing, it will verify SLA requirements, validate API responses, and supports SOAP & REST.
- Web Applications will be tested by real user simulations.
- For web applications testing, it supports multi-step scripting, more than 40 browsers or devices, and stress test critical paths.
- For web pages, UX will be tested under load. It will verify performance and identify bottlenecks.
Verdict: It is a completely cloud-managed solution and makes the use of the Google Cloud Platform and AWS.
Website: LoadView
#10) NeoLoad
Best for small to large businesses and freelancers.
Price: Neotys offers five pricing plans for NeoLoad, Free, Standard, Professional, Enterprise, and VUH. The free version is available to download. You can get a quote for pricing details.
Neotys is an API and Application performance testing tool. You will be able to automate API load testing within CI pipelines. NeoLoad can be used as a load testing tool for a variety of use-cases such as Microservices &API, Mobile App, SAP Applications, Web App, and Cloud Testing, etc.
Features:
- With the Collaboration features, you can schedule and share the resources within teams and applications.
- It provides native integration of automated testing within CI/CD pipelines.
- It helps agile and DevOps teams with continuous performance testing and DevOps load testing.
Verdict: Automation, acceleration, and collaboration are the three features that make the NeoLoad a unique solution.
Website: NeoLoad
#11) WAPT
Best for small to medium-sized businesses.
Price: WAPT has two pricing plans, WAPT ($700 + $300*) and WAPT Pro ($1200 + $300*). Various Extensions are also available for the additional price.
WAPT is the tool for testing the performance of web applications under load. It supports remote, distributed, and cloud-based testing. All the major web development frameworks are supported.
Features:
- WAPT supports any desktop and mobile browser for recording user sessions.
- It provides you flexible error handling and adjustable pass or fail criteria.
- With premium plans, it provides features like database performance monitoring and distributed testing with multiple load agents.
Verdict: WAPT will allow you to test the applications that have AJAX calls and RIA technologies. The test report will be customizable with over 20 tables.
Website: WAPT
Conclusion
If we compare the LoadRunner and JMeter then JMeter is a free and open-source tool while LoadRunner is an expensive tool. Also, Jmeter provides unlimited load generation capacity. Gatling offers a free plan and allows unlimited virtual users.
As per reviews, IBM provides good technical support for Rational Performance Tester. WebLOAD supports all the protocols and platforms that are supported by LoadRunner and it offers a free plan with 50 virtual users.
Hope this article will help you in finding the right LoadRunner alternative for your business.
Research process:
- Time taken to research this article: 15
- Total tools researched: 15
- Top tools shortlisted: 11