Learn How to Perform Website Performance Testing with the Best Website Performance Tools and Service Providers:
Our previous tutorial briefed us on How to Perform Manual Performance Testing in simple terms.
Performance Testing is considered one of the most challenging tests. However, it is “the most important testing that is done for any website” as it directly impacts the revenue generated.
Website Performance testing isn’t as simple as functional or any other black box testing technique because of its complicated real-like setup required for testing.
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It requires special attention and there are several factors to be kept in mind before performing this test.
In this tutorial, I have covered details on what really is Website performance testing, what steps should we take to performance test a website, what tools can be used for testing, and some of its service providers in the current market.
Table of Contents:
What is Website Performance Testing?
A performance test is non-functional testing done to test the responsiveness, throughput, and scalability of a website under test. This mainly benefits in improving the user experience and increases revenue generation.
There are various types of performance tests that can be done like the ones given below:
- Performance Test: This testing includes checking the responsiveness, speed, and scalability of the website.
- Load Test: This is done to verify the website behavior under a certain workload.
- Stress Test: This helps a tester find out how the system reacts under extreme load conditions. This helps in finding issues related to memory leaks, synchronization, etc.
- Capacity Test: This test is done to ensure how many users/transactions can be supported at a time.
- Endurance Test: This is done to ensure that the system will be able to handle the expected load for a long period of time.
Top Website Performance Testing Tools and Companies
#1) Site24x7
Site24x7 is an all-in-one monitoring solution that monitors the performance of a website with the help of multiple features such as Real User Monitoring, Real Browser Monitoring, Web Transaction Monitoring, etc. It also provides in-depth reporting and alerting to ensure faster and more reliable websites.
#2) StormForge
Fast and accurate enterprise-grade Performance Testing as a service platform, targeting HTTP APIs. StormForge provides a high degree of automation with a comprehensive and expressive JavaScript DSL to specify your test cases.
Further reading =>> Using StormForge to optimize Kubernetes apps
With StormForge’s ML-powered optimization you have all the tools you need to do continuous real-world load testing and make the web a faster place.
#3) PFLB
PFLB helps businesses test the performance of their applications and resolve performance bottlenecks such as ill-performing API calls or slow database queries, and more.
It excels in Website Performance Testing. The company creates a next-generation load testing platform, boomq.io, that enables developers to release high-performance software faster.
#4) ScienceSoft
Holding the ISO 9001 certification and having ISTQB-certified test engineers on board, ScienceSoft offers load, stress, stability, and scalability testing. The company tests websites, portals, e-commerce applications, CRM and ERP software, XaaS apps, blockchain systems, IoT systems, telehealth solutions, and more. ScienceSoft works with all architecture types, including headless, microservices, and SOA-based.
ScienceSoft creates tailored load schemes to check the maximum scenarios for a specific target and uses proven testing tools (Apache JMeter, LoadRunner, Gatling, Locust). The vendor provides comprehensive performance reports containing software and hardware metrics, root causes of substandard performance, and remediation recommendations.
The company is headquartered in the US and has offices in the UAE, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland.
#5) Digivante
Digivante provides a variety of performance testing services that will evaluate an app or website load time and responsiveness under very many different conditions.
By simulating real-world loads and spikes, their performance testing can predict how your app or website will respond to sudden traffic spikes, or even normal conditions once you move to production, to give you confidence that your website or app will work at all times, including peak times.
#6) Pingdom
SolarWinds provides a tool, Pingdom, to monitor web performance and digital experience. It will help you to make your websites faster and more reliable. It provides the features of Real User Monitoring, Transaction Monitoring, Page Speed Monitoring, etc.
#7) WebPageTest
This is a free tool to test the website’s performance. It was primarily developed and is supported by Google. Click here to know more about this tool.
#8) PageSpeed Tool By Google
This tool belongs to the Google family and was primarily designed to stimulate optimization of website performance. Click here to know more about this tool.
#9) Dotcom Monitor
It is a powerful website monitoring and performance testing tool. A few of its clients include Xerox, Citrix, Dell, etc. Click here to know more about this tool.
#10) Web Page Analyser
This is a Free Website Performance Tool and is a Web Page Speed Analyser. It has a vast client base. This tool recommends speed improvements based on usability. Click here to know more about this tool.
#11) WAPT
This tool includes almost all the basic features that are required to carry out testing. To download the trial version, you can refer to the link given below. Click here to know more about this tool.
#12) NeoLoad
This is one of the fastest tools available in the market. This tool helps in eliminating the bottlenecks in the web as well as mobile applications in a cost-effective way. Click here to know more about this tool.
#13) Apica
This tool has several features, which thereby makes it a unique one in the market. It monitors the sites 24/7, all over the globe. Click here to know more about this tool.
#14) GTmetrix
This tool has several prominent features to satisfy the expectations of its customers. Click here to know more about this tool.
#15) WebLOAD
It has a vast client base as a result of its service. A few of its clients include GoDaddy, Symantec, Intel, Sony Pictures, etc. Click here to know more about this tool.
#16) Load UI
This tool has come from the makers of SoapUI and mainly targets web services. Click here to know more about this tool.
#17) Test Studio
This tool tests mobile, web & desktop applications and provides a complete test automation solution for Load, Performance, GUI, etc. Click here to know more about this tool.
#18) Loader
This is a part of an operating system and has its own prominent features to satisfy its customers. Click here to know more about this tool.
#19) JMeter
This is a simple and easy-to-understand open-source Java application. It is a very popular and powerful tool as well. Click here to know more about this tool.
#20) Webserver Stress Tool
This is a free performance, load, and stress tool that is available for Web users. To download and check for detailed information about this tool, refer to the below link. Click here to know more about this tool.
Here is the list of the top web performance testing service provider companies.
#1) Neustar Click here to check the official website.
#2) Soasta Click here to check the official website.
#3) NCCGroup Click here to check the official website.
#4) BTC Technologies Click here to check the official website.
#5) QA Consultants Click here to check the official website.
#6) KiwiQA Click here to check the official website.
#7) QA Infotech Click here to check the official website.
#8) LogiGear Click here to check the official website.
#9) Starq Click here to check the official website.
How To Perform Web App Performance Testing?
Before you start performance testing a website, there are a few considerations that are to be kept in the mind.
They are:
- Understand the purpose of the Website, try to find out if it involves payment gateways, web services, etc.
- Understand the reason for performance testing and find out what actually needs to be measured like the number of users, volume, response time, etc.
- Understand the customer’s expectations.
- Understand the Project schedule and the QA window.
- Understand the availability of resources and QA tools.
You can also create a checklist to note down the Performance Analysis/Acceptance criteria like:
- What’s the acceptable time between transactions/user clicks?
- What’s the expected average session duration of a user?
- What’s the acceptable page load time?
- Are there current baselines available to measure against?
- What analytics tools are used to identify high volumes?
Steps To Performance Test A Website
Given below is a pictorial representation of the steps involved while performance testing a website:
Conclusion
If you have been in the performance testing sector, you will clearly understand how vast the topic is.
It is not possible to cover all the topics in this tutorial. However, I have tried to cover just the important aspects of Website Performance testing to give you a very basic idea of what it is.
We hope, this tutorial would have given you pointers on why performance testing is considered to be so important and what all points should be kept in mind before performing the test.
Let us know your thoughts/suggestions in the comments section below. The best Performance Testing Companies are reviewed in our upcoming tutorial.
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