Difference Between Performance Testing, Load Testing, and Stress Testing – With Examples
Our previous tutorial in this series will be the best Performance Testing Guide for any beginner.
In the software testing field, we come across terms like performance testing, load testing, stress testing, etc. These terms are often misunderstood and interpreted as the same concepts.
However, there is a significant difference between these three testing types and it is important for a tester to understand the same.
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In this tutorial, we will discuss each of these testing types to understand the exact differences between them.
What You Will Learn:
Difference Between Performance Testing, Load Testing, and Stress Testing
#1) Performance Testing
What is Performance Testing?
Performance testing is the testing that is performed to ascertain how the components of a system are performing under a certain given situation.
Resource usage, scalability, and reliability of the product are also validated under this testing. This testing is a subset of performance engineering, which is focused on addressing performance issues in the design and architecture of a software product.
The above image clearly explains to us that Performance Testing is the superset for both load & stress testing. Other types of testing included in performance testing are Spike testing, Volume testing, Endurance testing, and Scalability testing. Thus, performance testing is basically a very wide term.
Performance Testing Goal:
The primary goal of performance testing includes establishing the benchmark behavior of the system. There are a number of industry-defined benchmarks that should be met during performance testing.
Performance testing does not aim to find defects in the application. It also does not pass or fail the test. Rather, it addresses the critical task of setting the benchmark and standard for an application. Performance testing should be done very accurately. Close monitoring of application/system performance is the primary characteristic of performance testing.
The benchmark and standard of the application should be set in terms of attributes like speed, response time, throughput, resource usage, and stability. All these attributes are tested in a performance test.
For Example,
For instance, you can test the application’s network performance through the “Connection Speed vs. Latency’ chart. Latency is the time difference between the data to reach from the source to the destination.
A 70kb page would not take more than 15 seconds to load for the worst connection of a 28.8kbps modem (latency=1000 milliseconds), while a page of the same size would appear within 5 seconds for the average connection of 256kbps DSL (latency=100 milliseconds).
A 1.5mbps T1 connection (latency=50 milliseconds) would have the performance benchmark set as 1 second to achieve this target.
Another example would be that of a Request-response model. We can set a benchmark that the time difference between the generation of requests and acknowledgment of responses should be in the range of x ms (milliseconds) and y ms, where x and y are the standard digits.
A successful performance test should project most of the performance issues, which could be related to database, network, software, hardware, etc.
#2) Load Testing
Load testing is meant to test the system by constantly and steadily increasing the load on the system until it reaches the threshold limit. This is a subset of performance testing.
Load testing can be easily done by employing any of the suitable automation tools available in the market. WAPT and LoadRunner are two such famous tools that aid in load testing. Load testing is also famous by names like Volume testing and Endurance testing.
However, Volume testing mainly focuses on databases. Endurance testing tests the system by keeping it under a significant load for a sustained time period.
The sole purpose of load testing is to assign the system the largest job it can possibly handle to test the endurance of the system and monitor the results. An interesting fact here is that sometimes the system is fed with an empty task to determine the behavior of the system in a zero-load situation.
The attributes which are monitored in the load test include peak performance, server throughput, response time under various load levels (below the threshold of break), adequacy of H/W environment, and how many user applications it can handle without affecting the performance.
Load Testing Goal:
The goals of load testing include:
- Exposing defects in an application related to buffer overflow, memory leaks and mismanagement of memory. The issues that will eventually come out as a result of load testing may include load balancing problems, bandwidth issues, the capacity of the existing system, etc.
- To determine the upper limit of all the components of an application like a database, hardware, network, etc. so that the application can manage the anticipated load in the future.
- To set the SLAs for the application.
For Example,
Let’s consider to check the email functionality of an application that could be flooded with up to 1000 users at a time. Now, 1000 users can fire the email transactions (read, send, delete, forward, reply) in many different ways.
If we take one transaction per user per hour, then it would be 1000 transactions per hour. By simulating 10 transactions/users, we can load test the email server by occupying it with 10000 transactions/hour.
Another Example of a load test is shown in the image below:
The above image depicts a load test done in the tool called JMeter. This test is done to identify how many users a system can handle. In this test, 100 users are added after every 30 seconds until the load reaches 1000 users. Each step takes 30 seconds to complete and JMeter waits for 30 seconds before kicking off the next step.
Once the load reaches 1000 threads, all of them will continue running for 300 seconds (5 mins) together and then finally stops 10 thread every 3 seconds.
#3) Stress Testing
Under stress testing, various activities to overload the existing resources with excess jobs are carried out in an attempt to break the system down. Negative testing, which includes removal of components from the system, is also done as part of stress testing.
Also known as fatigue testing, this testing should capture the stability of an application by testing it beyond its bandwidth capacity.
Thus, stress testing evaluates the behavior of an application beyond peak load and normal conditions.
The purpose of stress testing is to ascertain the failure of the system and to monitor how the system recovers back gracefully. The challenge here is to set up a controlled environment before launching the test so that you can precisely capture the behavior of the system repeatedly under the most unpredictable scenarios.
Issues that will eventually come out as a result of stress testing may include synchronization issues, memory leaks, race conditions, etc. If the stress test is checking how the system behaves in the situation of a sudden ramp-up in the number of users, then it is called a spike test.
If the stress test is to check the system’s sustainability over a period of time through a slow ramp-up in the number of users, it is called a soak test.
Stress Testing Goal:
The goal of stress testing is to analyze post-crash reports to define the behavior of the application after failure.
The biggest challenge is to ensure that the system does not compromise the security of sensitive data after the failure. In successful stress testing, the system will return to normality along with all its components even after the most terrible breakdown.
For Example,
A word processor like Writer1.1.0 by OpenOffice.org is utilized in the development of letters, presentations, spreadsheets, etc. The purpose of our stress testing is to load it with excess characters.
To do this, we will repeatedly paste a line of data, until it reaches its threshold limit of handling a large volume of text. As soon as the character size reaches 65,535 characters, it would simply refuse to accept more data.
The result of stress testing on Writer 1.1.0 produces a result that does not crash under stress and it handles the situation gracefully which ensures that the application is working correctly even under rigorous stress conditions.
Another Example of a load test which depicts a spike test through sudden ramp-up of 7000 users is shown below:
Frequently Asked Questions
Having had enough discussions about performance testing, stress testing, and load testing, let’s now look into some related frequent questions for which testers seek an answer.
Q #1) Is Load testing and Performance testing the same?
Answer: The answer to this is “No”. They are not the same.
By now you must have clearly understood the difference between performance testing and load testing. You can refer to the tabular summary below to see how performance and load testing have different objectives and scope attributes to the study and issues to uncover.
Q #2) Is it an unfair test to perform Stress testing at the same time while you perform load testing?
Answer: This is also a common question in many software testing interviews and certification exams as is it unfair to do stress testing and load testing parallelly? The answer to this is “No”. It is not unfair to do stress testing at the same time when you are doing load testing.
No test is ever unfair. As a tester, your job is to find issues. However, the actualities of software testing may apply and any issues that you detect in this situation may not be fixed.
Q #3) Is Recovery testing a part of Performance testing?
Answer: Yes, recovery testing is categorized under performance testing and at times it is also conducted with load testing. During recovery testing, it is accessed as how well an application is able to recover from faults, crashes, hardware failures, and other similar issues.
In this activity, the software is forced to fail and then it is verified if it is able to recover properly. For example, restarting the system suddenly when an application is running and then verifying the data integrity of the application.
Q #4) Does Performance testing require coding?
Answer: Performance testing does not require you to know the advanced level of coding. However, having a fundamental knowledge of programming is an added advantage.
For Example, if you are using JMeter, then it is good for you to know the fundamentals of Java. It can help you to debug certain things and you can also write your own script if required.
Q #5) What is Spike testing in Performance testing?
Answer: In spike testing, the load is abruptly increased or decreased by a huge number of users and later the system behavior is observed. Spike testing is mainly done to check if the system is able to handle sudden changes in the load.
Difference Between Load and Stress Testing
To summarize, let’s observe the major differences between load testing, stress testing as well as performance testing in the table below:
| Performance Testing | Load testing | Stress testing | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Domain | Superset of load and stress testing | A subset of performance testing. | A subset of performance testing. |
| Scope | Very wide scope. Includes - Load Testing, Stress Testing, capacity testing, volume testing, endurance testing, spike testing, scalability testing and reliability testing, etc. | Narrower scope as compared to performance testing. Includes volume testing and endurance testing. | Narrower scope as compared to performance testing. Includes soak testing and spike testing. |
| Major goal | To set the benchmark and standards for the application. | To identify the upper limit of the system, set SLA of the app and see how the system handles heavy load volumes. | To identify how the system behaves under intense loads and how it recovers from failure. Basically, to prepare your app for the unexpected traffic spike. |
| Load Limit | Both – below and above the threshold of a break. | Till the threshold of break | Above the threshold of break |
| Attributes studied | Resource usage, reliability, scalability, resource usage, response time, throughput, speed, etc. | peak performance, server throughput, response time under various load levels (below the threshold of break), adequacy of H/W environment, the number of user app can handle, load balancing requirements, etc. | Stability beyond bandwidth capacity, response time (above the threshold of break), etc. |
| Issues identified through this testing type | All performance bugs including runtime bloat, the scope for optimization, issues related to speed, latency, throughput, etc. Basically – anything related to performance! | Load balancing problems, bandwidth issues, system capacity issues, poor response time, throughput issues, etc. | Security loopholes with overload, data corruption issues at overload situation, slowness, memory leaks, etc. |
Difference Between Load, Stress and Volume Testing
By now we already know about the load and stress testing along with the differences between the two. Let’s now explore what volume testing is and how it is different from load testing and stress testing.
Volume testing is also a kind of performance testing that majorly focuses on the database.
In volume testing, it is checked as for how the system behaves against a certain volume of data. Thus, the databases are stuffed with their maximum capacity and their performance levels like response time and server throughput are monitored.
To keep it very simple, the difference between load, stress and volume testing is shown below:
| Volume testing | Load testing | Stress testing |
|---|---|---|
| A huge amount of data | A huge number of users | Too many users, too much data, towards system crash. |
Conclusion
In this tutorial, we have seen how performance testing, load testing & stress testing are different from each other and what is the scope of each testing type through simple examples.
We also had a brief look at many categories under performance testing like spike testing, recovery testing, volume testing, etc. and understood how each of these is different from one another.
We hope this tutorial will be of immense help for you to understand the practical difference between performance, load and stress testing.
Check out our upcoming tutorial to learn more about Functional Testing Vs Performance Testing.
=> Visit Here For Complete Performance Testing Tutorials Series
these are confusing terminologies especially when asked in interviews :) thanks for clearing the doubts.
All these testing types are very important for application stability and scalability. In agile testing environment most testers fails to perform performance testing, rather projects from the service industry don’t give much importance for performance.
The best and easiest to learn website load testing tool I found and used is JMeter.
Excellent. Thanks
It is very clear and easy to understand. Thanks you for posting such a nice blog.
Very informative and well explained.
well said by Vamsi these terms are always told to be like similar one but here lies the difference explained by you
Nice article…
Can you tell me that how to perform Stress, Load and performance testing. How we test admin?
Similarly can you explain below questions with simple explanation from interview point:
1. What is difference between Manual Testing and Automation Testing?
2. What is difference between Testing and QA?
3. How to approach for a QA/testing job?
WELL DEFINED AND DIFFERNTIATED. GOOD WORK.
Good work, these topics are always confuse us. But now it is clear. Please give brief on Unit, Integration, System, Acceptance and Regression testing. If anyone can do this I will thankful for that.
Very good artical on PSR testing. Its explained with exapmple in a simple language. Kindly post some more articals on this.
Nice article and good explanation
hi….nice article
Very nice article, simple explanation with easy to understand examples. Very good help for all especially for the beginners.
Excellent Article..!!!!
best Article …..
Excellent…….
very good example.provide few more for better understanding and ease.
nce gidence and good explan for software testing…….
Hi all
Can anybody tell me how to test a website in which
“iFrames” plays a very important role.
i mean few things that i must remember while testing
these kind of site ?
plz help me guys
people always confuse load and stress testing. sometimes the tests could be very similar, but like you said, the goal is different…
Sir,
Presently i ma working in non-it industry, having an experience of 5+ years in the non-it field.i am thinking shift into the software testing field.
Please guide me how can i proceed.
With regards
Jagadish
09777302953
hi all!
i am searching for interview questions that are been asked to experienced candidates.i mean those who alredy have experience of 1 yr-2 yrs.
wil b thankful.
thaxxxxx….its really help for us…
my doubt is ….. in companies separate roles will be there?
i mean performance tester?
load tester?
stress tester?
else all three are same..i have little bit confusion …. clarify anybody pls
Excellent…….
they are really usefull
Excellent
Please give me answers to these questions..
1) difference between retesting and regression testing with example?
2) what is STLC ?
3) when smoke & sanity testing is performed? please explain these with example.
PLEASE CONTACT ME AT 08065473432, CAN HELP YOU
Excellent
good
Nice explanation and good to understand
Very crisp, up to the point explanation.
It helps me learning Performance Testing.
Elegant description about testing
hi friends..
i am a telecom testing proffesional,i would like to make my career in TESTING in IT domain,kindly help me how can i proceed further
Thank you
Shalini dinavahi
Thank….it really helped me to clear the difference between the two…..
Thanks for a very informative article.
How can we do performance, stress and load testing without automation tool ?
Thanks for this bright explaination
good deffination
my doubt is ….. in companies separate roles will be there?
i mean performance tester?
load tester?
stress tester?
else all three are same..i have little bit confusion …. clarify anybody pls
Hi.. nice article..
I have a different view on the volume testing and endurance testing.
Volume testing is done with huge volume of data in the database keeping in mind, future growth in the data. Ideally we insert huge data in the database and do the testing. And Endurance testing is to test application stability for the extended time or duration. the main idea of endurance testing is to check for the memory leakage in the application. Ex: GC is happening properly without any issues..
Correct me if i m wrong.
Cheers :)
Great article but I agree to what Ravi said. Endurance testing is different from any amongst Performance, Load or Stress. Although I am still apprehensive by the definition of Volume testing given so far. Expert opinions welcomed!
hi, i have one year experience in manual testing and that too i have tested “education system software” i want to switch to finance and banking domain,from i can get knowledge in this domain so that i can clear interviews please help me
Excellent differeciation bw the terms……….
descriptin excelent,good contents,
Thanks for the Post
all the things are very nicely explained .
It’s really clear and understanderble.. Thanks a lot for this clear explanation :-D
I like this.
Thank you for every thing, specially for examples.
How to test the database stress testing (i.e. how to test affect of heavy data on application). any idea or tool please share.
Thanks in advance,
chetan
Wonderfully explained in a very comprehensive way. Thank you.
Nice and clear :)
hi, pls tell me Manual Testing logical question answer & ISTQB exam paper.
Hi Every one,
Am New to Performance Testing,
Am Working with VS2012 Ultimate Version.
I Have some doubts regarding,
What is Scalability?
What is Stability?
What is Stress Test?
and What are the major differences between these tests.
How to perform these tests on web appplication?
Looking for a better solutions..
Thanks in advance:)
Hi Every one,
any one can you please give me performance(load,stress,scalability,stress) test cases for windows application?
thanx….
can i have information about tools for performance testing when an application are access by so many users?
tell me, please. thank you
I recommend Automai’s Apploader. It uses robotic technology that accesses your app from the UI, so you don’t need to code or install anything on your application servers. Their platform also allows you to use the same scripts to do functional testing so you can get it all done easily.
Nice article even for an experienced tester or a beginner
Useful
Great
It is very useful to me , thank you…..
Hi Vijay,
Great article – thanks.
Who in your opinion are the 3 most respected independent 3rd party testing companies for perfomance, load and stress testing.
Cheers
Pierre
Very nicely and clearly described. Well orientation as these are the mostly asked questions, confusing and similar terms.
Examples are too self explanatory.
Thanks.
Hi sir,
you are articles are very nice and helpful for freshers and experience persons. i am from non it background i wnat to do performance testing.Can any one please reply me what are the skills reqired for a performance tester.
Regards,
krish.
good article really very helpfull thanku so much
I was very confused of those terms. Thank you for the very helpful article.
Love that. Thank You :)
Hi,
I faced this interview question yesterday.
Q. How are performance testing and load testing related?
Please explain how can i describe relationship between these two types of testing.
Thanks
Anamika
This is a very misleading article. I don’t know where you got this information from.
There is nothing called performance test as such, any test that is executed to validate performance of an application falls under various types of Performance test.
Load , Stress, Endurance and Volume tests are some of the types of Performance testing.
Load test is the simplest type of all the Performance tests. I request all the readers to searc for better resources to learn about Performance testing.
Load test is executed to validate if application is simply meeting the performance goals that were defined, when tested with a defined load, defined hardware and configurations.
Endurance tests are executed to uncover any performance issues that can only happened during prolonged periods of sustained load. One of the main reason to execute Endurance tests are to uncover memory leaks in the application code, which is hard to acheive in short duration tests.
Volume tests are executed in two cases_
1. To validate the application performance behavior with varying amounts of data volumes in the database or
2. To measure the applications ability to process large amounts of data, for example batch processing like generating payrolls in PDF format or importing large volumes of data from a File into database, etc
Stress tests are executed to identify the application behaviour when the application is subjected to a far greater load than it is expected to handle or designed to handle. Stress test usually is executed with more concurrent users than the target load and/or by sending more number of requests than the original target.
So, the branch of QA or Engineering which deals with identifying load characters, planning, identifying the required tests, creating scripts, executing tests, analyzing the results, preparing reports and providing the summary of performance issues, is called Performance testing. Performance test is not a test type, it is a generic name for any of the types of tests that are exeucted to validate performance and identify performance issues…
There are many good books, ebooks which provides you proper understanding of the Software Performance concepts. Always, go through the author credentials before reading their content.
Comments are even more valueable resources!
What is the difference between aging testing and stress testing?
Apica is a great site that helps with load testing, and they have a 30-day free trial, with no credit card information required.
Hi
I have little bit confuse between Load, Stress and Performance. Please can you explain about clearly.
I’ve never seen an article with so much nonsense in it.
Readers, please, please, please go elsewhere for your knowledge of performance testing
you’re Saying so true. I agree with you and please let me know if you know any other writer like him. Thanks
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I am interested in your opinion. Please point out the nonsense or incorrect information in it in order to let us know what is wrong. Thank you.
Nice Article
apply the functional testing concepts for the real time examples
apply the non functional testing concepts for the real time
examples
Hi All I have been attending performance testing interviews since last 3 months to collect all real time performance testing interview questions.If any one needs plz reach out at saishi219414@gmail.com.
Thanks
What is performance testing?
As you have written”This testing is the subset of performance engineering”.
Pls correct me if i am wrong”Performance engineering starts with performance testing and it ends with performance testing then performance engineering is asubset of performance testing but not “This testing is the subset of performance engineering”.”
very informative……..thanks a lot..so nicely explained
nice blog post. nicely describe to performance testing and load testing useful for me.complete guidance mentioned in it. thank you for sharing with us.
this is a very useful article.
thanks for the info.
This is really great explanations
Nice and clear! Love the relationship graph and the goals of each tests!