When you develop a website or an app, preparing for the worst is your utmost priority. Performance testing tools or load testing tools ensure that your website or application can perform at its best performance despite peak traffic and extreme stress conditions.

Below is a comprehensive list of the popular performance testing tools for measuring performance and load capacity. These tools will ensure that your application will perform at its best even in the worst case scenario.
WAPT


WAPT is a performance testing tool made for websites and intranet application. WAPT or Web Application Performance Tool is a compilation of scales and analysis tools for measuring the performance and output of any web application or web-related interfaces.

What is great about WAPT is that it is very simple to use. Unlike other performance testing tools, WAPT has a fully customizable set of virtual users so you can simulate an almost real-life load. WAPT also lets you test scenarios that can be detailed or unique for each individual user.

WAPT, like all other performance testing software tool is designed to generate the maximum load to the website you are testing. However, what makes WAPT an impressive tool is its ability to use a number of techniques that make it as close to real-life scenario as possible. If all your tests pass, you'll be certain that your site or application will perform at its best in real-time usage.

WAPT is offered in free a pro version. Both of these version comes with a free 30-day trial pack. During the period, you are allowed for up to 20 virtual users. Paying for the pro version will give you up to 2,000 concurrent virtual users which is the best metrics if you need to test the app in real-world situations.
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Loadster


Loadster is a load testing tool made for websites, web services, and web applications. Loadster will simulate and predict how web applications behave under heavy load. It tests the website or web application's performance, stability, and scalability using a number of simulated users that will interact to the site and doing whatever activities real users are expected to do.

What is great about Loadster is that a web browser can be used to record the scripts. Using the GUI, you can modify the script with dynamic variables to validate the response. You also have control over bandwidth and simulate the number of users that will be accessing your site. When the test is complete, Loadster will give you an HTML report for further analysis.
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LoadUI


LoadUI is a free and open source load testing tool that allows you to do complex load and performance test by simply dragging and dropping the available components. LoadUI consists of building blocks called components. These components can be dragged from the toolbar and dropped at the project you are working on. Each component can be connected to each other by wires, so there is no limit on how many components you can create and connect.

These drag and drop components make it easier for testing a variety of load tests. You can try different variations of the test and react to it almost immediately. Instant feedback is what is great about this tool.
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Testing Anywhere


Testing Anywhere is a powerful automated testing, web testing and software testing tool that can automate just about anything. It has an easy to use GUI-based recording capabilities that even if you don't know how to code, you can set up tests in an instant. To fine tune the settings, Testing Anywhere also comes with an editor that allows you to edit the criteria according to your needs.

Testing Anywhere allows 5 innovative ways to develop a test:

Object recorder
2. Advanced recorder
3. SMART Test recorder
4. Image Recognition
5. Editor

Aside from the desktop version, Testing Anywhere is also available in Android and iOS platforms for mobile-based testing.
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ManageEngine


ManageEngine (formerly QEngine) is an automated testing tool for your website or web application's performance and load resistance. ManageEngine is one of the most common and easy to use performance testing tool. Most developers find it to be the simplest tool for finding leakage in web services and websites.

One of the best feature of ManageEngine is it's ability to perform remote testing. You can do a testing of your app or website from any geographical location. ManageEngine is free to use. So if you want a quick simulation of users for performance testing, this tool is best for you.
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LoadRunner


LoadRunner is a load testing tool from Hewlett-Packard(HP). It is a powerful scripting tool that record user actions programmatically. Unlike most load testing software, LoadRunner has a much useful understanding in determining the performance and the outcome of the system in an actual load.

One of the best features of LoadRunner is that you can create a lot of users at a time. This will enable you to gather all the needed information based on the number of virtual users you have and the infrastructure you have it setup on.

However, LoadRunner is not for beginners. You won't be able to learn the tool on your first try, and it would require a dozen of tests and going onto manuals to be able to harness the full potential of the software. Thankfully, HP has extensive documentation and support services that can guide us along the way.

LoadRunner isn't free, but it is available has a 30-day free trial version.
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NeoLoad


NeoLoad is a load and performance testing software for websites and web apps. It has all the features you need to carry out tests and analyze the results all in this easy to use software. This tool analyzes the performance of your website by increasing the traffic load to the website. In this way, you can determine the performance of your website even under extreme stress. NeoLoad is used to realistically simulate user activity and monitor server behavior.

With NeoLoads technology, you can perform web testing quickly and efficiently which means you can deploy your website as fast as you can test it.
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CloudTest


CloudTest from SOASTA is a performance testing tool made for website and web application. It is a cloud-based load testing tool that provides the following:

Lets you choose Load Generators from the list of cloud providers and instance types; therefore, it offers more flexibility in the number of load generators needed in the test.
Offers bandwidth and latency simulation.
Has the ability to perform add or remove users during the test.
Offers real time monitoring and analysis.

However, CloudTest does not integrate with third-party tools or custom tools to monitor the servers at Method level. This could be very useful for pinpointing common server issues.
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LoadImpact


LoadImpact is another cloud-based load testing tool that helps you in improvising the workings of any web application. This tool generates traffic to the website by simulating users so it can find the stress and maximum load. LoadImpact is comprised of two main parts: Load testing and page analyzer.

Load testing is comprised of three parts: Fixed, Ramped Up and Timeout. Page Analyzer works the same way as a web browser would and gives you the statistics of a website.

You can distribute the load geographically while watching and controlling your load tests in real time. You can also generate reports with multiple measurement metrics for easy correlation.

LoadImpact is free to try with some limited features. For instance, the use of 5 credits per month is free, but enough to do a test to a small site. If you need credits the minimum is 25 credits and it costs around $60. For enterprise-class websites, you'll require around 100 credits.
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Appvance


Appvance is a broad-scale platform testing tool targeted for enterprise clients that performs load testing on apps from the beginning up to the end. It is the only load testing platform that offers begginning to end testing and performance validation of mobile apps, social apps, HTML5 apps and corporate apps. With appvance, expect the following:

Faster testing. Appvance is the only platform that offers first third generation automated test platform. Based on your setup or configuration, Appvance can test apps and web services around 5x up to 10x faster than most load testing solutions.

Full beginning to end testing. Appvance don't just offer simple tests. Appvance uses real browsers that fire up on thousands of servers to create load and actual transaction times at UX level.

Fully Agile. Appvance is fully agile from the ground up. The platform generates reports seamlessly into the repository one at a time.

uxAvatar. Appvance's uxAvatar is a patent-pending technology that is the first of it's kind to fully engage all elements with advanced record and playback capabilities for a more functional performance testing. uxAvatar doesn't just utilize the simple recording of mouse movements, instead they inject a JavaScript code into the browser under recording and watch the record as it happens. With this feature, testers can create dozens of use cases, place into complex scenarios, and store the tests. You can reuse the test by simply dragging the database to where it is needed.
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