E-Consultancy in its 2011 report found that only 13% of the surveyed companies believe that they have done proper testing on their web application. With a large amount of information stored on web applications, it is crucial for organizations to carry out testing on a regular basis to ensure that the application is secured and also to withstand the heavy traffic when there are many users using the application at the same time.
Load testing an application is important as it assesses how the application will perform by simulating the application under real world conditions. It must be remembered that simple changes in the design can also have an effect on the performance of the web application. Take a look at some of the popular Load Testing tools available today:
1. NeoLoad
NeoLoad realistically simulates the activity of the user and can analyze the behavior of the server. It allows a tester to quickly and efficiently load test their application. Its major advantage is the ability of software testing firms to perform both in-house and Cloud testing and also the ability to move seamlessly to the Cloud.
2. The Grinder
A Java load testing tool, the Grinder makes it easy to perform distributed tests using many load injector machines. Scripts are written in Jython and Clojure languages and can be created by recording the actions of a user using the TCP Proxy which can then be hand customized.
3. WAPT
WAPT provides testers with a cost effective way to test web applications. It's easy to use features enables a tester to test any application from a business application to a web portal. WAPT can provide the results of the test within minutes and with access to graphs and reports, a tester can identify and fix the bottlenecks in the application.
4. Pylot
Pylot runs HTTP load tests and it measures the performance as well as the scalability of web applications. It generates the reports with metrics, verifies the server responses as well generating concurrent load.
