Load testing software is an evaluation tool for determining how an application will perform as the work level approaches the limits of the application's specifications. The primary goal of load testing is to define the maximum amount of work a system can handle without performance slipping significantly. The process of increasing the load beyond its known capacity and seeing how that load affects the application is sometimes called stress testing.
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Load testing tools are a subset of performance testing software, but load testing is one of the most important aspects of overall testing. There is much overlap between the two categories in terms of product coverage. Load testing is the simplest form of performance testing and is designed to test system behavior under expected loads.
This is different from stress testing, which is about overloading systems until they break to understand the outer performance limits. In contrast, load testing ensures a software application or physical network can handle user requests encountered under ordinary operating circumstances.
This activity is typically performed at, or close to, the end of the production cycle so that multi-user load simulations are more accurate. Individual components of an application might also be load tested as part of the development cycle, for example in agile development. However, this is generally referred to as functional testing.
Load testing enables users to evaluate application performance metrics, such as response times, resource-utilization levels, and throughput rates, under ‘normal’ circumstances.
These are features that most load testing tools will have:
Multilocation load testing
Web application testing
API load testing
Database load testing
Mail load testing
Load test performance reporting
Load test plan/script customization
Support for load testing using a range of protocols (e.g. AngularJS, Flash, AJAX, HTML5, JavaScript, SOAP, JSON, WebAPI, WebSockets, etc.)
Many load testing tools are open-source and free to use.
Paid load testing tools are often combined with functional, performance, or stress testing tools, and are presented as a ‘testing platform. These platforms are typically priced on a monthly subscription basis, prices can range from $15 / mo to $175 / mo for more advanced plans. Prices for enterprise level solutions are available upon request.