JMeter Vs LoadRunner: Which is the Better Tool for Performance Testing?
Starting with performance testing, it’s a testing measure that’s responsible for evaluating the speed, responsiveness and stability of a computer, network, software program or device under a workload. Organisations practice performance testing to spot basic performance bugs and bottlenecks in their applications and software.
Our IT industry today is full of software testing services providers that can help you choose the right tools available for both commercial as well as open-source usage.
Two of the common user’s choice performance testing tools available in the market are Apache JMeter and HP LoadRunner. Both these applications work amazingly well when it comes to detecting bugs or identifying common performance issues in your applications and software under load testing.
Though to clearly state which performance testing tool is better than the other is a tricky question, in this article our approach would be to compare the basic features, advantages and disadvantages and various performance testing parameters to be able to decide which of these testing tools is the best suited for your project type.
Introduction to Apache JMeter
The Apache JMeter is a pure Java-based open-source software that’s designed to load test functional behaviour and measure the performance of your application in response to the generated stimuli. This app was originally designed for testing web applications but has expanded to other test functions ever since.
Let’s have a closer look at the Pros and Cons of Apache JMeter Testing tool
Pros of JMeter
- JMeter is easy to install on any desktop with windows, mac or Linux and free to use
- It has the most user-friendly interface or can be easily used in a command-line interface
- JMeter can easily extract data from any data formats like HTML, JSON, XML or text-based formats into its system
- JMeter has ready to use plugins that can be used for visualization and data analysis
- It enables test recording for native applications and browsers
- JMeter can be easily integrated with plug-ins and third-party tools
- It’s highly extensible and portable
- JMeter has unlimited load generation capacity and comes with an excellent support community
Cons of JMeter
- The tool is not that easy to use, which means it requires skilled testing analysts to do the job
- It doesn’t support JavaScript and by extension doesn’t automatically support AJAX requests which makes it difficult to run codes written in java through the system
- It’s difficult to test complex applications like CSRF, or JS to alter requests with JMeter
- JMeter consumes too much memory in GUI mode due to which it shows a lot of errors to a lot of users.
- It’s less proficient than other paid testing tools available in the market
Introduction to HP LoadRunner
A testing tool given by Micro Focus, Loadrunner tests applications, measures system behaviour and performance under load. It can simulate a lot of users simultaneously using application software, recording and later analyzing the performance of key components of the application
Read our blog on Performance Testing Vs Load Testing to know more about the basic differentiator points between the two popular forms of testing types
With the basic intro being set, we’ll move ahead to know about the pros and cons of both these performance testing tools respectively
Let’s have a closer look at the Pros and Cons of HP LoadRunner Testing tool
Pros of LoadRunner
Here are some key advantages that stand out the most for LoadRunner
- LoadRunner can accurately detect system level, end-user and code-based bottlenecks present in the code and purpose fixtures
- It helps minimise the cost of application downtime by determining the root cause of application performance issues
- It allows testing of legacy software with updated technologies
- Allows easy mobile application testing
- LoadRunner helps reduce software and hardware cost by intimating its users about the exact capacity and scalability of its software
- It enables teams to develop intelligent service-level agreements before their product goes live
- It gives its users short test cycles that help accelerate application delivery on global test resources
- It enables optimal usage of load generators and gives better results of load testing
- Optimal usage of load generator farm
Cons of LoadRunner
- Its way more expensive compared to other testing tools available in the market
- Its debugging features need basic improvements to give better results
- LoadRunner crashes a lot in cases when the system is unable to meet computing requirements
- Its uses a lot of memory space and has significant compatibility issues with other frameworks
- It has a limited amount of load generation capacity
Comparison between JMeter vs LoadRunner:
Having compared the pros and cons of Apache JMeter and HP LoadRunner separately now let’s focus on basic parameters of comparison between the two performance testing tools in detail.
Looking at the market trends it can be noted that JMeter is much more popular in the testing tools market as compared to LoadRunner. To crosscheck, we did a google trends analysis for the two terms LoadRunner and Apache JMeter and the results we received can be seen below:
Source: Google Trends
As it can be seen, though LoadRunner is quickly picking pace, JMeter remains to be more searched term on the internet and acquires a stronger position in the market.
Let’s analyse the two testing tools better by comparing its features on eight different parameters mentioned below:
Concluding…
As noticed above, both JMeter and LoadRunner are effective performance testing tools used by a majority of leading performance testing companies. JMeter being open source has larger popularity compared to LoadRunner but the features offered in HP LoadRunner surpasses JMeter’s open-source benefits.
If your project has budget limitations then opting for Apache JMeter is a better idea. On the other hand, if your company can afford to shell out some dollars then LoadRunner can deliver better performance testing results along with in-depth bottleneck detection and root cause analysis along with other advanced testing features that are not available in JMeter.
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