Introducing Load Tester LITE™
We frequently hear this question from customers during the evaluation/purchase process: “How do I know if Load Tester can generate the load I need?” We knew that question would be even more common when we released Load Tester 5, because it allows users to load test 1 million users. So to answer this question, we created a new version of Load Tester.
Load Tester LITE™ allows unlimited load generation for free. It has been suggested that LITE is a poor name for a load testing tool that can generate enough load to take down the vast majority of websites – and I cannot disagree with that. But product is lite in other ways, so we’re sticking with it.
If you need to prove the load generating capabilities of Load Tester before making a purchase, then Load Tester LITE™ will allow you to do this.
Can I run real load tests with it?
Yes. You can use it to throw massive amounts of traffic at your website. While we created it specifically for validating Load Tester’s massive load testing capabilities, it is also useful for testing your bandwidth capacity, firewalls, load balancers, web servers and many non-interactive web pages (e.g. homepages).
So, what’s the catch?
- No server monitoring (via Load Tester).
- Public servers cannot be tested (unless you can verify ownership via our portal).
- Only static requests can be made to the server - each request in a test scenario will be issued exactly as it was recorded (except for cookies and SSL). This means that multiple logins cannot be tested.
- Only a community support forum is provided for LITE (we make no guarantees about the response time for technical questions).
Is it really free?
Yes. Register with our portal to get a license key to activate the LITE version. There is zero cost if you provide the load-generating hardware. If you wish to use our cloud engines to generate load, then hourly usage charges will apply. Don’t forget to validate domain ownership while you are there, if you intend to test publicly accessible servers (see the Domains section).
Chris Merrill, Chief Engineer
About Chris
When his dad brought home a Commodore PET computer, Chris was drawn into computers. 7 years later, after finishing his degree in Computer and Electrical Engineering at Purdue University, he found himself writing software for industrial control systems. His first foray into testing software resulted in an innovative control system for testing lubricants in automotive engines. The Internet grabbed his attention and he became one of the first Sun Certified Java Developers. His focus then locked on performance testing of websites. As Chief Engineer for Web Performance since 2001, Chris now spends his time turning real-world testing challenges into new features for the Load Tester product.