Website Stress Test Explained: Definition, Process, and Tools

website stress test


To ensure stable and robust performance of your website under any circumstances, it is important to test it thoroughly before the official launch. But how do you know if your website is ready for real-life traffic load? That’s where stress testing comes into play.

It is a process of testing a website under extreme loads with an aim to analyse its performance and detect areas for improvement. In this article, we will walk you through the main aspects of how to stress test website and will explain what tools are most commonly used for this process.

What is stress testing?

Stress testing is a subtype of performance testing and is aimed at observing how software performs under extreme conditions (“under stress”). By extreme conditions we mean very high traffic loads that go beyond normal operating conditions. The main goal of a website stress test is to identify the maximum load the app can handle before failing.

For example, the stress testing services help our clients identify what bottlenecks or issues cause an app to fail and how its resilience can be increased via a powerful stress testing solution. This process is incredibly useful since it helps prepare the website for the launch and ensure that it won’t crush under the real-world traffic. As well, when you stress test website, you make it more secure and improves user experience via elimination of bottlenecks and errors.

The main benefits of stress testing

After defining the process, we can identify the following benefits of implementing this process:

  • Identification of the breaking points and proactive approach to their elimination;
  • Improved performance of the website and reduced chances of its failure after the release;
  • Improved user experience due to the elimination of issues and improved reliability;
  • Testing of disaster recovery plans and their timely improvement;
  • Early detection of security vulnerabilities and their effective resolution.

Stress testing metrics and deliverables

To ensure that the website stress test is successful, it is important to set clear metrics and deliverables and measure them during the whole process. Let’s first look at the metrics. 

Stress testing metrics are aimed at analyzing different aspects of a website: its performance, response time, and failures. Each aspect includes several metrics to pay close attention to. For example, when monitoring the response time of your website, you will measure the hit time and the page time. When monitoring failures, pay double attention to failed connections and failed hits.

As for the deliverables, you should expect the following measurable results from stress testing: test scripts, user scenarios, selected specialized tools, required load profiles, and metrics. By having these clear goals, you will be able to more effectively plan your testing process.

When do you need a website stress test?

As you can see, stress testing helps prepare your website for the official release and ensure that it will perform as expected. But website release is not the only case when you need stress testing. Let’s look at other cases:

  • After big updates: changes in the website architecture or code often create performance challenges or cause unexpected issues. To ensure that the system remains stable and functioning, testig is needed.
  • During high traffic times: holidays and events (Black Friday, Christmas) always mean a flood of traffic to websites. Hence, double-check that your website can handle the expected traffic via a heavy load stress test.
  • When scaling: if you plan to grow your website, the traffic will naturally increase. Prepare for it in advance by performing a web traffic test and testing the website performance under high traffic loads and fix any possible bottlenecks in advance.
  • During the migration process: same as with update implementation, migration to a new infrastructure may cause performance issues that need to be monitored and addressed.
  • In case of unexpected issues: problems like sudden crashes or poor, inconsistent performance can also be signs that the website can’t handle the load efficiently. In this case, stress testing will help you better understand what is the root cause of the problem.

Stress testing methods

There are several types of stress testing, each aimed at checking a specific aspect of the system’s performance. Let’s quickly review each of these:

Distributed stress testing: the process is performed by multiple clients (and even from multiple locations), hence, the load is distributed. It helps identify if any clients have issues or bottlenecks.

Exploratory stress testing: uses unusual conditions, such as missing data, to explore weak points and to find vulnerabilities in unexpected scenarios. Usually, it simulates conditions that are unlikely to happen in real life or are highly unexpected. 

Systemic stress testing: means that several systems run simultaneously on the same server. Helps detect an issue when the data of one app blocks the data of the other.

Top tools for performing stress tests

Now let’s look at the most popular tools used in stress testing services that not only automate the whole process but offer rich functionality to perform various testing types and obtain accurate results.

Apache JMeter

JMtere is an open-source tool used to load test functional behavior, as defined on the official website. The tool helps test the performance of static and dynamic resources and offers a rich array of features. JMeter covers various test types (stress, load, functional) and has a 100% Java purity. Note though that to use JMeter, you need to have a JDK 5 or higher.

LoadView

A cloud-based tool for load testing, LoadView is great for checking all sorts of web apps, such as web pages, web applications, and web services. It also supports JMeter, thus creating a holistic testing environment. One more big benefit of LoadView is that users don’t have to worry about managing cloud network as the system does it for them. To ensure accurate results, LoadView uses real browsers and EveryStep Web Recorder for scripting user interactions.

BlazeMeter

BlazeMeter is another cloud-based tool that not only enables seamless load and stress testing but also integrates with the most common CI/CD tools. This allows you to perform continuous testing, thus identifying any threats and vulnerabilities early and before your product is released. BlazeMeter is known for being extremely user-friendly and scalable, thus suitable fot projects of any size and complexity.

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