What users are saying about
133 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 8.8 out of 100
Based on 133 reviews and ratings
3 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 8 out of 100
Based on 3 reviews and ratings
Feature Set Ratings
Load Testing

8.1
JMeter
81%
IBM Rational Performance Tester
Feature Set Not Supported
N/A
Apache JMeter ranks higher in 5/5 features
Apache JMeter ranks higher in 5/5 features
End to end performance management

8.8
88%
21 Ratings
N/A
0 Ratings
Integrated performance data

8.2
82%
21 Ratings
N/A
0 Ratings
Deployment model flexibility

8.3
83%
20 Ratings
N/A
0 Ratings
Real time monitoring

8.0
80%
20 Ratings
N/A
0 Ratings
Automated anomaly detection

7.0
70%
17 Ratings
N/A
0 Ratings
Attribute Ratings
- Apache JMeter is rated higher in 1 area: Likelihood to Recommend
Likelihood to Recommend

9.0
JMeter
90%
38 Ratings
8.0
IBM Rational Performance Tester
80%
2 Ratings
Likelihood to Renew

8.6
JMeter
86%
12 Ratings
IBM Rational Performance Tester
N/A
0 Ratings
Usability

9.0
JMeter
90%
1 Rating
IBM Rational Performance Tester
N/A
0 Ratings
Availability

1.0
JMeter
10%
2 Ratings
IBM Rational Performance Tester
N/A
0 Ratings
Performance

8.0
JMeter
80%
2 Ratings
IBM Rational Performance Tester
N/A
0 Ratings
Support Rating

10.0
JMeter
100%
2 Ratings
IBM Rational Performance Tester
N/A
0 Ratings
Online Training

1.0
JMeter
10%
1 Rating
IBM Rational Performance Tester
N/A
0 Ratings
Likelihood to Recommend
JMeter
JMeter is well suited for Java applications where the user can script the scenario once and make changes to accommodate for as many numbers of users for load test execution. The image and selection of any files or exporting files scenario is handled well.
It is less appropriate to test Ajax applications where it is required to script click per use.

Verified User
Consultant in Information Technology
Information Technology and Services Company, 10,001+ employeesIBM Rational Performance Tester
Go for IBM RPT if:1. You're testing a Java-based Web application with HTTP protocol2. You wanted to distribute the load across machines easily 3. Your team is in learning phase/not really introduced to a wide range of performance testing toolsDo not go for IBM RPT if:1. You wanted to test REST or any other advanced protocols2. Your system under test demands a very high user load3. Your application is written in .NET or any other platform except Java.

Verified User
Engineer in Engineering
Information Technology and Services Company, 10,001+ employeesPros
JMeter
- Easy of use - in generate load like HTTP requests, and processing/analyzing the responses. No coding is necessary at the basic level, just need to understand load testing and the infrastructure being tested.
- Automatic management of things like cookies to help with session state support - so you don't specifically have to worry about it or handle it
- Lots of testing/configuration options to suit your needs in making the right load generation (sampling requests), and analyzing the results, including any pre and post processing of the results first. Things like the Beanshell/BSF pre/post processors, response assertion, regular expression extractor, XPath extractor, CSV data set config
- There is a JMeter cloud service called BlazeMeter that I think would be useful for those that need to scale up high load without provisioning their own systems. I've not personally tried it though, but I recently attended a meetup presentation that highlighted nice useful features that BlazeMeter provides. One should evaluate the service if they are considering JMeter and need to expand beyond existing hardware resources.
Software QA Engineer
ShutterflyInternet, 501-1000 employees
IBM Rational Performance Tester
- Live Monitoring of Performance Testing Metrics
- Easier Test Data Parameterization
- Performance Tests Scheduler
- Server Resource Monitoring
- Great Reports that can be Exported as HTML Reports
Lead Quality Engineer
SumergeComputer Software, 51-200 employees
Cons
JMeter
- Jmeter requires many tweaks with respect to its configuration file and thread properties. users need to edit theses files themselves. There could be some interface where we can edit this fields.
- Jmeter cannot handle more threads and hangs up when we increase the number of threads. This causes lot of inconvenience. In these situations, user can be notified that such change would be lead to slow performance so that user can do as required. The same appears when we try to view huge files on graph listener.
- Jmeter should optimize the read and write access to output csv since it acts as overhead to the I/O performance. This affects our test results for the application which we are testing.
Assistant Systems Engineer
SASComputer Software, 10,001+ employees
IBM Rational Performance Tester
- Memory utilization could have been improved.(Eats up system's RAM)! It may crash if a test is conducted with the heavy load if adequate RAM is not available in the VM/host machine.
- Licensing could have been made simpler. IBM's licensing method is difficult to follow.
- Support for protocols other than HTTP. Not really up to the current trend.

Verified User
Engineer in Engineering
Information Technology and Services Company, 10,001+ employeesPricing Details
JMeter
General
Free Trial
—Free/Freemium Version
Yes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—Entry-level set up fee?
No
Starting Price
—IBM Rational Performance Tester
General
Free Trial
—Free/Freemium Version
—Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—Entry-level set up fee?
No
Starting Price
—Likelihood to Renew
JMeter
JMeter 8.6
Based on 12 answers
Price, Wiki and user sharing. Having access to the information provided by the developers and other open source providers is key for me. The ability to share information and get answers directly is very important to success in software testing. And the price of this product currently is amazing. Too many companies charge way too much money for products that are far behind in their value and pertinence
Performance Test Engineer
Infinity InsuranceInsurance, 1001-5000 employees
IBM Rational Performance Tester
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Usability
JMeter
JMeter 9.0
Based on 1 answer
I can jump right into a new test plan and start building from scratch. The natural progression from test plan to thread group and then designing the basic format of the process is very streamlined and smooth. With only slight modifications I can build out a very complex model from a very basic beginning.
Performance Test Engineer
Infinity InsuranceInsurance, 1001-5000 employees
IBM Rational Performance Tester
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
JMeter
JMeter 10.0
Based on 2 answers
I have been using JMeter for the last year. By using this tool, you can make sure the system will work under varied loads. It helps us to simulate real time scenarios by creating required virtual users and make sure the application will work under load. Perform load, stress, and stability testing using JMeter.

Verified User
Engineer in Quality Assurance
Computer Software Company, 201-500 employeesIBM Rational Performance Tester
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
JMeter
I have used LoadRunner and Silkperformer, and so far Jmeter turns out be the easiest to use of all these. While each of them have their own ROI, Jmeter can be picked by anyone in hours and start testing within a day. While with other tools, we need to get license, install them (takes a while) and setup tests and firewalls, etc.

Verified User
Engineer in Quality Assurance
Computer Software Company, 5001-10,000 employeesIBM Rational Performance Tester
IBM Rational Performance Tester is better in many aspects when compared to Apache JMeter. For example, you have ready made scripts to assist you, You have better monitoring of different performance metrics and can generate better reports that can be exported as HTML. The only downside of IBM RPT is that it can be very costly at times while JMeter is for free which is a huge advantage. That's why we try using in our organization a combination of both as much as we can.
Lead Quality Engineer
SumergeComputer Software, 51-200 employees
Return on Investment
JMeter
- Good ROI on improving the performance of the application.
- Finding issues in the performance.
- Benchmark the performance results.
- CON: Need skillset to create and maintain the scripts in Java.
- Scripts are reusable and it is executed by any user.
- Need Client and Server setup to execute the scripts.

Verified User
Team Lead in Information Technology
Media Production Company, 10,001+ employeesIBM Rational Performance Tester
- Accuracy in metrics, thus improving system's performance
- Costs less compared to competitor like HP LoadRunner
- Helped the team of beginners learn things quickly

Verified User
Engineer in Engineering
Information Technology and Services Company, 10,001+ employees