Siege

Siege

Siege is an open source load testing and benchmarking utility for web applications. It allows developers to put load on a web server to test application stability and performance under heavy load.
Siege image
load-testing benchmarking web-application

Siege: Open Source Load Testing and Benchmarking Utility

Test web applications stability and performance under heavy load with Siege, an open source tool for load testing and benchmarking.

What is Siege?

Siege is an open source load testing and benchmarking utility designed specifically to test web applications. It allows developers to simulate a large number of concurrent users accessing a web application to test its performance and stability under heavy load.

Some key features of Siege include:

  • Ability to simulate hundreds or thousands of concurrent users from a single machine
  • Flexible configuration of user scenarios and access patterns
  • Text-based output for statistics like response times, transaction rates, concurrence levels, and response status
  • Authentication support with GET, POST, Basic Auth, Cookies, etc.
  • SSL/TLS support
  • Customizable HTTP header values
  • Docker support for easier cloud deployments
  • Scriptable using command files for automated tests

Siege is often used for capacity planning, benchmarking against alternative solutions, analyzing application bottlenecks, and monitoring web application performance over time. It is free and open source, available for Linux, Solaris, and macOS platforms.

Siege Features

Features

  1. Load testing
  2. Stress testing
  3. Benchmarking
  4. HTTP/HTTPS protocol support
  5. Authentication support
  6. Concurrent virtual users
  7. Customizable test scenarios
  8. Command line interface
  9. Detailed performance metrics

Pricing

  • Open Source

Pros

Open source

Lightweight and easy to use

Cross-platform

Highly customizable

Can simulate thousands of concurrent users

Good for testing app scalability

Cons

Limited reporting compared to commercial tools

Steep learning curve

Only supports web apps, not other services

No GUI

Can underestimate large-scale production loads


The Best Siege Alternatives

Top Development and Testing and other similar apps like Siege

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