STATIC COMPARISON / TIER B
Artillery vs LoadRunner Professional
Answer Artillery is an open source, self-hosted protocol and API load tool from Artillery Software, scripted in JavaScript, TypeScript. LoadRunner Professional is a commercial, self-hosted enterprise performance suite from OpenText, scripted in C, JavaScript, C#. The practical split is the cost model: Artillery is open source, LoadRunner Professional is commercial.
Curator verdict
Both cover HTTP, HTTPS, WebSocket. On recorded coverage LoadRunner Professional is the wider of the two (6 protocols against 5), which matters only if your workload actually uses the extra ones. Budget and procurement usually settle Artillery against LoadRunner Professional before any benchmark does. Run the same scenario on both before you standardize; the rows below only tell you what is true on paper.
Spec matrix
| Field | Artillery | LoadRunner Professional |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | Artillery Software | OpenText |
| Category | Protocol/API Load | Enterprise Suite |
| License | Open Source | Commercial |
| Deployment | Self-hosted | Self-hosted |
| Status | Active | Active |
| First released | 2016 | 1993 |
| Pricing | Free open-source core; commercial cloud features available. | Commercial license; request a quote. |
| Scripting | JavaScript, TypeScript | C, JavaScript, C# |
| Protocols | HTTP, HTTPS, WebSocket, Socket.IO, MQTT | HTTP, HTTPS, WebSocket, SAP, Citrix, Oracle |
| OS support | Windows, macOS, Linux | Windows, Linux |
How to choose
- Choose Artillery if you need a free, self-supported stack (Free open-source core; commercial cloud features available).
- Choose LoadRunner Professional if you can fund a commercial license for vendor support (Commercial license; request a quote).
- Only Artillery records support for Socket.IO, MQTT — one hard requirement there decides the pair on its own.
- Only LoadRunner Professional records support for SAP, Citrix, Oracle — one hard requirement there decides the pair on its own.
- Match the authoring language to the team: Artillery means JavaScript, TypeScript, LoadRunner Professional means C, JavaScript, C#.
- Open the Test Rig to compare license, deployment, protocol and OS rows side by side.
Need more than two tools or a shareable matrix? Use the live Test Rig from the directory compare tray.
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