Load Tests: Locust vs Jmeter

	Jmeter	Locust
In-built Protocols Support	HTTP FTP JDBC SOAP LDAP TCP JMS SMTP POP3 IMAP	HTTP, but ability to add a customise protocol
Speed to write tests	Slow	Fast
Support of “Test as Code”	GUI oriented Possibility to create scripts, but too complex and lack of documentation Weak (Java) Hard to maintain	Scripts oriented Strong (Python) Easier to maintain
Ramp-up Flexibility	Plugins available to be able to configure flexible load	Ability to specify a linear load only (so no complex scenarios)
Test Results Analyzing	Yes	Yes
Resources Consumption	Heavy to run tests with multiple users on a single machine, more memory consumption	Light to run tests with multiple users on a single machine, less memory consumption Doesn’t take up so many of your machines’ resources.
Easy to use with Version Control Systems	No	Yes
Number of Concurrent Users	Thousands, under restrictions	Thousands
Recording Functionality	Yes	No
Distributed Execution	Yes	Yes
Load Tests Monitoring	Add listeners, but consume more memory	Ability to monitor a basic load

Jmeter is most used when:

• You need to perform a complex load including different protocols
• If you need the script recording functionality
• If you need to simulate specific load with some custom ramp-up patterns
• If you just prefer UI desktop app for scripts creation, or you just do not know Python well enough

Locust solves some specific problems:

• You can write performance scripts pretty fast
• Push to your VCS and easily maintain the scripts
• Spend minimum time on maintenance without additional GUI applications
• Simulate thousands of test users on local machine without the need to have multiple slaves