Apache JMeter vs Selenium: The Key Difference
Every business wants to launch a product that does not have pesky bugs. But to get there, it is crucial to test your applications to ensure that it works seamlessly across different browsers, devices, and platforms. When it comes to automation, it is again vital to pick the right automation tool to automate your tests.
Selenium is an open-source browser automation framework, whereas JMeter is an open-source Java application used to analyze the performance of web applications. Both these tools have different scopes in modern testing. This article will discuss the JMeter vs Selenium differences, their pros and cons, and which is right for what scenario.
Table Of Contents
What is JMeter?
Apache JMeter is an open-source Java software developed by Apache Software Foundation to test web applications. You can use this to test the web application’s functional behavior and measure the overall performance.
It is efficient to perform load testing, functional testing, performance testing, and stress testing. And it can test the static and dynamic resources of a web application. If you’re thinking, what could these resources be? The dynamic resources can be Servlets, AJAX, and JSP. The static resources are DOM elements such as HTML and JavaScript.
For example, consider a situation where a company has to test its application for 10000 users logging in at the same time. It is not possible for a company to hire 100 manual testers and buy multiple machines to test this scenario. In such cases, manual testing is impossible if you’re looking for a quick and cost-effective method. But you can easily automate this using JMeter, which supports performance and load testing.
Advantages of JMeter
Here are some of the top benefits offered by JMeter,
- It is easy to use as it offers a friendly User Interface.
- Not much coding knowledge is required.
- It is highly scalable and can run concurrent tests simultaneously.
- You can just run the *bat file to use JMeter. It does not require much installation process.
- JMeter is cross-compatible and works on all operating systems.
- It supports multiple protocols like HTTP, LDAP, FTP, SOAP, JDBC, and JMS.
- You can view the test results in multiple formats like chart, table, tree, and log file.
- You can easily integrate with Selenium and Bean Shell for automated testing.
- JMeter offers different plugins and features that are free of charge.
- It is open-source and available for free.
- It lets you execute using CLI and GUI modes.
- Clients can get dedicated support via the JMeter community.
- It allows integration with top CI/CD tools.
- You can create a test plan easily using the record and play feature.
- It supports Load testing, Stress testing, API testing, Functional Testing, MQ testing, Distributed Testing, Database Testing, and Performance testing with ease.
Areas of Application – JMeter
JMeter is highly functional for stress testing and load testing. It identifies the maximum load a web application can handle. It then provides the performance reports in various graphical formats. Now, let’s see how JMeter can perform load and stress testing,
Load Testing: JMeter can simulate multiple user access. Using this, you can test your web application for multiple user access to the server concurrently. This lets you easily identify how many users your web application can support at once.
Stress Testing: JMeter checks the maximum load-bearing capability of an application by applying more stress to it than its capacity. It helps you identify the maximum load capacity a web server can handle.
What is Selenium?
Selenium is an open-source framework that can automate the testing of web applications. You can run it on all the popular browsers, platforms, and programming languages. It can automate cross-browser testing of web applications but can not support testing for mobile applications.
Selenium is made of different components that facilitate in performing different test automation tasks. The most widely used components are Selenium WebDriver and Selenium IDE. The IDE is a browser extension that you can easily install on your browser and automate tests and selenium webdriver is used to facilitate execution of user actions on browsers.
Advantages of Selenium
- Selenium is cross-compatible and works well on all operating systems like Windows, Linux, Mac OS, Unix, and more.
- It can run on all the web browsers like Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Opera, and, Safari.
- It allows parallel test execution on multiple browsers
- Selenium supports all the top programming languages like JavaScript, Java, PHP, Ruby, C#, and Python.
- It can easily integrate with popular CI/CD tools.
- It is an open-source framework and is available for free
- You can perform cross-browser testing, regression testing, functional testing, and more.
- Selenium Server lets you run tests on local and remote machines.
Areas of Application – Selenium
Selenium is the most used automation testing tool for web applications. It can be useful for various testing scenarios. Using Selenium, you can perform,
Acceptance testing – This testing helps identify if a product meets the user’s requirements. You can do this easily by simulating user behavior in Selenium.
Functional testing – This testing helps check if a product works efficiently without any errors like 404 errors, exceptions, redirections, or any.
Regression testing – Regression testing helps re-run tests to ensure the application works fine even after a code change, update, or new improvements in the product.
Cross-browser testing – Selenium allows you to automate cross-browser testing across various browsers like Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera, and Edge. Selenium is capable of performing various testing other than the ones mentioned above. It lets you write test scripts using any of the top programming languages like Java, Ruby, PHP, C#, Python, and JavaScript. But it works only for web applications.
To use Selenium, you have to install IDE and Selenium files to execute test scripts.
JMeter and Selenium Integration
You can integrate JMeter and Selenium for load testing of web applications. Selenium helps perform load testing, and JMeter helps measure the performance of the same. Using this, users can analyze how quickly a web page loads and check the CSS and JavaScript performances.
You can integrate Selenium with JMeter using the following methods,
1. WebDriver Plugin supportYou can integrate JMeter with Selenium using WebDriver Plugin support. To do this, you should install the JMeter Plugin Manager.
2. Integrate Selenium with JMeterYou can integrate the Selenium scripts into the JMeter. You can export the Selenium Script jars from Eclipse and place them in the Junit folder. For example, apache-jmeter-5.2.1\lib\junit\seleniumtest.jar
JMeter vs Selenium: Core Differences
This JMeter vs Selenium table shows the difference between these tools,
| JMeter | Selenium |
| It is an open-source Java application for load and performance testing | It is an open-source test automation framework for functional and cross-browser testing |
| It does not support cross-browser testing | It is excellent for cross-browser automation testing |
| It mainly supports Java | It supports programming languages like Java, JavaScript, Ruby, PHP, C#, and Python |
| You do not need a browser to run JMeter | You will require a browser to run Selenium |
| Little to no knowledge of coding is required to use JMeter | It requires coding knowledge to write Selenium test scripts |
| Available for free | Available for free |
| It is used to check the heavy load added to the web server | It helps in checking the browser compatibility of applications |
| It helps identify the maximum load a web server can handle and provides performance reports | Test report is not generated by default |
JMeter vs Selenium: Which to Use and When
Though JMeter and Selenium are used for testing web applications. Each tool is best for different testing scenarios, as discussed below,
Selenium
Selenium is best for the functional testing of a web application. It is used to identify bugs in the initial phase of development, which helps in the fast development and delivery of web applications. It can be used to perform regression testing, functional testing, integration testing, cross-browser testing, and more.
To use Selenium, you need to be aware of the installation and setup process required to build and execute Selenium projects. Also, you should know how to use an IDE like Eclipse, download test frameworks like TestNG, and more.
It is best suited when you’re highly proficient in any of the programming languages like Java, Ruby, JavaScript, Python, .NET, C#, and more.
Apache JMeter
JMeter has a friendly UI and is easier to use. It is highly preferred when you have to check the overall performance of a web application when multiple users access it. Meaning JMeter is efficient for load and stress testing of web applications.
Load testing with JMeter helps you identify the maximum load the server can handle when users access it concurrently. Stress testing helps you identify how much load a server can bear and beyond what load the server might crash.
What if you need to test your mobile applications too?
Both the tools mentioned above are excellent for web applications. They cannot test whether your mobile application is compatible with various devices and platforms like Android or iOS. Also, Selenium requires strong coding skills, different tool installation, and a setup process to execute tests.
The Best Alternative – Testsigma
Testsigma enables you to automate your mobile app testing process too, along with your web applications. You can easily automate your web app, mobile app, and API testing. It is cost-efficient, and you do not require a large testing team to automate your testing. It allows you to save your device space and time.
Testsigma is the best choice if you’re looking for a tool that does not require much coding skills or does not need any installation process. Using our cloud automation platform, you can quickly execute and store tests on the cloud.
It is simple and easy to use as you don’t have to write test scripts using any programming language. You can write test steps using simple English, which makes your testing 5x faster.
It also offers a Chrome browser extension. Testsigma Recorder is a free browser extension that allows you to record actions, store the steps in plain English, and execute them directly on the cloud.
It easily integrates with CI/CD tools, bug tracking, and other tools that complete your delivery pipeline. Try the 21-day free trial and automate your tests on the cloud easily.
Testsigma is also available as an open source and free version.
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Conclusion
You can use both JMeter and Selenium for web testing. Both these tools help perform different types of testing for web applications. Selenium is most suitable for functional and cross-browser testing while JMeter is most suitable for scaling that functional and cross-browser testing to large scale to be able to perform load and performance testing.
I hope this JMeter vs Selenium comparison will help you select the best web app testing tool based on your testing requirements. If you’re looking to automate testing for mobile apps or APIs along with your web tests too then you need to use Testsigma, which lets you automate all these tests from the same place.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is best Selenium or JMeter?
You can use both JMeter and Selenium for web application testing. The major difference between these tools is that you can use Selenium for cross-browser automation testing, and JMeter is used for performance testing of web applications. The best tool would be the one that suits your requirements.
Does JMeter use Selenium?
It is possible, integrating JMeter with Selenium scripts allows you to analyze and measure how quickly web pages take to load. To integrate JMeter with Selenium, simply install the WebDriver Plugin support.
Which tool is better than JMeter?
There are different tools in the market that can perform performance testing of web applications. Though JMeter is considered best, there are various alternatives, like Load runner, Loader.io, Locust, Tsung, and more.
