OpenText LoadRunner Professional Reviews, Competitors and Pricing

IT Manager with 1,001-5,000 employees

Mar 18, 2014

By measuring performance and identifying bottlenecks, we have reduced costs, minimized testing and deployment times

My company needed a better way to introduce new applications and update existing software releases efficiently. Our past system hindered us from delivering new products and services quickly. To maintain rapid business growth, we realized that seeing the entire IT process during such projects was essential. We required appropriate testing tools to assess processes, manage change, determine application performance, resolve problems and improve defect visibility.

We wanted to move away from simply dealing with defect management and introduce a new testing regime with a sound methodology. We needed well designed testing processes, the correct software tools to support requests and a quality platform for test management and release. My company researched the market and approached several software specialists including HP. To evaluate proposed solutions, we presented each vendor with several testing scenarios. We liked the adaptability, ease-of-use and reporting capabilities of the HP Software solution.

The HP solution comprises a comprehensive package of software tools to help us reduce risk, lower cost and increase real-time visibility – key business drivers within the financial services industry. HP QuickTest Professional offers us automated functional and regression testing to lower the time, risk and cost associated with application testing, whilst HP Project and Portfolio Management Center provides real-time visibility and control over IT projects that are important to our business strategy.

To decrease problem resolution times, we deployed HP Service Manager 7, a comprehensive and fully integrated IT Service Desk suite containing seven foundation components, a Help Desk and a Change Management module. Moreover, HP Quality Center, a web-based application, accelerated the application lifecycle by presenting consistent, repeatable processes for planning tests, analyzing results and managing defects.

In addition, before we introduce a new application or upgrade a release, we utilize HP LoadRunner to detect potential performance problems within the production environment. By measuring end-to-end performance along with identifying application and system bottlenecks, we have reduced costs by 31 per cent and minimized application testing and deployment times.

With the introduction of the HP Software solution, the analysts and developers in our IT department have witnessed a transformation of the company’s testing methodology. We now have a comprehensive testing environment which previously lacked scope. Quality management, quality assurance and defect management have improved significantly, and application performance issues are readily resolved.

We estimate that IT efficiency has improved 24 percent. A recent return on investment study looking into the deployment of HP Quality Center indicates that over the last three years we have saved approximately $6.75 million. Moreover, annual quality management process efficiency estimates stand at $1.26 million and the annual financial benefit of avoiding application support costs is at least $820,000. With this dynamic HP solution, the number of defects resolved over a three day period increased to 44 per cent and problem resolution times have fallen by 60 per cent.

Disclosure: PeerSpot has made contact with the reviewer to validate that the person is a real user. The information in the posting is based upon a vendor-supplied case study, but the reviewer has confirmed the content's accuracy.

it_user135393Works

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Jun 23, 2014

Never used any testing tools before and couldn't figure out how such tools could help us to trace defects, logic errors and bugs in our in-house developed applications (desktops and web based).

reviewer1576428

Engineer 2 at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees

Mar 27, 2023

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Reliable with good reporting and support of a wide range of protocols

Pros and Cons

"The reporting is very good in regard to scripting and debugging."

"We'd like the solution to be a bit more user-friendly."

What is our primary use case?

The solution is used for scripting and debugging.

How has it helped my organization?

I've found the option - remote application via LoadRunner Proxy to be the most valuable feature which played vital role in recording network traffic of mobile application. Very helpful for mobile scripting

What is most valuable?

It supports a wide range of protocols, which I don't think any other load-testing tool can offer.

It's very stable and reliable.

The reporting is very good in regard to scripting and debugging.

What needs improvement?

The installation process and the initial configuration could be a little easier.

We'd like the solution to be a bit more user-friendly.

For someone that doesn't have a lot of experience with the solution, it might be challenging. Even after five years of using it, I still find it challenging.

The solution can be quite expensive.

There is slow performance when you are opening multiple instances on one machine.

For how long have I used the solution?

Five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable and reliable. There are no bugs, glitches and it doesn't crash or freeze.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

For scalability, I will use LoadRunner Enterprise, not LoadRunner Professional. LoadRunner Professional is purely for scripting and debugging purposes.

How are customer service and support?

Tech support is very responsive and knowledgeable

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

So far, I have also used JMeter. Compared to JMeter, LoadRunner is the best tool out there. As per the feedback from my peers, most of them prefer LoadRunner in terms of performance testing - executions, scripting and debugging (which provides more insight during our work)

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup and configuration is pretty complex.

I'd rate the solution a three out of five in terms of ease of setup.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It is very expensive compared to the other tools available in the market.

I'd rate it a two out of five in terms of affordability.

What other advice do I have?

I'm satisfied with the product. I'd rate it nine out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

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reviewer1182177

Assistant Consultant at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees

Feb 21, 2022

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Scalable and highly reliable

Pros and Cons

"The stability of Micro Focus LoadRunner Professional is very high. It is the leading tool for stability."

"The technical support of Micro Focus LoadRunner Professional could improve. I had an issue with the licensing and their response time is slow. They can improve on this in the future."

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Micro Focus LoadRunner Professional for approximately 11 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of Micro Focus LoadRunner Professional is very high. It is the leading tool for stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is good.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support of Micro Focus LoadRunner Professional could improve. I had an issue with the licensing and their response time is slow. They can improve on this in the future.

I would rate the technical support of Micro Focus LoadRunner Professional a three out of five.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The licensing of Micro Focus LoadRunner Professional could improve. If it can be easier and the concurrent run can be included with the current total number of users, it would be helpful.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend Micro Focus LoadRunner Professional above all other testing tools.

I rate Micro Focus LoadRunner Professional a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user94998

Performance Test Lead at a consultancy with 51-200 employees

Jun 13, 2017

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LoadRunner is the best for those who need a full blown product, or a diverse range of protocols to be tested

Pros and Cons

"The capabilities and flexibility of the Controller, the ability to monitor the systems under test, and the comprehensive results Analysis which saves a great deal of time."

"More guidance on the use of the Tru Client protocol which is used for Web interfaces."

What is most valuable?

The capabilities and flexibility of the Controller, the ability to monitor the systems under test, and the comprehensive results Analysis which saves a great deal of time.

What needs improvement?

More guidance on the use of the Tru Client protocol which is used for Web interfaces.

For how long have I used the solution?

15 years

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

LoadRunner generally deploys without issues.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Its a complex product and there are usually a few bugs in the point zero releases, it is generally pretty reliable.

Sometimes the controller can crash, this is usually after opening and closing several scenarios without closing the controller. Closing the controller after a couple of scenarios opened will avoid the problem.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability is great, I have personally used LoadRunner with up to 72,000 virtual users, and 35 load generators.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

I don't have recent experience with HPE customer service.

Technical Support:

I don't have recent experience with HPE tech support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I started performance testing with LoadRunner and I'm still using it. I have used other tools, but its the best all rounder.

How was the initial setup?

Initial setup is straightforward as LoadRunner is pretty much standalone and just needs connectivity to the system under test.

What about the implementation team?

I generally implement it myself.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The cost depends greatly on the needs of the testing engagement.

The free community licence (permanent for 50 VUsers) available from Version 12 is very useful. For small tests this is sufficient and there is no licence cost to use it.

The community licence is excellent for training as well, you get full functionality for as long as you like.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

What other advice do I have?

Take a good look at your requirements, LoadRunner is the best for those who need a full blown product, or a diverse range of protocols to be tested. However not everyone needs this. There are other products that do parts of what LoadRunner does just as well and cheaper. Because LoadRunner is so widely used, there are many people with LoadRunner experience available, it will be harder to find experience in an alternative tool. There are cheaper and free alternatives, but these generally take longer to set up and use. Often the software licence costs are far less than the professional services cost for a performance testing engagement. The higher cost of a LoadRunner licence will be offset by time saved by using it.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user733185Managing Partner with 51-200 employees

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Sep 7, 2017

Worksoft Certify does not provide the same accuracy of response time as LoadRunner.

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it_user470436

Monitoring Systems and Performance Engineer at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees

Aug 21, 2016

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It gives me more flexibility into writing my own code.

Valuable Features

The custom scripting that it allows me to carry out sections and find my own variables in LoadRunner.
I can use True Client, which is also an HP product, but LoadRunner gives me more flexibility in writing my own code.

Improvements to My Organization

We use LoadRunner to script our applications and then run those as synthetic monitoring from BPM. So the BPM are not only proactive if any of our solutions or if any of our applications are down, but also gives us features like the screen capture editor, such as what are we seeing on the webpage while we are seeing on the application. So that kind of synthetic monitoring. We have three data centers, and we have BPM all through the data centers, and isolating and troubleshooting through a data center is helpful with BPM, and LoadRunner is indirectly helping with that.

Stability Issues

The stability is good.

Scalability Issues

We don't use it for performance testing so scalability is artificial for LoadRunner for us.

Customer Service and Technical Support

I don't remember the last time we reached out to tech support.

Other Advice

I'm really happy with what they’re giving me for what I do, but because I don't do performance monitoring or performance testing using LoadRunner, I'm not completely aware of everything else, but for what I do it's a great tool for me.

Do a POC with your own environment and don't rely on the list of capabilities that a solution just gives you doing a demo in your environment. That's what is the key thing for you to decide on what is the solution that you want.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user129477

Performance Tester/QA at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Jun 26, 2014

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Overall LoadRunner is a good tool to use, but it’s quite expensive and complex to script at times.

What is most valuable?

Available protocols

What needs improvement?

Scripting should be simpler, it becomes very complex many times.

For how long have I used the solution?

3 years

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

Yes

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service: 7 out of 10Technical Support: 5 out of 10

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

No, but I have evaluated many other solutions.

How was the initial setup?

Not very long.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user68019

Head of Development at a tech services company with 51-200 employees

Nov 3, 2013

What’s new in LoadRunner 11.52 ?

On 12^th June at HP Discover, I attended one of lecture sessions led by Shane Evans and Silvia Siquiera. During the presentation, they introduced the new features of LoadRunner 11.52. They started the presentation by introducing the new features that came in LoadRunner 11.50 (last year) and then highlighted the features that had been added since then.

Key new features:

Improved application performance (particularly VuGen startup and Analysis).
Integration with HP Live network. (HP Live network connects partners customers etc.)
Replay summary report displays detailed statistics.
Improved run time settings interface.
Can now configure round robin ramp up across load generators.
Integration with Visual studio and eclipse for agile CI/CD.
Support for Junit, nUnit and Selenium in LR scenarios.
LR scenarios as part of unit testing.
Can add performance tests as build steps in Jenkins.
VTS 2 is a big feature.
Mobile traffic recording apps for Android.*
New, improved proxy recording feature.
Shunra network virtualisation enhancements, a single load generator can now simulate different network types simultaneously e.g. some users on 3G, others on DSL etc. this removes the requirement to have a load generator for each “network type”.
Additional support for Linux load generators (different Linux versions).
(This alone could be a reason to migrate to 11.52, Linux load generators can significantly reduce license costs for your test equipment).

*Whilst the new mobile recording engine is useful, I can’t help but feel that HP has scored an “own goal” in marketing terms. A number of their competitors are making lots of noise about their ability to test mobile applications and this announcement implies that HP are only just getting their act together on mobile testing. HP has been able to test mobile (and many other) applications via a proxy recorder for as long as I can remember and I’ve been using LoadRunner since 1999. This is new proxy recording engine undoubtedly makes scripting easier but it isn’t their first foray into mobile testing and their competitors are disingenuous if they try to make that claim.

Future trends
64-bit VuGen
One customer asked about whether HP had any plans for 64-bit VuGen or Load Generators. Shane Evans said that they didn’t perceive particular demand for this especially since load generators could each spawn multiple 2GB processes for load generation but that they would consider this if there was sufficient customer demand.

This question prompted a few others and one customer asked whether dcripting languages other than C were being considered. Shane said that JavaScript was being considered as a possible scripting language. This could pave the way towards using NoJS as a test engine.

Network simulation
The discussion then moved to network simulation and Shane asked the room whether people were using network simulation tools like Shunra or WANEM as part of their tests. Only 2 people in an audience of approximately 90 were using network simulation tools.

Diagnostics tools
Only one customer was using HP diagnostics and two or three others were using Dynatrace or other diagnostics/profiling tools like Wily Introscope. I would be very surprised if network simulation and application diagnostics weren’t significant growth areas for specialist testers in the coming years. These products add significant value to testing engagements and are becoming more important as users become more mobile and applications are increasingly hosted on virtual platforms where performance optimisation is more important.

VTS2 – Virtual Table Server
Shane then did a small demonstration of VTS2. I was a big advocate of the original VTS (virtual table server) and since it’s demise I’ve looked at various ways of managing test data in scripts (such as using MySQL) . VTS was always an unsupported add-on (originally written by Mercury engineers) to allow parameters to be passed from script to script. This worked well but had a number of limitations. As well as being “technically” unsupported, the database had to be loaded with parameters from a CSV file before tests and you had to remember to save the “database” to a file each time that you shut it down.

VTS2 doesn’t have these limitations. It is based on the MongoNoSQL database and can handle up to 2000 txns/sec easily (I can’t wait to try this properly). Media for VTS2 comes with LoadRunner 11.52 or is downloadable from HP SSO.

LoadRunner 12.0 ?
Silvia mentioned the fact that there were so many new features, some people within HP felt that this could merit a new major version number rather than simply adding 0.02 to the last release. This reminded me of Stuart Moncrieff’s summary of 11.50 last year. Having seen the new features, I think that she’s probably right, LoadRunner 12.0 and Performance Center 12.0 are probably already here :)

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.