Gatling

Gatling

Gatling is a high-performance open-source load testing tool built for efficiency, automation, and code-driven testing workflows that helps organizations test complex systems under real-world conditions.
https://gatling.io/?ref=producthunt
Gatling

Product Information

Updated:Nov 25, 2025

What is Gatling

Gatling is a powerful load testing platform that enables organizations to simulate real traffic and detect bottlenecks in their applications. Originally developed in Scala and built upon Netty for non-blocking HTTP, Gatling officially supports HTTP, WebSocket, Server-Sent-Events and JMS protocols. It comes in two editions - the free open-source Community Edition trusted by over 30 million developers worldwide, and an Enterprise Edition that provides additional features for teams and businesses.

Key Features of Gatling

Gatling is a high-performance load testing platform that enables organizations to test complex systems under real-world conditions. It offers both open-source Community Edition and Enterprise Edition with features like code-driven testing, protocol-agnostic architecture, and asynchronous design. The platform supports multiple protocols including HTTP, WebSocket, gRPC, and more, while providing comprehensive analytics, automation capabilities, and collaboration tools for teams to design, execute, and analyze load tests effectively.
Protocol-Agnostic Load Testing: Supports wide range of protocols including HTTP, HTTPS, HTTP/2, WebSocket, REST, GraphQL, gRPC, JMS, Kafka, MQTT, JDBC, and SSE, allowing testing of everything from web apps to IoT systems
Flexible Test Creation: Offers multiple approaches to create tests including code-first (Java, Kotlin, Scala, JavaScript, TypeScript), no-code options, and Postman imports to accommodate different team needs
Advanced Analytics & Monitoring: Provides real-time dashboards, detailed metrics tracking, trend analysis, and integration with observability tools for comprehensive performance insights
CI/CD Integration: Seamlessly integrates with various CI/CD tools and cloud platforms, enabling automated performance testing within existing development workflows

Use Cases of Gatling

Web Application Performance Testing: Ensure websites and web applications maintain performance under peak traffic conditions and high user loads
API and Microservices Testing: Validate API performance and microservice resilience throughout the development lifecycle
Cloud Infrastructure Testing: Test cloud scalability and optimize resource usage before deployment
IoT Device Testing: Simulate and validate performance of connected devices under real-world conditions

Pros

Highly flexible with support for multiple protocols and testing approaches
Strong integration capabilities with CI/CD and monitoring tools
Comprehensive analytics and reporting features
Scalable architecture supporting millions of virtual users

Cons

Community Edition has limited features compared to Enterprise Edition
Steeper learning curve for code-based test creation
Requires technical expertise for advanced implementations

How to Use Gatling

Install Prerequisites: Ensure you have Java JDK 8 or later installed. Gatling supports Java, Kotlin and Scala for writing tests.
Choose Installation Method: Install Gatling either as a standalone bundle or using build tools like Maven/Gradle. For Maven, use the official gatling-maven-plugin.
Create a New Project: For Maven, create a new project using Gatling's Maven archetype: io.gatling.highcharts:gatling-highcharts-maven-archetype. This sets up the basic project structure.
Write Test Scenarios: Create test scenarios by either recording user journeys through the Recorder GUI or writing code directly. Define user flows, requests, and assertions in your preferred language (Java/Kotlin/Scala).
Configure Load Profile: Define the load model by specifying number of virtual users, ramp-up time, and test duration in your simulation code.
Run Simulation: Execute the test using Maven command 'mvn gatling:test' or through IDE. Gatling will generate virtual users and run the defined scenarios.
Analyze Results: Review the detailed HTML reports generated by Gatling showing metrics like response times, requests per second, and error rates. Reports are found in target/gatling directory.
Integrate with CI/CD: Add Gatling tests to your CI/CD pipelines using plugins for Jenkins, GitLab, etc. Configure thresholds for pass/fail criteria.
Scale Tests: For larger tests, use Gatling Enterprise Edition to run distributed tests, manage test infrastructure, and get advanced analytics.

Gatling FAQs

Gatling is a high-performance load testing tool built for efficiency, automation, and code-driven testing workflows. It features fully asynchronous architecture and while it offers robust HTTP support out of the box, the load engine is protocol-agnostic.

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