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Apache ab VS VisualVM

Compare Apache ab VS VisualVM and see what are their differences

Apache ab logo Apache ab

Apache ab is a tool for benchmarking Apache Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) server.

VisualVM logo VisualVM

VisualVM is a visual tool integrating several commandline JDK tools and lightweight profiling...
  • Apache ab Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-10-18
  • VisualVM Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-18

Apache ab features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    Apache ab is simple and straightforward to use, making it accessible for users who need to quickly perform a basic load test on their web servers.
  • Quick Installation
    Being part of the Apache HTTP Server Project, ab can be easily installed as part of the Apache suite, allowing for rapid setup on systems that already have Apache installed.
  • Lightweight Tool
    As a command-line tool, Apache ab has low overhead and is lightweight, making it suitable for running quickly without significantly affecting the host system's performance.
  • Basic Benchmarking
    Apache ab allows users to measure the performance of web servers with basic metrics like requests per second and time per request, useful for initial performance assessments.

Possible disadvantages of Apache ab

  • Limited Features
    Apache ab lacks advanced testing features such as simulating complex user behavior or supporting advanced web protocols beyond HTTP/1.x, limiting its applicability for comprehensive performance testing.
  • Single URL Testing
    It can only test one URL at a time, which can be a significant limitation when trying to benchmark websites that require testing multiple endpoints simultaneously.
  • No GUI
    As a purely command-line tool, Apache ab does not provide a graphical user interface, which can be challenging for users who prefer or require a visual interface for operations and data analysis.
  • Potential for Bias
    Since it is designed for basic testing, results from Apache ab might not reflect real-world user interactions accurately, potentially leading to biased or incomplete performance insights.

VisualVM features and specs

  • Comprehensive Monitoring
    VisualVM allows developers to monitor and troubleshoot Java applications through various data points like JVM-level statistics, thread monitoring, and memory inspection.
  • Integration with JDK
    As a part of the JDK, VisualVM is easy to access and use without the need for additional installations or configurations.
  • Lightweight
    Being lightweight, VisualVM does not add significant overhead to the system and can be used effectively in development without impacting performance.
  • User-friendly Interface
    VisualVM provides an intuitive and graphical interface that makes it easier for users to analyze the performance metrics and diagnose issues.
  • Plugin Support
    VisualVM supports plugins, allowing users to extend its functionalities according to specific requirements and use cases.
  • Cross-platform
    As a Java-based tool, VisualVM can be run on any platform that supports Java, making it highly versatile.

Possible disadvantages of VisualVM

  • Limited to Java Applications
    VisualVM can only be used with Java applications, which can be a limitation for mixed-environment monitoring needs.
  • Limited Features for Enterprise
    While excellent for basic monitoring, VisualVM might lack some features and scalability needed for large enterprise-grade monitoring and performance analysis.
  • Steep Learning Curve for Advanced Features
    Despite its user-friendly interface, some advanced features and customizations can be complex and may require a steep learning curve.
  • Infrequent Updates
    The update cycle for VisualVM can be slower compared to commercial alternatives, leading to potential lag in addressing bugs or adding new features.
  • Resource Usage
    Running VisualVM for in-depth analysis on the same machine as the application it monitors could potentially affect the application’s performance due to resource consumption.

Apache ab videos

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VisualVM videos

Java Heap Dump Analysis - VisualVM Tutorial

More videos:

  • Tutorial - OutOfMemoryError Java Heap Space Fix - Heap Dump Analysis VisualVM Tutorial

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Apache ab and VisualVM)
Software Development
40 40%
60% 60
Resource Profiling And Monitoring
IDE
33 33%
67% 67
Monitoring Tools
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

VisualVM might be a bit more popular than Apache ab. We know about 23 links to it since March 2021 and only 23 links to Apache ab. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Apache ab mentions (23)

  • Maximizing Laravel's potential: Strategies for high-performance optimization
    Benchmarking: Benchmarking is the process of testing the performance of your application under a specific workload or set of conditions. You can use tools like Apache Bench or Siege to simulate load on your application and measure how it performs. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Python Networking: Servers
    While the server creation is still somewhat more imperative in nature, client connections are now handled via an object which inherits off socketserver.BaseRequestHandler. This requires the implementing class to define a handle() method, which for TCP will expose self.request to hold a socket referencing the connection. Now to show multiple connections working I'll utilize the Apache HTTP server benchmarking tool.... - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
  • Introduction to memory management in Node.js applications
    Using the example above, I’ll send some traffic to the endpoint using Apache Benchmark. - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
  • Is there any open source tool for testing load on website
    Apache Bench aka "ab" ab -n 1000 -c 100 http://localhost:3000/ 1000 requests with a concurrency of 100 https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/programs/ab.html. - Source: Hacker News / about 2 years ago
  • Has anyone ever performed a load test on a Wordpress site ?
    Apache Testbench is an option. It's a cli tool that simulate some level of traffic. Source: about 2 years ago
View more

VisualVM mentions (23)

  • Streaming data from RDBMS with jooq
    For the purposes of this demo, let’s simply count the number of retrieved rows. The Thread.sleep() is included to give me time to open VisualVM and check the metrics:. - Source: dev.to / almost 4 years ago
  • How to Monitor SQL Performance in Spring Boot
    To track query-level metrics, check out the Hibernate Statistics section. Profiling tools like YourKit or VisualVM can help you analyze key metrics such as:. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • Can java collection be fixed?
    If you're curious, attach VisualVM and watch the RAM usage graph. You'll notice that Java performs garbage collections long before reaching allocating the maximum amount of RAM allocated, and you can't even feel any performance issue in-game. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Items won't drop when either mined or dropped from inventory and new chunks won't load.
    Hangs and deadlocks are significantly harder to debug. A first step is taking a thread dump so you can see what each thread in the JVM is currently trying to do. I like VisualVM for this, you can also use the command-line tools jps -l (to list all Java PIDs) and jstack for taking a thread dump. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Top metrics for Elasticsearch monitoring with Prometheus
    The Java VisualVM project is an advanced dashboard for Memory and CPU monitoring. It features advanced resource visualization, as well as process and thread utilization. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Apache ab and VisualVM, you can also consider the following products

OProfile - OProfile is an open source project that includes a statistical profiler, capable of profiling all running code at low overhead.

Eclipse Memory Analyzer - The Eclipse Foundation - home to a global community, the Eclipse IDE, Jakarta EE and over 350 open source projects, including runtimes, tools and frameworks.

Robot Console - Robot Console is a Message and Event Monitoring Software for IBM i thathas automatic message management, resource monitoring, and log monitoring.

Valgrind - Valgrind is an instrumentation framework for building dynamic analysis tools.

JConsole - Provides information about performance and resource consumption for Java applications.

perf - Perf is a simple app monitoring solution paired with meaningful alerts.