Artillery

Overview

Artillery combines backend load testing, Playwright-based browser testing, and production monitoring for engineering teams responsible for application performance. It is a strong fit when those checks belong in one toolkit; its report and test caps make plan choice important as usage grows.

Load, stress, and soak tests can run across AWS Lambda, AWS Fargate, and Azure Container Instances. HTTP, WebSocket, and Socket.IO work out of the box, with plugins for other protocols. Cloud reporting is optional per run: tests execute in your own environment even when reports go to Artillery Cloud. For a broader category comparison, see Performance Testing Software.

Key features

Distributed and protocol-based testing

Distributed execution gives teams a way to scale tests across cloud workers, while built-in protocol coverage serves common web and real-time backends. The worker cap varies substantially: Free permits up to 5 workers per test, Team up to 25, and Business has no worker limit. Other protocols require plugins, so teams with specialized protocol needs should check that extension path before committing.

Playwright and integrations

Playwright scripts can run as load tests or synthetic checks, allowing browser workflows to sit alongside protocol-level scenarios. The homepage describes a Turbo runner beta for sharding and parallelizing large Playwright suites; teams depending on that capability should account for its beta status. Integrations include Datadog, OpenTelemetry, New Relic, Splunk, Honeycomb, AWS CloudWatch, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI/CD, Jenkins, CircleCI, and Azure DevOps, covering observability and common CI/CD workflows.

Cloud and security controls

Artillery Cloud reports third-party penetration tests, MFA and SSO, audit logging, least-privilege access controls, and encryption at rest. Cloud customer data resides in AWS eu-west-1 and is not transferred to another region or third-party services. For the self-hosted CLI, employees and contractors do not have access to test targets, data, scripts, or metadata. These controls are relevant for teams assessing data handling, though the stated residency is specific to Artillery Cloud.

Security reports sent to [email protected] are acknowledged within 24 hours, with a more detailed response within two business days. Email support is listed, and Slack Connect is available with an annual subscription.

Pricing

Artillery uses a freemium model with a free plan and paid plans from $199/mo. The free plan has no published price and includes 30 reports per month, one month of data retention, two team members, up to 5 workers per distributed test, test runs up to 30 minutes, and 25 E2E test cases per report. That is suitable for small-scale evaluation, but the report, duration, and team caps can constrain sustained or shared use.

Team costs $199 a month. It raises the monthly allowance to 1,000 reports, retention to six months, seats to eight, workers to 25, test duration to two hours, and E2E cases to 50 per report. It fits a small engineering group that needs regular cloud reporting but can work within defined quotas.

Business costs $499 a month and includes 2,500 reports per month, 18 months of retention, no team member limit, no worker limit, no test duration limit, and no E2E case limit. It is the clearer fit for larger teams or heavier testing that would run into Team's caps, though the report quota still applies.

Enterprise add-ons are billed starting at $1199/month. They add Enterprise SSO (OIDC and SAML), audit logs, a custom MSA, and support SLAs. This tier suits organizations requiring those enterprise controls and terms; it does not replace the need to compare usage against the plan's report limits. Continued overages may degrade service and can put an account into read-only mode, so recurring excess usage is a material risk rather than a minor billing detail.

A free trial is available. Slack Connect requires an annual subscription.

Platforms

Artillery supports API, Linux, macOS, self-hosted, web, and Windows environments. Its hybrid deployment model pairs self-hosted test execution with optional cloud reporting, useful when teams want tests to run in their own environment rather than treating reporting and execution as the same service.

Who it's for

Artillery is aimed at application developers, test and QA engineers, and operations or SRE teams responsible for production backend systems. It is particularly compelling for teams that need both distributed protocol-level load tests and Playwright checks, plus integrations with their existing observability or CI/CD tools. It is less attractive for occasional small tests if the free caps are too restrictive, or for organizations whose needs exceed the report quota even on a higher plan.

Pros and cons

Broad test coverage: Load, stress, soak, API, and Playwright testing cover backend protocols and browser scenarios in one toolkit.

Scalable execution: Distributed testing across three named cloud services, with Business removing worker and duration caps.

Useful integration range: Named monitoring and CI/CD integrations can connect test workflows to established team systems.

Plan ceilings matter: Free and Team impose report, worker, duration, seat, and E2E case limits; ongoing overages may degrade service or trigger read-only mode.

Cloud data residency is specific: Artillery Cloud data resides in eu-west-1, which may not suit teams requiring another region.

Alternatives

Speedscale is worth considering for teams prioritizing local mocking and traffic recording: its free plan includes unlimited local mocking, basic traffic recording, community support, and a desktop CLI tool.

Keysight Eggplant Test is an enterprise software option with quote-based pricing for teams comparing paid enterprise offerings.

Gatling is another freemium performance-testing option; its Basic annual plan is €89 a year, billed annually (€1,068/year), and includes up to 60,000 VUs, one hour of testing, one load generator, and two seats.

LoadFocus may be a better fit when free API monitoring is the priority: its API Monitoring Free plan includes 10,000 checks per month, five-minute check frequency, and one-month data retention.

Taurus is a free and open-source option under the Apache 2.0 License.

LoadView is another paid option with a free On-Demand plan for single tests and unlimited concurrent HTTP, browsers, and parallel testing.

Locust is a free, open-source option under the MIT license.

StresStimulus offers a free plan capped at 250 virtual users and one hour, with form authentication only and forum support.

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