Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Tools for Web Performance Analysis

HttpWatch

This made the top of my list and I use it almost every day. Although it has features very similar to firebug, it has two features that I find very useful – the ability to save the waterfall data directly to a csv file and a stand-alone HttpWatch Studio tool that easily loads previously saved data and reconstructs the waterfall ( I know you can export Net data from firebug, but only in HAR format). And best of all, HttpWatch works with both IE and Firefox. The downside is that it works only on Windows and it’s not free.

Firebug

This is everyone’s favorite tool and I love it too. Great for debugging as well as performance analysis. It is a little buggy though – I get frustrated when after starting Firebug, I go to a URL expecting it to capture my requests, only to find that it disappears on me. I end up keeping firebug on all the time and this can get annoying.

HttpAnalyzer

This is also a Windows-only commercial tool – it is similar to Wireshark. It’s primary focus is http however, so it is easier to use than Wireshark. Since it sits at the OS level, it captures all traffic, irrespective of which browser or application is making the http request. As such, it’s a great tool for analyzing non-browser based http client applications.

Gomez

Yet another commercial tool, but considering our global presence and the dozens of websites that need to  be tested from different locations, we need a robust, commercial tool that can meet our synthetic testing and monitoring requirements. Gomez has pretty good coverage across the world.

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