Apache JMeter vs Artillery

Free and open source

Free and open source

Free. Costs are load-generator infrastructure and, commonly, a cloud execution service such as BlazeMeter.

Open source and free, including distributed runs on your own AWS account. You pay AWS, not Artillery.

Everything, self-hosted

Everything, self-hosted

Category standard

Apache Software Foundation · since 1998

Widely used

Artillery Software · since 2015

• Protocol coverage no modern tool matches — JDBC, JMS, LDAP, mainframe-adjacent protocols.
• GUI test-plan building is accessible to testers who do not code.
• Enormous body of documentation, plugins and available expertise.

• Distributed load on your own AWS account, so no per-virtual-user vendor pricing at all.
• Reuses Playwright scripts for browser-level load without rewriting journeys.
• YAML for simple scenarios, JavaScript when you need real logic.

• Thread-per-user model is memory-hungry; high load needs a cluster where k6 needs one box.
• JMX test plans are XML that merges terribly in version control.
• The GUI must not be used for actual load generation, which trips up nearly every beginner.

• Serverless distribution requires AWS knowledge and IAM setup.
• Reporting is basic without exporting to an observability platform.
• Smaller community than k6 or JMeter.

Enterprise performance teams needing protocol breadth and a GUI-based workflow.

AWS-native teams that want large-scale load tests without vendor VU pricing.