What is Apache JMeter used for?

Apache JMeter is an Apache Java tool for load and performance testing of web applications, services and many protocols, with GUI and command-line modes. It is a good fit for load testing web applications before launch, and benchmarking REST APIs and databases.

Is Apache JMeter open source?

Yes. Apache JMeter is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at apache/jmeter and is written mainly in Java.

Is Apache JMeter free?

Yes. Apache JMeter is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

What is Apache JMeter an alternative to?

Apache JMeter is an open-source alternative to OpenText LoadRunner, BlazeMeter and loader.io. Other open-source alternatives to OpenText LoadRunner include Locust, Gatling and Artillery.

Is Apache JMeter actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Apache JMeter was on 1 October 2026. The project has 9.6k stars on GitHub.

Apache JMeter: open-source testing & QA

About Apache JMeter

Apache JMeter is an open-source Java application for measuring performance and load testing. It can test static and dynamic web applications and simulate heavy load on a server, group of servers or network to examine strength and overall behavior under different kinds of load.

It supports many protocols, including HTTP and HTTPS, SOAP and REST, FTP, databases through JDBC, LDAP, JMS messaging, SMTP, POP3 and IMAP mail, TCP, native commands and Java objects. A test IDE allows recording test plans from browsers or native applications and building and debugging them. A command-line, headless mode runs tests on any Java-compatible operating system, and reports are produced as dynamic HTML or streamed live to InfluxDB or Graphite.

Correlation is helped by extracting data from HTML, JSON, XML and other text, and the core is extensible through pluggable samplers, scriptable samplers using JSR223 languages such as Groovy, and visualization plugins. JMeter is developed by the Apache Software Foundation under the Apache-2.0 license.

Key features

Load testing for HTTP, REST and SOAP services
JDBC, LDAP, JMS, FTP and mail protocols
Test plan recording and debugging IDE
Headless command-line mode
HTML reports and InfluxDB or Graphite output
Plugin and Groovy scripting extensibility

Good fit for

→Load testing web applications before launch
→Benchmarking REST APIs and databases

Built with: Java
Tags: load-testing; performance-testing; java; apache; http; benchmarking; testing; qa

Apache JMeter: questions and answers

What is Apache JMeter used for?: Apache JMeter is an Apache Java tool for load and performance testing of web applications, services and many protocols, with GUI and command-line modes. It is a good fit for load testing web applications before launch, and benchmarking REST APIs and databases.
Is Apache JMeter open source?: Yes. Apache JMeter is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at apache/jmeter and is written mainly in Java.
Is Apache JMeter free?: Yes. Apache JMeter is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
What is Apache JMeter an alternative to?: Apache JMeter is an open-source alternative to OpenText LoadRunner, BlazeMeter and loader.io. Other open-source alternatives to OpenText LoadRunner include Locust, Gatling and Artillery.
Is Apache JMeter actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Apache JMeter was on 1 October 2026. The project has 9.6k stars on GitHub.