Artillery vs Apache JMeter

Free and open source

Free and open source

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

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

Everything, self-hosted

Everything, self-hosted

Widely used

Artillery Software · since 2015

Category standard

Apache Software Foundation · since 1998

• 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.

• 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.

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

• 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.

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

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