Creating and maintaining a web application can be fun! Ask a developer, he'll tell you. However, at the back of the mind of every developer lies a genuine concern: speed of his/her web page.
Here we have compiled a list of top 10 free tools to help you create and sustain high-performance web applications:
1. YSlow for Firebug
-Simple tool for grading a website’s performance that gives a letter grade (A through F) based on the best practices for high performance web sites available on the Yahoo! Developer Network.
-Grading how your web page ranks on specific aspects the tool aids in reducing the number of HTTP requests, while also compressing external JavaScript and CSS files.
2. Firebug
-A browser-based web development tool that aids in debugging, testing, and analysing web pages.
-Features a Net (network) tab where you can inspect HTML, CSS, XHR and JS components.
3. Fiddler 2
-Highly customisable HTTP debugging tool that helps in analysing both incoming and outgoing traffic.
-Aids in improving unprimed cache, analysing HTTP response headers and creating custom flags for potential performance issues.
4. Cuzillion
-Lets you see how page components interact with each other and aids in testing and modifying web pages prior to their finalising.
-The advantage here is it gives clues well in advance whether there are any potential trouble-spots or points of improvement.
-Created by the ex-Chief Performance at Yahoo!, Steve Saunders also the creator of YSlow.
5. mon.itor.us
-The tool aids in monitoring performance, availability, and traffic statistics as also observing your website's response time effectively.
-Lets you set alerts for as and when a specific service is no longer available. Further, you can check if your changes are effecting your web page's speed and performance either positively or negatively through weekly automated benchmarks.
6. IBM Page Detailer
-Lets you visualise web components even as they are being downloaded by simply navigating to a specific web site.
-Relevant details concerning a web page component is obtained in a separate window by a simple click.
7. Httperf
-Open-source tool that measures HTTP server performance running on Linux by creating workload simulations.
-Gives an idea whether your website can handle high-level traffic and still remain stable. Further, it also gives an idea regarding the maximum capacity of a server.
8. Pylot
-Open-source performance and scalability testing tool that makes use of HTTP load tests to analyse and tweak performance.
-Requires Python installed on the server, however uses XML for testing.
9. PushToTest TestMaker
-Open-source tool for testing scalability and performance of applications and features a Resource Monitor to view CPU, memory, and network utilisation during testing.
10. Wbox HTTP testing tool
-HTTP testing software released under the GPL (v2) and supports Linux, Windows, and MacOS X systems.
-Makes sequential requests at intervals for stress-testing and comes with an HTTP compression command to analyse data about your server’s file compression.
