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IBM Rational Performance Tester vs Zeenyx AscentialTest comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 16, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM Rational Performance Te...
Ranking in Test Management Tools
15th
Average Rating
7.6
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Zeenyx AscentialTest
Ranking in Test Management Tools
23rd
Average Rating
9.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
Functional Testing Tools (24th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Test Management Tools category, the mindshare of IBM Rational Performance Tester is 3.4%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Zeenyx AscentialTest is 2.3%, up from 0.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Test Management Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM Rational Performance Tester3.4%
Zeenyx AscentialTest2.3%
Other94.3%
Test Management Tools
 

Featured Reviews

KashifJamil - PeerSpot reviewer
CEO at Xcelliti
Supports web and mobile applications, very scalable, very stable, and wonderful support
There are some features that Micro Focus LoadRunner provides, but they are not available in IBM Rational Performance Tester. They should include such features. It can also have more reports similar to what HP provides. It might also need some improvement in terms of the tools and support for other technology areas. Certain technologies are not supported by every tool. They need to support all sorts of technologies and platforms on which web applications and mobile applications are built. They need complete support for all sorts of technologies.
Tobias Roth - PeerSpot reviewer
Software developer at Weiss GmbH Softwarelösungen
Robust automation with reusable steps and seamless integration
The concept of reusable steps in Zeenyx AscentialTest has significantly enhanced our test automation efficiency. Encapsulating common actions into modular steps reduces redundancy in test scripts and ensures consistency across scenarios. This approach streamlines maintenance efforts, allowing updates to be applied universally, making our test suite more agile and adaptable to evolving project requirements. The concept of reusable steps is a key factor in maximizing reusability and maintainability in our test automation strategy. AscentialTest's object recognition in snapshots is a robust feature that goes beyond standard elements, even accurately identifying objects within Datawindows. This capability ensures precise interaction with various components of an application's interface, further enhancing the reliability and effectiveness of our automated tests.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"This tool is very scalable, and for large scale tests, i.e., 5000 virtual users and up, it performs very well."
"The setup was straightforward, it depends on the company's regulations and infrastructure policies."
"Real time view and its inbuilt root cause analysis tools is something which I like the most."
"Virtual Users."
"Technical support is very good. I'm very satisfied with the assistance we've received so far."
"It can support both web applications and mobile applications, and in certain cases, it can also support testing of desktop applications or software-based applications. You can write web applications, mobile applications, and software-based applications."
"Technical support is very good. I'm very satisfied with the assistance we've received so far."
"Once you are used to this tool, it is user friendly and provides very good analysis for web applications."
"Customer service is excellent; very helpful in addressing the issues and never hesitant in accepting the issues from their end; very responsive and quick to provide assistance."
"Zeenyx AscentialTest provides excellent support for PowerBuilder applications, with very powerful and flexible object recognition, a highly visual drag and drop environment for creating application objects from snapshots, and tests that are easy and quick to manage and maintain."
"AscentialTest's object recognition in snapshots is a robust feature that goes beyond standard elements, even accurately identifying objects within Datawindows."
"It's been really easy to automate the same applications TestComplete struggled with."
"Customer Service: Zeenyx team provides a wonderful customer support for any kind of issues we face and they worked along with us and provided solutions as early as possible too."
"It’s been really easy to automate the same application TestComplete struggled with. I have been able to automate two of our key applications in just a few months. I haven’t even taken their training."
"Productivity increased by almost 10 times after using AT for test automation as manually it was taking almost a day or three days (sometimes a week) effort to do data verification of expected and actual excel files with huge number of columns and rows (approximately 50 columns and thousands of rows)."
"As a platform corporation a primary strategic goal is to develop coherent tests across platforms, and this is where Ascential Test shines."
 

Cons

"There are some features that Micro Focus LoadRunner provides, but they are not available in IBM Rational Performance Tester. They should include such features. It can also have more reports similar to what HP provides. It might also need some improvement in terms of the tools and support for other technology areas. Certain technologies are not supported by every tool. They need to support all sorts of technologies and platforms on which web applications and mobile applications are built. They need complete support for all sorts of technologies."
"We had open many PMRs for problems found in the products, and I'm not sure if all of them have been fixed."
"I’d like to see a tighter integration with Rational Quality Manager and the Jazz platform."
"Support for more protocols is required."
"For a rational performance testing solution, the initial setup is very complex. The setup was difficult and the documentation was not very up to date."
"It was complex."
"As intuitive as a product can be, its use could still benefit from a decent set of manuals or guides."
"There are some features that Micro Focus LoadRunner provides, but they are not available in IBM Rational Performance Tester."
"Classes are not as object-oriented as I would like, but I am a programmer and not QA so I expect a lot."
"We did observe that aborting the test run of a test set in the middle of execution was taking a long time."
"The only thing I can't wait for is for Zeenyx to add automating Mobile apps."
"I would like to see an improvement in the user interface."
"The only thing I can't wait for is for Zeenyx to add automating Mobile apps."
"Limitations are found to be primarily in the ux of the tool; for example when in doubt one often right clicks in an unfamiliar product to get unstuck, and AscentialTest lacks some of these fineries."
"I would like to see an improvement in the User Interface."
"It would be great if AscentialTest supported the license server being in the cloud."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is much cheaper than Micro Focus LoadRunner. We need perpetual licenses. Support is included in the first sale. After that, you need to renew support every year."
"Once it starts generating ROI, which for us took between three and six months, one will not even think about the investment."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
17%
Construction Company
7%
Government
7%
Healthcare Company
7%
Healthcare Company
14%
University
11%
Construction Company
11%
Outsourcing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business7
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise4
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What do you like most about Zeenyx AscentialTest?
AscentialTest's object recognition in snapshots is a robust feature that goes beyond standard elements, even accurately identifying objects within Datawindows.
What needs improvement with Zeenyx AscentialTest?
While Zeenyx AscentialTest has proven to be a valuable asset in our testing processes, there are areas where improvements could enhance the overall user experience. One notable aspect is the user i...
What is your primary use case for Zeenyx AscentialTest?
We use AscentialTest for automated testing of Powerbuilder applications via CI/CD pipeline with GitLab. We have fully integrated all tests in our CI/CD pipeline. Thanks to the integration, much wor...
 

Also Known As

Rational Performance Tester
AscentialTest
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

andagon, Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon
TJX Companies, Nuance Communications, Ericsson Inc., Transatlantic Reinsurance Company, Accenture, Nutrition Coordinating Center, Univ. of MN, iConectiv, Fortress Software, and LMP Corp.
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Rational Performance Tester vs. Zeenyx AscentialTest and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
892,943 professionals have used our research since 2012.