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OpenText Professional Performance Engineering (LoadRunner Professional) vs OpenText Silk Performer comparison

OpenText Professional Performance Engineering (LoadRunner Professional) and OpenText Silk Performer are both solutions in the Load Testing Tools category. OpenText Professional Performance Engineering (LoadRunner Professional) is ranked #4 with an average rating of 8.5, while OpenText Silk Performer is ranked #15. OpenText Professional Performance Engineering (LoadRunner Professional) holds a 13.2% mindshare in LTT, compared to OpenText Silk Performer’s 1.0% mindshare. Additionally, 94% of OpenText Professional Performance Engineering (LoadRunner Professional) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of OpenText Silk Performer users who would recommend it.
OpenText Silk Performer
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100% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 19, 2025

OpenText Professional Performance Engineering (LoadRunner Professional) and OpenText Silk Performer are competing products in the field of performance testing. LoadRunner Professional generally has an edge due to its comprehensive features and robust integration capabilities, whereas Silk Performer shines in deployment simplicity and cost-effectiveness.

Features: LoadRunner Professional is noted for its extensive testing capabilities, supporting numerous protocols, detailed analytics for complex environments, and robust integration capabilities. Silk Performer is appreciated for its intuitive setup, efficient web, mobile, and cloud testing across different platforms, and user-friendly configuration.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Silk Performer offers a straightforward deployment model, enabling quick installation and effective support. LoadRunner Professional provides detailed support options but requires a more complex setup. Silk Performer is often preferred for its rapid implementation and user assistance.

Pricing and ROI: LoadRunner Professional usually demands a significant initial investment yet offers high returns with its comprehensive features and scalability, making it ideal for large enterprises. Silk Performer is considered more cost-effective, providing a good price-performance ratio, beneficial for smaller organizations or those focusing on cost efficiency.

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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

OpenText Professional Perfo...
Ranking in Load Testing Tools
4th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
81
Ranking in other categories
Performance Testing Tools (4th)
OpenText Silk Performer
Ranking in Load Testing Tools
15th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Load Testing Tools category, the mindshare of OpenText Professional Performance Engineering (LoadRunner Professional) is 13.2%, up from 12.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OpenText Silk Performer is 1.0%, down from 1.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Load Testing Tools
 

Featured Reviews

HelenSague - PeerSpot reviewer
A sophisticated tool that supports many languages and works with all kinds of applications
I do not have any big challenges with LoadRunner. I only have some issues with load generators. It is a very common issue, and I hope it will be resolved in the latest release. For example, when we start to run our tests, users get the message that the load generator exceeded 80% of the CPU utilization. Even when the number of users is less, we get these messages. I am trying to resolve it, but it is not going. It is annoying. It is not a failure, but I hope that it will be resolved. IBM WebSphere MQ testing can be a bit challenging. It can handle that, but I hope that they will build more and more capabilities. We do a huge amount of testing for messaging. Just like aviation, the railway industry is based on messaging. There is messaging to build trains and messaging to create some bills. There are many train movements. Everything involves messaging. I wish that it will be developed more for IBM WebSphere testing. Monitoring is okay, but for testing, I currently have to create Java users. I have to load a lot of libraries from IBM WebSphere and so on.
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SR
Scripting and basic test executions are good features; configuring the workload for tests is easy
In terms of areas of improvement, I would say the Silk Performance Explorer tool, which is used for monitoring and analysis, can be improved because that's where we spend most of our time when we're analyzing the test data. Any enhancements that can be provided in the monitoring sphere would be useful. When you have a large amount of data the tool struggles with it and will sometimes crash, or there may be issues with too many metrics being collected when running a test. The interface for the scripting could be more feature-rich. Integration with tools like Prometheus or Grafana where we can visualize the data would be great. As things stand, we have to use one monitoring tool to visualize data and another for visualizing the test metrics. Integration would enable us to see the metrics from Silk and correlate that with the metrics from other servers or other processes we're monitoring. It would save having to look at Silk data and server metrics separately. It's the way things are going with newer tools. I think the solution is being phased out by Micro Focus and their emphasis is focused more on LoadRunner. We haven't seen much development in the last few years.
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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I would rate Micro Focus LoadRunner Professional's stability at eight out of ten."
"Paramterization and correlation are important features."
"I would definitely recommend OpenText LoadRunner Professional to other users."
"The solution is quite stable."
"The solution helps my clients save time. It is easier to capture reports and improves product quality. The product helps to identify customer defects during performance tests and reduces workloads. The product has improved my client's user interaction. It has reduced peak load times."
"It has good protocol coverage."
"The Analysis feature makes it easy to analyze cross-data and we can pin to the focus period."
"The most important feature for us is that it supports a lot of protocols because we support all of them, including HTTP, FTP, mainframe, and others."
More OpenText Professional Performance Engineering (LoadRunner Professional) pros
"A good monitoring tool, simple to script and easy to configure."
 

Cons

"The product is pretty heavy and should be more lightweight."
"Micro Focus LoadRunner Professional can improve the implementation of digital areas, such as digital testing, UI and native application, and native mobile applications."
"I guess scalability becomes a problem when you use things like TruClients."
"The reporting and GUI have room for improvement."
"The solution needs to reduce its pricing. Right now, it's quite expensive."
"There's a reporting part of the cloud that could be improved a little bit."
"I recently just got to see LoadRunner Developer, but it is still not fully developed to use."
"The technical support of Micro Focus LoadRunner Professional could improve. I had an issue with the licensing and their response time is slow. They can improve on this in the future."
More OpenText Professional Performance Engineering (LoadRunner Professional) cons
"If you have a large amount of data, the solution can struggle."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is reasonable. We pay the cost, but we have everything. We have a big set of licenses for SAP and other applications. We have all kinds of licenses."
"The licensing model is complex. You have to pick up the protocol and the number of concurrent users, and then select the level of concurrent users. For example, there would be one price for 100 to 500 users and another for 500 to 2000 users. If you choose two protocols, then you will have to pay twice the amount depending on the number of concurrent users."
"The licensing fees are based on the number of users."
"LoadRunner Professional is an expensive product."
"The pricing model, especially when involving partners, could use some improvement."
"The cost depends greatly on the needs of the testing engagement."
"LoadRunner Professional's licensing costs are on the higher side, apart from the Community Edition."
"It is competing with other products that may cost significantly less or may be available as open-source. Because of that it is relatively expensive."
More OpenText Professional Performance Engineering (LoadRunner Professional) pricing and cost advice
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Comparison Review

it_user104961 - PeerSpot reviewer
Apr 13, 2014
LoadRunner vs NeoLoad
The six phases of an IT project Enthusiasm Disillusionment Panic Search for the guilty Punishment of the innocent (the performance tester) Praise and rewards for the incompetent non-participants This article has been put together as part of an evaluation of the performance test tools NeoLoad and…
Read full review
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
16%
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
30%
Computer Software Company
11%
Sports Company
6%
Retailer
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Micro Focus LoadRunner Professional?
When designing a workload model offers a good range of possibilities for creating goal-oriented scenarios, which helps us understand and meet SLAs.
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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Micro Focus LoadRunner Professional?
The pricing should be reduced and made more competitive.
See all answers
What needs improvement with Micro Focus LoadRunner Professional?
I would like to improve OpenText LoadRunner Professional based on what we discussed in our last discussion, as those points remain similar and applicable. For future updates, I would like to see th...
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Comparisons

Tricentis NeoLoad vs OpenText Professional Performance Engineering (LoadRunner Professional) Logo
Tricentis NeoLoad vs OpenText Professional Performance Engineering (LoadRunner Professional)
Compared 27% of the time
OpenText Core Performance Engineering (LoadRunner Cloud) vs OpenText Professional Performance Engineering (LoadRunner Professional) Logo
OpenText Core Performance Engineering (LoadRunner Cloud) vs OpenText Professional Performance Engineering (LoadRunner Professional)
Compared 14% of the time
Apache JMeter vs OpenText Professional Performance Engineering (LoadRunner Professional) Logo
Apache JMeter vs OpenText Professional Performance Engineering (LoadRunner Professional)
Compared 13% of the time
OpenText Enterprise Performance Engineering (LoadRunner Enterprise) vs OpenText Professional Performance Engineering (LoadRunner Professional) Logo
OpenText Enterprise Performance Engineering (LoadRunner Enterprise) vs OpenText Professional Performance Engineering (LoadRunner Professional)
Compared 6% of the time
ReadyAPI Performance vs OpenText Professional Performance Engineering (LoadRunner Professional) Logo
ReadyAPI Performance vs OpenText Professional Performance Engineering (LoadRunner Professional)
Compared 4% of the time
More OpenText Professional Performance Engineering (LoadRunner Professional) Competitors
Apache JMeter vs OpenText Silk Performer Logo
Apache JMeter vs OpenText Silk Performer
Compared 58% of the time
More OpenText Silk Performer Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
OpenText Professional Performance Engineering (LoadRunner Professional)
June 2025
OpenText Professional Performance Engineering (LoadRunner Professional) reportDownload OpenText Professional Performance Engineering (LoadRunner Professional) product report
Buyer's Guide
Load Testing Tools
June 2025
OpenText Silk Performer reportDownload OpenText Silk Performer product report
 

Also Known As

Micro Focus LoadRunner Professional, Micro Focus LoadRunner, HPE LoadRunner, LoadRunner
Micro Focus Silk Performer, Silk Performer
 

Overview

OpenText Professional Performance Engineering, known as LoadRunner Professional, stands out with its powerful scripting tool, flexible capabilities, and extensive analytics, supporting numerous concurrent users for impactful load testing.

This performance engineering tool offers integration across systems and strong community support, paired with user-friendly interfaces. It excels in features like multi-protocol support, auto-correlation, and detailed reporting. However, improvements are needed in user-friendliness and cost-effectiveness, as scripting remains complex and pricing is a hurdle. Enhancing mobile and SPA testing capabilities, modern protocol support, and compatibility with non-Windows platforms would greatly benefit users while expanding monitoring and technical support responsiveness.

What are the key features of OpenText LoadRunner Professional?
  • Powerful Scripting Tool: Facilitates complex load testing scenarios.
  • Flexible Engine: Supports various test configurations.
  • Multi-Protocol Support: Ensures broad compatibility.
  • Extensive Analytics: Provides real-time performance stats.
  • Concurrent User Simulation: Enables robust load testing.
  • Auto-Correlation: Simplifies script creation.
  • Comprehensive Reporting: Offers detailed insights.
What benefits should users expect from LoadRunner Professional?
  • Enhanced System Performance: Identifies and rectifies bottlenecks.
  • Cost Efficiency: Strategic use can reduce overall costs.
  • Industry Compatibility: Adapts to diverse environments.
  • Scalability: Supports applications with varied user loads.
  • Performance Benchmarking: Ensures optimal application performance.

LoadRunner Professional is employed for performance and load testing across sectors such as banking, hospitality, and telecommunications. Users simulate business transactions and test applications under different user loads, focusing on API testing, web applications, and benchmarking to achieve optimal performance in complex scenarios.

OpenText

Test Asset reusability for performance monitoring
Silk Performer can considerably speed up testing cycles by allowing you to reuse your existing functional tests. Use Silk Test® or Selenium for performance testing and synthetic monitoring purposes as well.

Cloud in
Integrated scalability from the Cloud
Silk Performer load testing enables your applications for 'battle readiness' that can withstand massive, global usage. Easily simulate any size peak-load and avoid costly investments in stress testing hardware and setup.

Retina scan
Monitor user experience with advanced diagnostics
Detect, isolate, and resolve performance issues with effective end-to-end diagnostics. Design scripts to uncover errors from the user’s perspective and analyze results with easy to read visual reporting.

Monitor
A leading web support for load and stress testing
Validate performance of your most complex web applications and efficiently create comprehensive tests that reflect real world conditions and usage patterns.

Comprehensive mobile performance testing
Lower the cost and complexity of testing mobile web and mobile native applications at scale. Silk Performer provides a complete set of profiles for all popular mobile devices, application types, and connection speeds.

OpenText
 

Sample Customers

JetBlue, GOME, Australian Red Cross Blood Service, RMIT University, Virgin Media
University of Colorado, Medidata, Monash University
Buyer's Guide
Load Testing Tools
June 2025
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