As a new piece of technology on the scene, we’ve made some big claims! Of course, Cyrex Swarm has been utilized in every load testing engagement since its completion several years ago. Now that it has entered beta, and we have a lot of requests to test it out, we think now would be a good time to compare Cyrex Swarm with similar solutions on the market.  

We promise that Cyrex Swarm can easily stand against and above Apache JMeter, a product we would consider current competition. Despite being an open-source tool, often not commercialised, it’s something we looked at for our original development. Let’s list out a few of our advantages which we recently delivered to a current client.  

Cyrex Swarm vs Apache JMeter

One of our main selling points and the strength of the cloud-based solution, is Cyrex Swarm’s lightweight and scalable nature. We often see an issue with volume in our competitor’s load tests, an inability to scale upwards to handle more serious or intensive tasks.

Cost-effectiveness

Cyrex Swarm is capable of simulating millions of simultaneous users with minimal hardware usage. JMeter, by comparison, is an older Java-based solution. From an operational standpoint, it is more expensive to set up and run.   

Compatibility

In addition, Cyrex Swarm’s load tests are scripted in Python, which offers flexibility in leveraging all the language has to offer. Compared to JMeter’s specific XML format, which is often found to be quite restrictive.  

Scalability

We’ve found that scaling with JMeter and our competitors can be challenging. It is often not a straightforward process and potentially costly for the process. We built Cyrex Swarm to run in a distributed manner, meaning we have no restrictions on user numbers for scaling.   

R&D

One of the most important differentiators between JMeter and Swarm is the lack of setup costs. Swarm is just ready to be used, while JMeter requires you to deploy the solution and go through an entire flow. Additionally, there's no R&D required to use Swarm, while with JMeter that's definitely the case.

In fact, if there are any issues encountered, you have to tackle them yourself. Working with Swarm takes away all that, all you need to focus on is doing the tests, we'll take care of the rest.  

Out-of-the-box features

Swarm also has built-in solutions for user registration, email validation, and can distribute those users in a unique manner. All delivering a smooth and seamless experience for our clients.  

Protocols and Support with Cyrex Swarm

Compatible with a wide range of protocols, including gaming-specific ones like Unreal Engine. As a gaming-oriented team, we wanted to ensure our solutions fit all of our clients and didn’t struggle in the gaming sphere. These protocols are often unsupported, that was something we wanted to rectify. As we built this load testing solution from the ground up, our team have been with it since day one! Creating new scripts to day-to-day operation, our team can tweak and update it freely to ensure it supports your needs.  

Additionally, throughout your time with the Cyrex team, we guarantee support for the entire engagement where you will have our team’s expertise from over 5 years of advisory and consultancy experience.  

Finally, we always seek to understand and get a comprehensive understanding of our clients’ systems and operations. Should we ever have the pleasure of repeated engagements, we promise a team who will understand your systems, solutions, and architecture. When you work with Cyrex, you will receive a tailored solution every time.  

We hope this has helped convince you of the strengths of the Cyrex team and our proprietary Swarm technology! If you’re ever in need of penetration testing or load testing services, get in touch! We’re always ready for the next challenge.