Performance Testing Service (PTS) is a distributed stress testing platform for validating system performance before releases, identifying bottlenecks under load, and planning capacity for traffic spikes.
Validate new releases
Before a new system goes live, run stress tests with PTS to measure site capacity and catch performance issues early. This prevents production outages caused by unexpected traffic after launch.
Verify technical upgrades
After a major architecture change, use PTS to benchmark the new setup against previous baselines. Stress tests reveal whether the upgrade meets performance targets or introduces regressions.
Ensure stability during traffic peaks
For peak events such as promotions, flash sales, or seasonal surges, run stress tests in advance to verify that your system handles the expected load without degradation.
Plan site capacity
Use PTS to determine how much traffic your system supports at different resource levels. Stress test results help you allocate compute resources across distributed systems and right-size infrastructure before scaling.
Identify performance bottlenecks
Pinpoint slow components, resource constraints, and failure points under load. Targeted stress tests reveal exactly where optimization has the greatest impact.
Supported protocols and client types
PTS supports stress testing for applications that use HTTP, HTTPS, or WebSocket.
| Client type | Examples |
|---|---|
| Web applications | Desktop and mobile browsers |
| Self-developed applications | Custom-built services and backends |
| WeChat mini programs | Mini programs running in the WeChat ecosystem |
| Client/server (C/S) applications | Traditional client-server architecture |
PTS also integrates open-source JMeter, extending protocol coverage beyond HTTP and HTTPS. For example, combine JMeter with WebSocket plug-ins to stress test WebSocket-based applications.
Supported network environments
PTS can stress test any Internet-accessible application, regardless of where it is deployed.
| Deployment model | Description |
|---|---|
| Public Cloud | Applications hosted on Alibaba Cloud |
| Apsara Stack | Applications on Alibaba Cloud's private cloud platform |
| Hybrid cloud | Applications spanning cloud and on-premises environments |
| Self-managed IDCs | Applications in your own data centers |
To simulate real-world traffic patterns, PTS generates load from Content Distribution Network (CDN) nodes across hundreds of cities worldwide, including nodes from multiple carriers.
Industry coverage
PTS has served the Alibaba ecosystem for many years, supporting major promotion events such as Double 11 and Double 12 hosted by Tmall, and Chinese New Year. PTS is used across industries including e-commerce, multimedia, finance and insurance, logistics and express delivery, advertising and marketing, social networking, government, and online education. PTS Standard Edition provides stress testing scenario orchestration and reporting to help teams identify issues and optimize system performance.
For industry-specific examples, see: