Who LoadBolt is for
LoadBolt is for developers and small-to-medium teams who want straightforward load testing without a learning curve. You shouldn't need to learn a framework, configure distributed agents, or sit through a sales demo just to find out if your API can handle 500 concurrent users.
Comparison table
| LoadBolt | k6 Cloud | BlazeMeter | Loader.io |
|---|
| Free tier | Yes — 50 VUs, 500 VU-min/mo | Yes — limited | Yes — limited | Yes — 1 URL |
| Starts at | $99/mo | $0.0005/VUh (~$30/VUh) | $149/mo (fixed) | $99.95/mo |
| Scripting | k6 (JavaScript) | k6 (JavaScript) | JMeter, Gatling, k6, more | URL-only (no scripting) |
| Setup time | ~2 minutes | ~5 minutes | ~15 minutes | ~2 minutes |
| Geo-distributed | Single region | 21+ regions | Multiple regions | Single region |
| Browser testing | No | Yes (k6 browser) | Yes | No |
| Per-seat pricing | No — unlimited seats | Yes | Yes | No |
| Max VUs | 3,000 | Varies by plan | Varies by plan | 10,000 |
| Custom scripts | Yes (k6 JS) | Yes (k6 JS) | Yes (multiple) | No |
| Live metrics | Yes (1s updates) | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Result export | PDF, CSV, JSON | CSV, JSON | Various | CSV |
Where LoadBolt wins
- Simplicity. Set your URL, pick your load, hit go. You can run your first test in 2 minutes with zero scripting knowledge.
- Transparent pricing. Plans start at $99/mo with clear VU-minute allowances and $5/1,000 VU-min overage. No “contact sales” for a quote.
- No per-seat pricing. Add your whole team without the price going up. Most competitors charge per user.
- Fast setup. Sign in with Google, verify your domain, run a test. No agents to install, no infrastructure to configure.
- Built on k6. Same scripting language as k6 Cloud. If you already know k6, you already know LoadBolt. And if you decide to move on, your scripts aren't locked in.
Where alternatives win
We're not going to pretend LoadBolt is the right tool for every situation. Here's where the bigger tools have an edge:
- Geo-distributed testing. If you need to simulate load from 12 different geographic regions, k6 Cloud and BlazeMeter support that. LoadBolt runs tests from a single region.
- Browser-level testing. k6 Cloud has k6 browser for testing full browser interactions. LoadBolt is protocol-level only (HTTP requests).
- Enterprise features. SSO/SAML, audit logs, SOC 2 compliance, dedicated support — the big platforms have these. LoadBolt is built for small-to-medium teams.
- Higher VU limits. LoadBolt caps at 3,000 VUs. If you need 50,000 concurrent users, you need a bigger tool.
- Multiple protocols. BlazeMeter supports JMeter, Gatling, Selenium, and more. LoadBolt is k6-only.
If you need geo-distributed load from 12 regions with JMeter plugins and a SOC 2 report, you probably want a bigger tool. We're okay with that — LoadBolt is designed to be the best option for teams who don't need all that.
Price comparison with real numbers
Let's say you want to run 200 VUs for 10 minutes, twice a week. That's 2,000 VU-minutes per run, or about 16,000 VU-minutes per month.
- LoadBolt Starter: $99/mo (includes 25,000 VU-min — you're well within your plan)
- k6 Cloud: Usage-based pricing — roughly $8/test at this scale, ~$64/mo
- BlazeMeter: $149/mo minimum (fixed-tier pricing)
- Loader.io: $99.95/mo (but no custom scripts, so you're limited to single-URL tests)
The “built on k6” advantage
LoadBolt runs k6 v0.55.0 under the hood. Your scripts are standard k6 JavaScript — the same language used by k6 Cloud. This means:
- No vendor lock-in. Your scripts work anywhere k6 runs.
- You can develop and debug scripts locally with the k6 CLI before uploading to LoadBolt.
- The entire k6 ecosystem of documentation, examples, and community applies.