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k6 vs Vegeta: open-source performance and load testing tools compared

Metrics as of , from the GitHub or GitLab API of each repository. Refreshed monthly.

Summary

k6: Load-testing tool that runs JavaScript test scripts from the CLI, in CI or on Kubernetes.

Vegeta: HTTP load testing CLI and Go library that sends requests at a constant rate with text, JSON and histogram reports.

Both are listed under Performance and load testing. The table gives repository metrics from the GitHub API with their fetch date, then the documented facts used for every comparison in this category, each linked to the README or docs page it comes from. A cell reads "not documented" when the fact was not found in the project's documentation (1 of 12 fact cells here); that does not mean the feature is absent.

Side by side

k6 and Vegeta: metrics and documented facts, in the fixed row order used for performance and load testing comparisons.
Factk6Vegeta
Stars31,548125,2001
Forks1,63511,4211
Contributors2891841
Last release2026-09-2112025-10-311
Last commit2026-09-2212026-02-161
Commits in 90 days177101
LicenseAGPL-3.01MIT1
Primary languageGo1Go1
Statusactive1slow1
ProtocolsHTTP, WebSockets, gRPC, browser; more through extensions source: READMEHTTP, with HTTP/2 to servers that support it and h2c source: README
Test authoring formatCode (JavaScript test scripts run by an embedded engine) source: READMECommand-line tool reading targets files (http or JSON format), or Go code using the library source: README
Distributed or parallel loadDistributed tests on Kubernetes with the k6-operator (TestRun parallelism) source: Docs: Running distributed testsDistributed attacks across several machines, each sending part of the rate (pdsh example) source: README
CI integrationIntegration guides for GitHub Actions, GitLab, Jenkins, CircleCI, Azure Pipelines, TeamCity and others source: Docs: Integrations and toolsnot documentednot found in the project's documentation as of
Report formatsEnd-of-test summary; CSV and JSON files; streaming to InfluxDB, Prometheus remote write, Datadog, OpenTelemetry and others source: Docs: Real timeText, JSON, histogram and HdrHistogram plot reports; HTML latency plot; CSV, gob and JSON encodings source: README
Install methodPackages for Linux, macOS and Windows (apt, dnf, brew, winget); Docker image grafana/k6; standalone binary source: Docs: Install k6Pre-compiled executables; Homebrew (brew install vegeta), MacPorts, pacman, FreeBSD pkg source: README

1 Fetched from the GitHub or GitLab API on . Hover a value for its own date.

When each fits

Written from each project's documented scope, not from preference. Neither tool is ranked.

k6

Fits projects that load test services with test scripts kept as code; its README describes scripts that run on the CLI, in CI or across a Kubernetes cluster. source: README

Vegeta

Fits projects that load test HTTP services at a constant request rate; its README describes use as a command line tool and as a Go library. source: README

More on these tools

Sources

  1. GitHub REST API: repository, read
  2. GitHub REST API: repository, read
  3. GitHub REST API: contributors, read
  4. GitHub REST API: contributors, read
  5. GitHub REST API: latest release, read
  6. GitHub REST API: latest release, read
  7. GitHub REST API: commits, read
  8. GitHub REST API: commits, read
  9. README, read
  10. README, read
  11. Docs: Running distributed tests, read
  12. Docs: Integrations and tools, read
  13. Docs: Real time, read
  14. Docs: Install k6, read

Documented facts collected 2026-09-22. See the methodology for how metrics and facts are gathered.