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tsenart/vegeta

Analysis updated 2026-06-21

★ 25,026GoAudience · ops devopsComplexity · 2/5LicenseSetup · easy

TLDR

Vegeta is a command-line load testing tool that floods your web server with requests to measure how it holds up under heavy traffic, showing response times, error rates, and latency.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((Vegeta))
    What it does
      HTTP load testing
      Latency reports
      HTML plots
    Features
      Custom headers
      HTTP2 TLS
      Distributed mode
    Use cases
      Pre-launch stress test
      Benchmark infra
      SLA validation
    Audience
      DevOps engineers
      Backend developers
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Code map

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What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Stress-test a new API before launch to find out if it stays fast under hundreds of simultaneous users.

USE CASE 2

Benchmark infrastructure changes to confirm a performance improvement is real before deploying.

USE CASE 3

Validate that a service meets a performance target like 'respond in under 200ms at 100 requests/second'.

USE CASE 4

Run distributed load tests across multiple machines to simulate traffic from different regions.

What is it built with?

Go

How does it compare?

tsenart/vegetanetbirdio/netbirdcharmbracelet/glow
Stars25,02625,01624,934
LanguageGoGoGo
Setup difficultyeasymoderateeasy
Complexity2/53/51/5
Audienceops devopsops devopsdeveloper

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min

Install via Homebrew, pacman, or download a pre-compiled binary, no build step needed.

Open-source under MIT, use freely for any purpose including commercial load testing.

In plain English

Vegeta is a load testing tool for HTTP services, meaning it hammers a web server with a high volume of requests to see how it holds up under pressure. The name is a Dragon Ball Z reference ("It's over 9000!"), hinting at its ability to push extremely high request rates. It solves the problem of not knowing whether your API or website will stay fast and reliable when many users hit it at the same time. You give Vegeta a target URL and a request rate (say, 50 requests per second), and it fires traffic at that endpoint for a set duration. Afterward, it generates detailed reports: response times, success rates, latency percentiles, and more. You can also pipe the results into a visual HTML plot. It's deliberately designed to avoid "coordinated omission," a subtle measurement flaw where slow responses skew results by hiding how bad the worst cases really are. Vegeta works both as a command-line tool and as a Go library you can embed in your own code. Installation is straightforward via Homebrew on macOS, pacman on Arch Linux, or a pre-compiled binary. It supports HTTP/2, TLS certificates, custom headers, and distributed load testing across multiple machines. You'd reach for Vegeta when stress-testing a new API before launch, benchmarking infrastructure changes, or validating that your service meets a performance SLA (service level agreement, a target like "respond in under 200ms"). Built in Go.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Using Vegeta, load test my API endpoint at 100 requests per second for 30 seconds and show me the latency percentiles.
Prompt 2
How do I use Vegeta to generate an HTML plot of response times so I can visualize how my server performs under load?
Prompt 3
Show me how to run a Vegeta load test with custom HTTP headers and a JSON body against a POST endpoint.
Prompt 4
How do I use Vegeta as a Go library to embed load testing into my own test suite?

Frequently asked questions

What is vegeta?

Vegeta is a command-line load testing tool that floods your web server with requests to measure how it holds up under heavy traffic, showing response times, error rates, and latency.

What language is vegeta written in?

Mainly Go. The stack also includes Go.

What license does vegeta use?

Open-source under MIT, use freely for any purpose including commercial load testing.

How hard is vegeta to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated easy, with roughly 5min to a first successful run.

Who is vegeta for?

Mainly ops devops.

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