The pricing is high compared to other licensing tools like NeoLoad. It's not excessively expensive but higher than NeoLoad. However, in my experience, clients often weigh NeoLoad and LoadRunner equally. LoadRunner has been around for a long time, and while some companies have moved away from it, the higher pricing can be attributed to its support for multiple protocols. For instance, it supports over 40 protocols, including SAP, Citrix, Oracle databases, and batch testing. This wide range of protocol support is one reason for the higher cost. Depending on the applications being tested, whether desktop, Citrix or something else, you may need to purchase specific protocol-based licenses.
LoadRunner offers a free license for up to fifty users, which may not be adequate for most projects. Projects require more load to simulate real business scenarios, so a more comprehensive pricing model may be necessary.
Two main licensing budgets are to consider: one for LoadRunner and another for NeoLoad. If a project has no budget for purchasing a product and is looking for open-source tools, I highly recommend starting with Apache JMeter. However, it's important to note that JMeter may not be flexible enough for all requirements, especially for desktop applications, as it has limitations.
JMeter operates in a single interface and lacks commercial tools' structured reporting and usability features, making it less user-friendly. While it’s a good starting point due to being free, users may need extra effort to organize and interpret results.
We recently evaluated OpenText's LoadRunner and NeoLoad for a project. We engaged with both vendors to take demos and understand their licensing models. Generally, NeoLoad's pricing was comparable to LoadRunne