Overload.su vs. traditional load testing tools: what's the real difference?
Created in 2024 by Jordan McRae, Overload.su is a stress testing service that offers a fundamentally different approach when compared to its competitors in the niche. Relying on realistic stress testing, the team behind it has managed to help over 20,000 clients in less than a year, making it one of the most prominent newcomers to the scene.
But what even is realistic stress testing? How does it compare to more traditional approaches, and what makes it so valuable to so many businesses?
What traditional load testing tools do
“The standard approach is pretty straightforward: synthetic traffic, virtual users, and preset scripts. It does provide valuable info, but there are multiple limitations that most companies requesting stress testing services aren’t aware of: from outdated patterns to low adaptability to modern attack surfaces. These tests also don’t prepare you for real-life scenarios, and it’s very easy to miss bottlenecks and inefficiencies if you only use them,” explains Jordan McRae, CEO of Overload.su.
As McRae adds, traditional tools are designed to simulate expected usage and not unpredictable traffic surges or bad actors. At the same time, the modern internet has become highly unpredictable — a single influencer can randomly recommend a particular product, and that will result in a massive influx of users. When a platform isn’t prepared for that kind of situation, this will inevitably result in poor performance and high downtime, which in turn negatively impacts the company’s reputation and results in lost profits.
Overload.su's core advantage
Overload.su uses real traffic patterns, proxies, botnets, and global IP distribution to mimic genuine user behavior and real-world attack conditions accurately. The team offers businesses not just a stress testing tool, but a service that recreates what a DDoS attack would look like, for instance, exposing hidden vulnerabilities. The team offers detailed post-reports with actionable, contextual insights instead of raw throughput numbers. This has already saved thousands of clients from CDN misconfigurations, API bottlenecks, and WAF weaknesses.
Essentially, we want to help clients understand not just if something is broken, but why it is broken, and what they can do to fix it. We believe that this level of service is something every business deserves, and it also helps create a far more secure environment for everyone, from owners to users,” says Jordan McRae, founder of Overload.su.
As McRae adds, while traditional tools may appear cheaper, they often require internal expertise and time investment, while Overload.su runs turnkey simulations with expert support, white-glove onboarding, and continuous monitoring during tests. This helps companies get everything they need immediately, removing any associated hassle.
“Traditional tools give data, but we also add clarity and confidence to the mix. Realistic testing isn’t an option if you’re expecting to scale your business any time soon; properly, it’s a necessity that you cannot ignore,” says Jordan McRae.
