No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

IBM Rational Performance Tester vs Inflectra SpiraTest comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jun 3, 2026

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM Rational Performance Te...
Ranking in Test Management Tools
15th
Average Rating
7.6
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Inflectra SpiraTest
Ranking in Test Management Tools
18th
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
Application Requirements Management (11th), AI Quality Assurance (8th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Test Management Tools category, the mindshare of IBM Rational Performance Tester is 3.5%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Inflectra SpiraTest is 2.6%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Test Management Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM Rational Performance Tester3.5%
Inflectra SpiraTest2.6%
Other93.9%
Test Management Tools
 

Featured Reviews

KashifJamil - PeerSpot reviewer
CEO at Xcelliti
Supports web and mobile applications, very scalable, very stable, and wonderful support
There are some features that Micro Focus LoadRunner provides, but they are not available in IBM Rational Performance Tester. They should include such features. It can also have more reports similar to what HP provides. It might also need some improvement in terms of the tools and support for other technology areas. Certain technologies are not supported by every tool. They need to support all sorts of technologies and platforms on which web applications and mobile applications are built. They need complete support for all sorts of technologies.
Jason Lopez - PeerSpot reviewer
Test Manager at a engineering company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Intuitive enough and easy to learn, but in terms of folder organization, it could be better
Inflectra SpiraTest is the new kid on the block compared to Jira and Azure. Still, when I started exploring the tool, I realized that it was no different from other tools I've used in the past, but it all boils down to adaptability because the features would always be more or less the same. I found Inflectra SpiraTest intuitive enough. It's also easy to learn, so this is what I like about it.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Once you are used to this tool, it is user friendly and provides very good analysis for web applications."
"The setup was straightforward, it depends on the company's regulations and infrastructure policies."
"It has improved our visibility of reporting and simplifying performance testing for larger projects/programs."
"Virtual Users."
"Technical support is very good. I'm very satisfied with the assistance we've received so far."
"It's one of the most cost-effective products on the market."
"It's definitely helped in scaling the performance of our application."
"ROI is big because we do not need vendors to assist some with performance testing."
"I found Inflectra SpiraTest intuitive enough. It's also easy to learn, so this is what I like about it."
"Instead of IBM or HP tools, SpiraTest has affordable prices and support."
"Once you have learned it (it has so much functionality), it's quite easy to do a lot of things."
"It has created paper trail, and an audit history with detailed information on where the defect is currently from, what environment it is in, and whether it is being worked on, and if so, who by."
"The features of this product most valuable to me were the test case management and the visual status, by which it was displayed."
"Customer Service: The customer service is the very best I have ever experienced."
"Over time and further upgrades these have improved."
"It has helped our company to centralise our testing efforts and create better visibility into our testing."
 

Cons

"Installation and configuration processes, and support from IBM all need to be improved."
"As intuitive as a product can be, its use could still benefit from a decent set of manuals or guides."
"There are some features that Micro Focus LoadRunner provides, but they are not available in IBM Rational Performance Tester."
"Sometimes new versions have bugs."
"For a rational performance testing solution, the initial setup is very complex. The setup was difficult and the documentation was not very up to date."
"I’d like to see a tighter integration with Rational Quality Manager and the Jazz platform."
"Since it is Java-based, it is expected to be a resource eater on Windows."
"The installation and tool setup can take some time, since this involves several components."
"We found that, after a while, that after we entered hundreds of test cases into the system, operations like deleting a test case, or a test run, began to take over an hour to complete."
"Two areas that can stand improvement: integration with third party products and making it more intuitive."
"However, when you need to apply a change to a workflow which is used in multiple projects, you need to modify the projects one by one."
"It should develop integration with JIRA."
"There have been sporadic DB errors related to performance."
"The UI for managing test cases, test sets, test runs could be a little more integrated, currently, these feel disjointed at times and confusing. Also, the test steps page needs to display the test steps closer to the top of the UI so as to not have to scroll down to find."
"Currently, I am waiting for a major improvement when it comes to sharing all artifacts across projects, this is something the Inflectra team is working on."
"Migrating is not very easy. It depends on the organization, how efficient and effective the decision-making process is. The plug-ins should be easier and more integrated rather than the user trying to integrate the tools which are more popular, like Jira et al."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is much cheaper than Micro Focus LoadRunner. We need perpetual licenses. Support is included in the first sale. After that, you need to renew support every year."
"I Googled the pricing for Inflectra SpiraTest, and it's about $4,000 annually."
"The pricing was excellent. I would recommend the enterprise solution."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Test Management Tools solutions are best for your needs.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Construction Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Outsourcing Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business4
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise8
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise7
 

Also Known As

Rational Performance Tester
SpiraTest, Spira
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

andagon, Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon
- Morningstar - Deutsch Bank - Sopra Group - Booz Allen & Hamilton - UBS - US Government
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Rational Performance Tester vs. Inflectra SpiraTest and other solutions. Updated: June 2026.
900,644 professionals have used our research since 2012.