MQTT is the go-to protocol for real-time, lightweight communication across millions of devices. From smart homes to industrial IoT, MQTT powers systems where low latency and reliability are non-negotiable.
But here’s the catch: when your app scales, performance bottlenecks often surface where you least expect them—impacting both device-to-cloud communication and user experience.
So how do you make sure your MQTT infrastructure performs at scale?
Most load testing tools are built for HTTP APIs and traditional web traffic. MQTT, being a stateful, event-driven protocol, behaves differently:
Without a purpose-built approach to MQTT load testing, teams are often left guessing:
Unfortunately, these questions are usually answered too late—in production.
Whether you’re building connected devices, live chat, or telemetry platforms, MQTT performance directly affects:
Testing MQTT systems at scale isn’t just about robustness—it’s about reliability, cost efficiency, and avoiding production failures in high-stakes environments.
Companies that skip performance testing for MQTT often end up over-provisioning infrastructure or, worse, firefighting stability issues during customer-facing events.
Gatling is widely known for its powerful load testing engine and test-as-code flexibility. With the MQTT plugin, teams can now simulate thousands of real-time MQTT clients—publishing, subscribing, and managing connections—at scale.
Follow our full tutorial to start building and running MQTT tests with Gatling: