reqbench

Simple, beautiful API load testing from the terminal.

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The Problem

• You want to load-test an API endpoint but ab requires Apache, wrk needs compilation, and k6 demands a config file before it'll run a single request.
• You get a wall of numbers with no sense of what's good or bad.
• You need to hand results to a teammate but all you have is terminal scrollback.

The Solution

• One command to benchmark any URL — no config, no install friction, no boilerplate.
• Beautiful output with latency percentiles, status code bars, and a distribution histogram — right in your terminal.
• JSON export so results live in your CI artifacts, dashboards, or issue comments.

Quick Start

npm install -g reqbench

reqbench https://api.example.com/users

That's it. Results appear in seconds.

Usage

Basic GET

reqbench https://api.example.com/users

POST with inline body

reqbench https://api.example.com/users -m POST -b '{"name":"test"}'

POST with body from file

reqbench https://api.example.com/users -m POST -b @payload.json

Custom headers

reqbench https://api.example.com -H "Authorization: Bearer token" -H "X-App-Version: 2"

Duration mode — run for 30 seconds with 50 concurrent connections

reqbench https://api.example.com -d 30s -c 50

Export results to JSON

reqbench https://api.example.com -o results.json

Quiet mode — summary only, no progress bar

reqbench https://api.example.com -q

Sample Output

  reqbench — https://api.example.com/users

  Running 100 requests with 10 concurrent connections...

  ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  Summary
  ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────

  Total Requests    100
  Succeeded         100          (100.00%)
  Total Time        1.24s
  Requests/sec      80.65

  ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  Latency
  ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────

  Min               45ms
  Max               312ms
  Mean              121ms
  Median (p50)      108ms
  p90               198ms
  p95               241ms
  p99               307ms

  ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  Status Codes
  ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────

  200                 100  ████████████████████

  ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────
  Latency Distribution
  ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────

  0–50ms     ██                         3
  50–100ms   ████████                  18
  100–150ms  ████████████████████      47
  150–200ms  ████████████              22
  200–250ms  ████                       7
  250–300ms  █                          2
  300ms+     █                          1

CLI Reference

Flag	Short	Description	Default
<url>	—	Target URL (required)	—
--requests	-n	Total number of requests	100
--concurrency	-c	Concurrent connections	10
--duration	-d	Run for a fixed duration instead of a request count (e.g. 10s, 1m, 500ms)	—
--method	-m	HTTP method	GET
--body	-b	Request body — inline string or @filename to read from a file	—
--header	-H	HTTP header in Key: Value format — repeatable	—
--timeout	-t	Per-request timeout	10s
--output	-o	Export results to a JSON file	—
--quiet	-q	Only show summary (no progress bar)	—
--no-color	—	Disable colored output	—
--version	-V	Print version and exit	—

Duration format: plain milliseconds (500), seconds (10s), or minutes (2m).

-d vs -n: When --duration is set it takes precedence and --requests is ignored.

Comparison

Feature	reqbench	ab	wrk	k6	autocannon
Beautiful output	yes	-	-	partial	-
Zero config	yes	yes	yes	-	yes
JSON export	yes	-	-	yes	yes
Duration mode	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Custom headers	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
Node.js native	yes	-	-	-	yes
No compilation needed	yes	-	-	yes	yes

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Here's how to get started:

git clone https://github.com/sup3x/reqbench.git
cd reqbench
npm install
npm test        # Run the test suite
npm run build   # Build for production

Development workflow:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch: git checkout -b feat/your-feature
3. Make your changes and add tests
4. Run npm test to ensure all tests pass
5. Submit a pull request

Please make sure all existing tests pass and new features include appropriate test coverage.

License

MIT — Kerim Gulen