How to Download and Install Apache JMeter on Windows

Today you’re going to see how to download and install Apache JMeter on Windows.

In four easy steps.

Let’s get this show on the road.

What is Apache JMeter?

Apache JMeter is a load testing tool. It focuses on analyzing and measuring the performance of a variety of services.

JMeter was originally designed for testing Web applications. Today it has the ability to test many different protocols: HTTP, FTP, JDBC, LDAP, JMS, SMTP, POP3, IMAP, TCP, and others.

The JMeter project is part of the Apache Software Foundation. A decentralized open source community of developers.

Step #1: Check Prerequisites

Apache JMeter requires Java to work. So let’s check if you have Java configured on your system.

Click on the search button. Then type “cmd” (without quotes).

If you have Windows 7 click on the Windows button.

Click on the Command Prompt shortcut.

Wait for the command prompt to open.

Type “java -version” and press ENTER.

The above command prints the installed Java version.

For JMeter 3.2 and onward you need Java version 1.8 or higher.

If you do not have Java installed on your system. Check following post which details how to install JDK 8 on Windows 10.

Step #2: Download

Head over to the JMeter download page.

Scroll down and locate the Binaries section.

Click on the apache-jmeter-X.X.zip link.

At the time of writing the latest JMeter release was version: 5.0.

Wait for the download to complete.

Step #3: Install

Open the location of the downloaded binary distribution.

Select the ZIP archive file. Right-click and then click on the Extract All… menu item.

Select an extract destination for the JMeter files.

In this example, we extract in C:\Users\Downlinko\tools.

Click on Extract.

This extracts all JMeter files under C:\Users\Downlinko\tools\apache-jmeter-5.0.

From now on we refer to this location as [JMETER_INSTALL_DIR].

Step #4: Run

You can run JMeter in 3 modes: GUI Mode, Server Mode, and Command Line Mode. Let’s show how to start the graphical user interface.

Note that you should only use the GUI mode for creating the test scripts. Use the NON-GUI mode for load testing.

Navigate to the [JMETER_INSTALL_DIR] installation directory.

Open the bin folder.

Double click on the jmeter Windows batch file.

If active, Windows Defender will prevent JMeter from starting. Click on the More info link.

A new Run anyway button will appear. Click on it.

After a short time, the JMeter GUI appears.

Congratulations, you have installed Apache JMeter on Windows 10!

Take the next step and learn how to create a basic test plan.

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