Performance testing is the process of testing an application’s stability and response time by applying load. Performance testing is important to understand how many users the application can handle, how well the application can recover when the number of users crosses the maximum users count, and what is the response time of the application under normal and peak loads.

The different types of Performance Testing

• Load Testing
  Testing an application’s stability and response time by applying a load equal to or less then the expected number of users.
• Stress Testing
  Testing an application’s stability and response time by applying a load more than the expected number of users.
• Scalability Testing

Testing an application’s stability and response time by scaling up or down the number of requests . The purpose of this testing is where exactly the application is crashing. 

• Volume Testing / Flood Testing 

Testing the capacity of the Database by transferring huge amounts of data. Soak Testing / Endurance Testing
Testing an application’s stability and response time by applying load continuously for a longer period of time.