WebPageTest mobile browser or mobitest ?

Web Performance Optimization Discussions
1

Hi !

i would like to do some performance test on mobile, but i don’t know differentes between choose WebPageTest with a mobile browser and mobitest ?

Could you explain me please ?

Thanks !

2

Your best option would be to use the new Android browsers in the Dulles location (Moto G, Nexus 5 or Nexus 7). To avoid confusion I just got rid of the dedicated “Mobile” tab that would kick out to Mobitest.

Mobitest has more locations and devices available but relies on code that was written 3-4 years ago. It was great at the time but the new agents have a lot more visibility into the requests and can capture video without impacting the page loading.

For iOS the Dulles agent is still running the old Mobitest code but appurify has a new agent that they wrote that I’ll be exposing on the main WebPagetest instance soon (you can test it out at appurify.webpagetest.org).

3

Thanks for your answer, it’s very helpful.
i have an other one question…it’s possible to make test on real mobile, material. How does it work ? i need license ?

4

The tests are done on real mobile devices. Here is what the Dulles devices look like: https://twitter.com/patmeenan/status/430524178111164416/photo/1

If you want to do your own testing with your own devices you can install a private instance: https://sites.google.com/a/webpagetest.org/docs/private-instances

5

Thanks a lot Patrick !

i’ve again a question…sorry haha

I think we can run 9 tests simultaneously on a device, right ?
I work in a performance team, and sometimes we make somes tests to see performances on website, we launch a lot of test to have a global vision and to be sure that results are coherents

For mobile, how many devices could we use to have coherents results ?
[hr]
Oh sorry i forget a question
For IOs agent you said that you be exposing on the main WebPagetest instance soon.
The agent will eb the same that appurify ? and do you have an idea when ?
Be cause if i use android agent on wepagetest it’s better if i use Ios agent on webpagetest too ?

And it’s possible to connect real device on virtual machine ?

6

You can submit a test that requests that the page be loaded 9 times in a single test. That won’t be “simultaneously” though, it will be done one at a time after each other (closing the browser and clearing the caches/profile between loads).

The number of tests you need to do to get stable results depends heavily on the site you are testing (if there is variability in the back-end or edge-served resources). I usually do at least 5 runs but also look at the standard deviations. Sometimes you won’t get stable results no matter how much you run.

Yes, the Appurify agents will be exposed on the main site soon (this week). You can use whatever iOS agent you’d like but the Appurify agents support the latest devices and have video capture support which the Mobitest agents do not.

For the virtual machine question, are you talking about running a private instance where you deploy the software yourself? If so then yes, as long as the VM supports USB you can connect real phones to a VM and control them from the VM.

7

Thanks Patrick
but to be sure i understand, i’ve a server to create private instance and to connect my device, and after i need a VM to execute my private instance ?

8

And for a Ios agent, i need Xcode ? so i need to have a Vm mac or a mac to can run test on ios agent ?