JMeter was first developed by Stefano Mazzochi from Apache software. It was originally designed for the purpose of testing the Apache JServ Protocol (AJP) but was redesigned by Apache with an enhanced GUI and the ability to perform functional testing. It is now an open-source testing software that is made up of pure Java applications for the purpose of load and performance testing. It covers a wide variety of test categories, including functional, load, performance, and regression.

The protocols that JMeter supports include the following:

• The web, including HTTP and HTTPS sites
• Web services, such as SOAP/XML-RPC
• Databases via JDBC drivers
• Directories, such as LDAP
• Messaging-oriented services via JMS
• Services, such as POP3, IMAP, and SMTP
• FTP services

With a simple GUI, JMeter can conduct load and performance tests and is completely platform-free, whether you are running it on Linux or Windows. In the following section, we'll learn how to install JMeter on your machine.