Testground

Free plan APILinuxSelf-hosted

What Testground is

Testground is free software for testing, benchmarking, and simulating distributed and peer-to-peer systems at scale. It is designed for runs from 2 to 10,000 instances: local runners suit 2–300, while Kubernetes runners suit 300–10,000. Test plans may be written in Go, JavaScript, C, or shell, and the listed builders include Go. A Redis-backed coordination API supplies synchronization primitives for distributed workloads. Test instances can shape connectedness, latency, jitter, bandwidth, duplication, and packet corruption. Metrics go to InfluxDB in real time, with results sent in batches after a plan ends; runs can also collect logs, assets, event trails, and participant events. Testground is available as API and self-hosted software with hybrid deployment and active test methods. It is dual-licensed under MIT and Apache Software License v2. Binaries are not distributed, so installation requires building from source with Go 1.16 or later and a running Docker daemon.

Who it suits

Testground suits developers working on experimental protocols, debugging, comparative testing, or compatibility testing across distributed systems. It also fits teams needing controllable network conditions and InfluxDB metrics.

What it does well

Scales from 2 to 10,000 instances
Supports Go, JavaScript, C, and shell plans
Shapes latency, jitter, bandwidth, and packet behavior
Streams metrics to InfluxDB
Collects logs and run events

What to know first

Requires building from source
Needs Go 1.16 or later and Docker
Continuous integration is listed as planned

Verdict

Testground provides broad controls for distributed-system experiments, including large-scale runners, network simulation, coordination, and metrics. Its source-build installation and planned workflows should be considered before adoption.

Facts from Testground's own pages

Audience: The project describes use for experimental protocol development, debugging, comparative testing, and backward- and forward-compatibility testing. · github.com, 9 Oct 2026
Builders and runners: Go builders and local executable, local Docker, and Kubernetes runners are listed; local runs suit 2–300 instances and Kubernetes runs suit 300–10,000. · github.com, 9 Oct 2026
Coordination: A Redis-backed coordination API provides synchronization primitives for distributed test workloads. · github.com, 4 Oct 2026
Current workflow limits: The README marks continuous integration and interoperability testing as planned workflows. · github.com, 9 Oct 2026
Installation: The README says binaries are not distributed and installation requires building from source, with Go 1.16 or newer and a running Docker daemon. · github.com, 9 Oct 2026
Installation limit: The README says binaries are not distributed and users must build from source, with Go 1.16 or later and a running Docker daemon required. · github.com, 4 Oct 2026
Integrations: The README points to Kubernetes, AWS cluster setup instructions, and InfluxDB metrics and results; it describes Jupyter integration as upcoming. · github.com, 9 Oct 2026
Language support: Test plans may be written in Go, JavaScript, C, or shell, while the project says its available builders are for Go and TypeScript builders were in progress. · github.com, 9 Oct 2026
License: The project is dual licensed under MIT and Apache License 2.0. · github.com, 9 Oct 2026
Metrics: For Go test plans, the project describes automatic pprof diagnostics and real-time metrics sent to InfluxDB. · github.com, 9 Oct 2026
Metrics and results: Testground emits metrics to InfluxDB in real time and pushes results there in batches after a test plan concludes. · github.com, 4 Oct 2026
Network simulation: Test instances can shape connectedness, latency, jitter, bandwidth, duplication, and packet corruption. · github.com, 9 Oct 2026
Outputs: Users can collect logs, assets, event trails, and run events from participants in a test run. · github.com, 4 Oct 2026
Purpose: Testground tests, benchmarks, and simulates distributed and peer-to-peer systems at scale. · github.com, 9 Oct 2026
Scale: The project says it can scale from 2 to 10,000 test instances. · github.com, 9 Oct 2026
Security controls: A v0.5.3 release note says traffic routing defaults to DenyAll and the daemon supports basic authentication with configured tokens. · github.com, 4 Oct 2026
Test plans: Test plans coordinate distributed workloads using synchronization primitives such as signals and barriers. · github.com, 9 Oct 2026

Where Testground stands on Freedom251

Network Testing Software#24 of 33