# hey

HTTP load generator, ApacheBench (ab) replacement

Repository: https://github.com/rakyll/hey
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/hey
Language: Go
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Last push: 2026-01-10T20:54:51+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 59/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 61, release rhythm 33, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3652, "days_push": 235, "days_rel": 235, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 1}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 20242, forks 1303 (observed 2026-08-28T04:11:29.832132+00:00)

## What it is
hey is a small command-line HTTP load generator written in Go, originally named boom and designed as a replacement for ApacheBench (ab). It sends a configurable number of concurrent requests to a web application and prints latency and throughput statistics, with support for HTTP/2, custom headers, methods, bodies, and CSV output.

## Use cases
- load test a web endpoint with concurrent requests
- benchmark api response times
- replace apachebench ab for http load testing
- run a 30 second stress test against my server
- send POST requests with custom bodies and headers to measure throughput
- generate load with a fixed queries-per-second rate limit
- export load test metrics to csv

## When to choose
- you need a quick, single-binary CLI load generator without scripting
- you want an ApacheBench alternative with HTTP/2 and rate limiting support
- you need simple latency/throughput stats or CSV output for an HTTP endpoint

## When to avoid
- you need distributed load generation from multiple machines
- you require complex scenario scripting, assertions, or browser-level testing
- you need non-HTTP protocols like gRPC, WebSocket, or TCP load tests

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: stable
- function: load-testing, http-client, benchmarking
- domain: developer-tools, web-development, performance
- platform: windows, cli, cross-platform
- tags: http-load-generator, apachebench-replacement, stress-testing, go, command-line, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- rakyll/hey (main) score 59
- rakyll/boom (mirror) score 10

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:29.832132+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T16:59:18.982809+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/rakyll/hey (fetched 2026-08-28T04:11:29.832132+00:00, sha 90b9f1ec4d34)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.