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How to Benchmark a Website With Siege on Ubuntu

A practical Ubuntu guide to Siege: install and verify it, benchmark one URL or a URL file, choose concurrency and pacing, interpret the report, and make comparisons repeatable and safe.
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Install Siege from Ubuntu’s repositories, verify it with siege --version, then begin with a controlled command such as siege -c10 -t60S -d1 "https://example.com/". This runs 10 concurrent simulated users for 60 seconds with a one-second pause between requests. Keep the URL set, load, pacing, duration, client machine, network path and server state documented so later runs are genuinely comparable.

What Siege measures

Siege is a multi-threaded HTTP/FTP load tester and benchmarking utility. It creates concurrent client activity against a URL or a file of URLs, then reports what the client observed while making those requests. It is useful for checking how a website behaves under a defined workload, not for proving an unlimited or universal capacity figure.

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Ubuntu supports three main invocation forms: siege [options], siege [options] <URL>, and siege [options] -f urls.txt. The last two forms are the ones you will normally use for a website benchmark.

Benchmark only systems you own or are explicitly authorized to test. Even a small test can consume bandwidth, CPU, database connections or application workers.

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Install and verify Siege on Ubuntu

  1. Refresh Ubuntu’s package index:
    sudo apt update
  2. Install the repository package:
    sudo apt install siege
  3. Confirm that the executable is available:
    siege --version
    You can also inspect the built-in option list with siege --help.

On its first use, Siege can create a per-user configuration directory and its files. Command-line properties take precedence over properties in those configuration files, so put run-specific settings directly in the command when you need an experiment to be unambiguous.

Use the site’s HTTPS address when HTTPS is available. Quote a URL passed to the shell when it contains a query string, ampersand, parentheses or other characters that the shell could interpret. For example:

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siege -c5 -t30S 'https://example.com/search?q=ubuntu'

Choose a workload before you run it

A useful result comes from a workload that another person can reproduce. Write down these decisions before starting:

  • Load: the number of concurrent simulated users set with -c.
  • Pacing: the delay between page requests set with -d, or deliberate no-delay operation with -b.
  • Workload: one URL or a representative URL file, and whether URLs are selected sequentially or randomly.
  • Run window: a fixed duration with -t or a fixed number of repetitions with -r.
  • Environment: the client host, network path, DNS and TLS path, server version, deployment state and cache condition.

Do not compare a delayed test with a no-delay test and call the difference a server improvement. They generate different request rates and therefore answer different questions.

Run a controlled single-URL benchmark

Start with a modest concurrency and a fixed time window:

siege -c10 -t60S -d1 "https://example.com/"

This command uses 10 concurrent simulated users, runs for 60 seconds and inserts a one-second delay between page requests. A delay approximates users who pause between requests; it also keeps an initial test from overwhelming a small installation.

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Option Meaning Use it when
-c10 Ten concurrent simulated users. You want to control offered concurrency and increase it in measured steps.
-t60S Run for 60 seconds. You want a time-bounded test that ends automatically.
-d1 One-second delay between page requests. You want paced traffic rather than a continuous request loop.
-f urls.txt Read requests from a URL file. You need several pages or endpoints in one workload.
-r Set a number of repetitions. You want a fixed amount of work instead of a clock-based run.
-b Benchmark mode with no delay between iterations. You are intentionally measuring a throughput-oriented, continuously offered workload.

Replace the example host with an authorized target. Preserve the trailing slash or path you intend to test; a homepage, a cached asset and an application endpoint are not interchangeable workloads.

Use repetitions when the amount of work matters

The -t option ends a run after a duration. The -r option instead asks Siege to repeat the request workload a specified number of times. For example:

siege -c5 -r20 -d1 'https://example.com/'

This requests 20 repetitions with five concurrent users and a one-second delay. Repetition counts are useful for a short smoke test or when you need every candidate revision to process the same nominal number of iterations. A duration-based run is usually easier for observing steady behavior over a known window.

When using a URL file, -ronce performs one pass through the file. That is useful for checking that every listed page can be requested without accidentally creating a long-running load test.

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siege -c2 -ronce -f urls.txt

Record whether a result came from -t, a numeric -r, or -ronce; the stopping rule changes how totals and rates should be interpreted.

Understand benchmark mode (-b)

For a throughput-oriented run with no inter-iteration delay, use:

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siege -b -c10 -t30S "https://example.com/"

The -b or --benchmark switch removes the delay between iterations. This is intentionally more aggressive than the paced example. It can show the maximum request rate that this client-and-network path can offer to the target, but it does not represent a user who waits between page requests.

Keep benchmark-mode results in their own series. If you are comparing two deployments, use the same -b setting, concurrency, duration, URL set and test host for both; otherwise a change in traffic generation can look like a change in server performance.

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Test several pages with a URL file

Create a plain-text file named urls.txt, with one request target per line:

https://example.com/
https://example.com/pricing
https://example.com/docs

Run it for two minutes with ten concurrent users and a one-second delay:

siege -c10 -t2M -d1 -f urls.txt

A URL file can contain comments, shell-style variables, and method/data forms, including POST requests. For example:

# Public pages
https://example.com/
https://example.com/search POST q=ubuntu

Use the same file for each deployment comparison. Changing the order, endpoint mix or request body changes the workload even when the command line is identical.

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Sequential versus random URL selection

By default, the file’s entries are processed according to Siege’s normal selection behavior. Add -i or --internet when you want Siege to choose URLs from the file in random order:

siege -i -c10 -t2M -d1 -f urls.txt

Sequential and random selection stress different cache and application patterns. Choose one deliberately and keep it unchanged across the runs you compare. Random selection also means two runs can visit endpoints in different orders, so save the command and file used with the result.

Inspect a request before launching a longer run

Use the -g option to inspect a transaction and response headers:

siege -g 'https://example.com/'

This is a practical preflight check for redirects, status information and headers before you generate sustained traffic.

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Control headers and user-agent identity

  • -H adds a request header. Use it when the application requires a specific header and document the exact value.
  • -A sets the user-agent string. This can select a different server or application response, so include it in your test record.

Two tests that use different headers or user agents are not necessarily exercising the same code path.

Control redirects and HTML parsing

  • --no-follow disables redirect following. Use it when you want to measure the first response rather than the destination.
  • --no-parser prevents Siege from fetching page elements discovered in HTML. Without this distinction, a page test can include additional requests for elements parsed from the response.

State these switches in your run notes. A test with parsing enabled and one with parsing disabled represent different request sets even when they start at the same URL.

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Read the Siege report

After a run, Siege reports the elapsed time, total data transferred, server response time, transaction rate, throughput, concurrency and number of successful responses. Treat each value as an observation of the complete client-to-target path.

Report item Question it helps answer How to use it
Elapsed time How long did the run actually take? Check that the run reached its intended duration or repetition count.
Total data transferred How many bytes crossed the path? Compare only identical URL sets, response sizes and request behavior.
Server response time How long did responses take from the client’s perspective? Look for changes at the same load and pacing; investigate outliers separately.
Transaction rate How many transactions completed per unit of time? Use with concurrency and pacing, not as a standalone capacity claim.
Throughput How quickly was data transferred? Interpret alongside transferred bytes and network conditions.
Concurrency How many simulated users were active? Verify that the offered load matches the command you intended.
Successful responses How many requests completed successfully? Check for rising failures before accepting a higher-load result.

High transaction rate with increased 4xx or 5xx responses is not a successful capacity result. Likewise, a slow response time can be caused by the client host, a congested network route or TLS/DNS behavior rather than only by application code.

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Build a repeatable comparison

  1. Define the question. Decide whether you are checking a normal paced workload, a no-delay throughput ceiling, a fixed request count or behavior over a fixed time.
  2. Freeze the workload. Keep the exact URL, URL file, POST data, headers, user agent, redirect policy and parser setting unchanged.
  3. Freeze traffic generation. Keep concurrency, delay or benchmark mode, duration or repetitions, and random-selection policy unchanged.
  4. Freeze the environment. Use the same client host and network path where possible. Note DNS, TLS termination, proxying, CDN state and server deployment version.
  5. Label cache state. A warm-cache run and a cold-cache run answer different questions. Record which condition was used rather than mixing them in one series.
  6. Increase load gradually. Start at a modest concurrency, then increase it only while watching response times, successful responses, 4xx/5xx counts and system saturation.
  7. Save the evidence. Keep the command, URL file, date, target revision, environment notes and complete Siege output together.

For example, a paced baseline might be:

siege -c5 -t60S -d1 -f urls.txt

After recording it, a higher-load run could use the same file and pacing with a larger concurrency value. If you switch to -b, change the cache state, or alter the URL mix, start a separate comparison series.

Safety checks and failure handling

Stop signs during a run

  • Unexpected 4xx or 5xx responses rise sharply.
  • Response times increase without recovering.
  • The target, database or queue reaches sustained saturation.
  • The test affects unrelated users, services or network links.

Stop the run, reduce concurrency or add delay, and confirm that the target has recovered before trying again. Obtain authorization from the system owner before testing production traffic paths.

Common setup problems

  • Command not found: install the Ubuntu siege package and rerun siege --version.
  • The request goes to the wrong place: run siege -g against the exact HTTPS URL and inspect the response and redirects.
  • Unexpectedly heavy traffic: check for -b, a high -c, a missing -d, or an URL file that includes more endpoints than intended.
  • Different results after editing a config file: remember that command-line properties override configuration-file properties; put the setting explicitly on the command while troubleshooting.
  • Different totals between URL-file runs: check whether -i changed selection order, whether parsing fetched page elements, and whether redirects or headers changed.
  • Failures that appear only under load: correlate Siege’s successful-response count and response times with server-side logs and resource metrics. Siege alone cannot identify which server component saturated.

Limits of what a Siege number means

Siege measures the behavior observed from its client host over its network path to the target. A transaction rate or throughput value is therefore not a universal promise that every user, region or client will receive the same performance. Network distance, bandwidth, DNS, TLS termination, caches, redirects, response size and application state all affect the observation.

The most defensible result is a documented, repeatable workload: the same URL set, method and data, concurrency, pacing, run window, client environment and cache condition. Use the report to detect regressions, find a saturation point safely and compare like with like; do not present one run as an unconditional capacity guarantee.

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