Open a free stresser account in about a minute
Register in the panel with a nickname, an email and a password. Free access arrives one of two ways: trial credit from live support, or the Basic plan at $0 a month. Neither asks for card details. The Layer4 and Layer7 tabs unlock the moment credit lands, and adding a target plus starting a test happen on the same screen. At registration you accept that you test only systems you own or are explicitly permitted to test; without that acceptance the account stays inactive.
What $0 actually includes
The same panel and the same method list. Basic runs one test at a time, keeps windows short and shows the core metrics: packet or request rate, error rate and latency. All 30+ Layer4 and 20+ Layer7 methods are visible on a free account, with nothing locked behind an upgrade. VIP stays off, so the dedicated servers that push a single test to 50-60 Gbit/s never enter the free tier. Live support opens inside the panel instead of an email thread.
Your first run: Hub, then Layer4
Open the Hub tab and the Layer4 section. Four fields stand between you and a test: IP address, port, time in seconds, method. Pick the method from the list, type the window, start it. The VIP switch sits on the same screen for accounts that have it. Free windows are short by design; on paid plans one test runs up to 5000 seconds. While traffic is in flight the panel refreshes packet rate and error rate on that page, so there is no second screen to check.
The Layer7 tab, briefly
Layer7 runs the same flow with a URL instead of an IP address, and a longer method list because it works at request level. It sends HTTP requests, not a browser: no JavaScript, no images, no CSS. That is why a page that feels slow on a phone can still answer in 200 ms at HTTP level, with the delay sitting in scripts and assets. The Layer7 tab is open on free accounts too, with one method chosen per test.
Where the free tier stops
Concurrency is one test on Basic, three on Pro, more under Enterprise. Window length is short on the free tier and up to 5000 seconds once you pay, and VIP is a paid switch on top. Every ceiling is listed in the plans section rather than negotiated in a call. Which pages deserve the first run is a separate question, and website stresser puts the four that matter in order. If the packet path is your suspicion, free DDoS stresser makes the same free tier concrete.
What one run can and cannot tell you
Whether your host answers at the rate you chose, and whether the path stays clean while it does. Drop the rate until loss disappears and you have a working number for today. You do not get the knee; a knee needs three rates and at least three runs, which is paid territory. The free run is narrower than that and still useful: it tells you whether anything needs fixing before you buy a longer window.
Reading the report before you pay
Delivery ratio first, because a short window never warms a connection pool. Then p95 at the rate you asked for: climbing early is a finding, flat and clean is a green light. The report downloads from the panel when the test ends, so the record leaves with you instead of staying in a chat. Request-side numbers have their own names, which layer 7 stresser spells out; the free L7 stresser trial applies the same free tier to HTTP.
If you outgrow it
Basic covers a single test now and then. Pro is $29 a month for three concurrent tests and five team members. Enterprise is scoped for critical infrastructure, custom configuration and policy controls. Payment is Bitcoin only, activation averages thirty minutes, and block confirmations can stretch that. Plans differ in concurrency and window length rather than methods, so what you buy is time and parallelism, not a longer list.
The IP stresser free rule the free tier does not bend
Testing is limited to systems you own or have written permission to test. A free account is not an exception: traffic sent at an unauthorised target closes the account and the remaining credit is not refunded. The panel asks you to confirm ownership before the target is saved, and a failed confirmation means the test never starts. That single rule is what separates this from an IP booter, and online IP stresser carries it into the browser.