Context
I order to choose the web framework that meets best my need for a further big project (web application for a real estate company), I have decided to do some benchmarks because good performance is one of the constraints with agility development.
The benchmarks are made with Apache HTTP server benchmarking tool launching a minimalist html w3C compliant web page which presents the list (in tags ul, li) of ten user names stocked in a Postgresql data base.
I arbitrarily chose the web framework Zend Framework (ZF 1.11.11), Zend Framework 2 (which is currently in beta stage), Symfony 2, PHP No-Framework (pure php), Pyramid and Express. I would like to test PlayFramework but I do not have time :(
For the PHP web frameworks, all the benchmarks are made with APC enabled the option apc.stat=0 (no disk access)
| CPU | Xeon 5500/Core i7 |
| RAM | 8 Go |
| Disk | SSD, buffered disk reads : 288.51 MB/sec |
| OS | Gnu/Linux (Debian wheezy/sid) |
Here the table of ORM and template system used with the different frameworks :
| Framework | ORM | Template system | Serveur |
|---|---|---|---|
| PHP No-Framework | None (PDO) | PHP | Apache (libapache2-mod-php5) |
| ZF1 & ZF2 | Zend_DB_Table | PHP | Apache (libapache2-mod-php5) |
| Symfony | Doctrine | Twig | Apache (libapache2-mod-php5) |
| Pyramid | SQLAlchemy | Chameleon | Apache mod_wsgi |
| Express | node-postgres | Jade | Node.js |
First results
| Framework | Time taken for tests | Requests per second (mean) | Time per request (mean, across all concurrent requests) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Express | 0.066 s | 2342.20 | 0.427 ms |
| Pyramid | 0.775 s | 199.95 | 5.001 ms |
| PHP No-Framework | 0.882 s | 175.76 | 5.690 ms |
| ZF1 | 1.197 s | 129.53 | 7.720 ms |
| Symfony | 1.218 s | 127.28 | 7.857 ms |
| ZF2 (*beta stage*) | 11.091 s | 13.98 | 11091.008 ms |
Graphs
Here are some charts that shows the evolution of response time based on the number of simultaneous requests and the level of competition.
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I leave the reader in interpreting the results. Personally, my preference will go to Pyramid, but I'm not completely decided yet since I am more at ease in php.
All the results and the charts can be downloaded HERE.
