Sharkbench

Benchmarking programming languages and web frameworks

Flask: Development Server vs Gunicorn

Flask is a lightweight and flexible Python web framework for creating web applications. It is designed as a simple core that is easily extendable through numerous extensions for form validation, upload handling, and authentication technologies. Flask follows the "micro-framework" philosophy that gives developers more control over component choices.

This benchmark tests how fast a framework can perform concurrent HTTP requests, I/O operations, and JSON de/serialization.

OS: LinuxCPU: Intel Core Ultra 5 325Last Updated: 2026-10-14

Comparison

Gunicorn processes 1.19x requests per second compared to Development Server, a 19.40% improvement.

MedianP99

Mode	Requests per second How many requests per second can the framework handle? (higher is better)	Latency How long does it take to process a request? (lower is better)	Stability How stable is the framework under load? (median / P99 latency) (higher is better)	Memory How much memory (RAM) does the framework use? (lower is better)	Build Time Fetching dependencies + compiling, excluding SDK setup (lower is better)
Gunicorn	320 (+19.40 %)	99.9 ms (-15.63 %)	56.36 % (-28.81 %)	110.2 MB (+154.62 %)	8.94 s (+7.70 %)
Development Server	268	118.4 ms	85.17 %	43.3 MB	8.30 s

All results

MedianP99

Framework	Requests per second How many requests per second can the framework handle? (higher is better)	Latency How long does it take to process a request? (lower is better)	Stability How stable is the framework under load? (median / P99 latency) (higher is better)	Memory How much memory (RAM) does the framework use? (lower is better)	Build Time Fetching dependencies + compiling, excluding SDK setup (lower is better)
Python v3.8 / Flask v2.3 (Gunicorn)	320	99.9 ms	56.36 %	110.2 MB	8.94 s
Python v3.8 / Flask v2.3 (Development Server)	268	118.4 ms	85.17 %	43.3 MB	8.30 s

Popular web frameworks

How does Flask compare to other popular frameworks?

MedianP99

Framework	Requests per second How many requests per second can the framework handle? (higher is better)	Latency How long does it take to process a request? (lower is better)	Stability How stable is the framework under load? (median / P99 latency) (higher is better)	Memory How much memory (RAM) does the framework use? (lower is better)	Build Time Fetching dependencies + compiling, excluding SDK setup (lower is better)
Rust / Axum	26670	1.2 ms	74.13 %	16.5 MB	26.69 s
C# (.NET) / ASP.NET Core	17041	1.5 ms	23.04 %	101.8 MB	6.09 s
JavaScript (Node.js) / Express	15270	2.0 ms	29.45 %	228.4 MB	4.92 s
Java (Temurin) / Spring Boot (MVC)	2962	1.6 ms	1.86 %	286.4 MB	37.73 s
Go / Gin	1640	3.4 ms	3.65 %	23.1 MB	32.20 s
Python / FastAPI (Uvicorn)	792	32.9 ms	20.81 %	63.3 MB	8.55 s
Python / Flask (Gunicorn)	320	99.9 ms	56.36 %	110.2 MB	8.94 s
Python / Django (Gunicorn)	279	103.8 ms	57.16 %	151.9 MB	10.29 s
Python / Flask (Development Server)	268	118.4 ms	85.17 %	43.3 MB	8.30 s
PHP / Laravel	92	319.0 ms	80.90 %	80.4 MB	95.22 s