Why should I use Restify?

Question

I had the requirement to build up a REST API in node.js and was looking for a more light-weight framework than express.js which probably avoids the unwanted features and would act like a custom-built framework for building REST APIs. Restify from its intro is recommended for the same case.

Reading Why use restify and not express? seemed like restify is a good choice.

But the surprise came when I tried out both with a load.

I made a sample REST API on Restify and flooded it with 1000 requests per second. Surprise to me the route started not responding after a while. The same app built on express.js handled all.

I am currently applying the load to API via

var FnPush = setInterval(function() {           
    for(i=0;i<1000;i++) 
        SendMsg(makeMsg(i));                
}, 1000);

function SendMsg(msg) {
    var post_data = querystring.stringify(msg);
    var post_options = {
        host: target.host,
        port: target.port,
        path: target.path,
        agent: false,
        method: 'POST',
        headers: {
                'Content-Type': 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded',
                'Content-Length': post_data.length,
                "connection": "close"
            }
    };

    var post_req = http.request(post_options, function(res) {});
    post_req.write(post_data);  
    post_req.on('error', function(e) {          
    }); 
    post_req.end();
}

Does the results I have got seem sensible? And if so is express more efficient than restify in this scenario? Or is there any error in the way I tested them out?

updated in response to comments

behavior of restify

1. when fed with a load of more than 1000 req.s it stopped processing in just 1 sec receiving till 1015 req.s and then doing nothing. ie. the counter i implemented for counting incoming requests stopped increment after 1015.

2. when fed with a load of even 100 reqs. per second it received till 1015 and gone non responsive after that.

Answer 1

Corrigendum: this information is now wrong, keep scrolling!

there was an issue with the script causing the Restify test to be conducted on an unintended route. This caused the connection to be kept alive causing improved performance due to reduced overhead.

---

This is 2015 and I think the situation has changed a lot since. Raygun.io has posted a recent benchmark comparing hapi, express and restify.

It says:

We also identified that Restify keeps connections alive which removes the overhead of creating a connection each time when getting called from the same client. To be fair, we have also tested Restify with the configuration flag of closing the connection. You’ll see a substantial decrease in throughput in that scenario for obvious reasons.

Looks like Restify is a winner here for easier service deployments. Especially if you’re building a service that receives lots of requests from the same clients and want to move quickly. You of course get a lot more bang for buck than naked Node since you have features like DTrace support baked in.

Answer 2

This is 2017 and the latest performance test by Raygun.io comparing hapi, express, restify and Koa.

It shows that Koa is faster than other frameworks, but as this question is about express and restify, Express is faster than restify.

And it is written in the post

This shows that indeed Restify is slower than reported in my initial test.

Answer 3

According to the Node Knockout description:

restify is a node.js module purpose built to create REST web services in Node. restify makes lots of the hard problems of building such a service, like versioning, error handling and content-negotiation easier. It also provides built in DTrace probes that you get for free to quickly find out where your application’s performance problems lie. Lastly, it provides a robust client API that handles retry/backoff for you on failed connections, along with some other niceties.

Performance issues and bugs can probably be fixed. Maybe that description will be adequate motivation.

Answer 4

I ran into a similar problem benchmarking multiple frameworks on OS X via ab. Some of the stacks died, consistently, after around the 1000th request.

I bumped the limit significantly, and the problem disappeared.

You can you check your maxfiles is at with ulimit, (or launchctl limit < OS X only) and see what the maximum is.

Hope that helps.

Answer 5

In 2021, benchmarking done by Fastify (https://www.fastify.io/benchmarks/) indicates that Restify is now slightly faster than Express.

The code used to run the benchmark can be found here https://github.com/fastify/benchmarks/.

Answer 6

i was confused with express or restify or perfectAPI. even tried developing a module in all of them. the main requirement was to make a RESTapi. but finally ended up with express, tested my self with the request per second made on all the framework, the express gave better result than others. Though in some cases restify outshines express but express seams to win the race. I thumbs up for express. And yes i also came across locomotive js, some MVC framework build on top of express. If anyone looking for complete MVC app using express and jade, go for locomotive.