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Jetty vs Unicorn: What are the differences?
Introduction:
Jetty and Unicorn are both popular web servers used for serving Ruby on Rails applications. However, they have distinct differences that set them apart from each other.
Programming Language: Jetty is written in Java, while Unicorn is written in Ruby. This means that developers with expertise in either Java or Ruby may prefer one over the other based on their familiarity with the programming language.
Concurrency Model: Unicorn utilizes a pre-forking server model, where a master process forks multiple worker processes to handle incoming requests. On the other hand, Jetty uses a thread-based server model, where each incoming request is handled by a separate thread. This difference in concurrency models can affect performance and scalability of the web server.
Memory Management: Jetty is known for its efficient memory usage, making it a suitable option for applications with limited resources. Unicorn, on the other hand, can consume more memory due to its pre-forking model. Developers need to consider the memory requirements of their application when choosing between Jetty and Unicorn.
Configuration Handling: Jetty typically requires more configuration to set up compared to Unicorn, which is designed to be simpler and more straightforward. For developers looking for a web server that is easy to configure and deploy, Unicorn may be a more suitable choice.
Community and Support: Jetty has been around for a longer period and has a larger community of users and contributors. This means that there is more extensive documentation, support forums, and resources available for Jetty compared to Unicorn. Developers may consider the level of community support when deciding between the two web servers.
Compatibility: Jetty is a versatile web server that can be used with a variety of programming languages and frameworks, while Unicorn is specifically designed for Ruby on Rails applications. Depending on the requirements of the project, developers may choose Jetty for its compatibility with different technologies or Unicorn for its seamless integration with Ruby on Rails.
In Summary, Jetty and Unicorn differ in programming language, concurrency model, memory management, configuration handling, community and support, and compatibility, making it essential for developers to choose based on their specific needs and preferences.
I have an integration service that pulls data from third party systems saves it and returns it to the user of the service. We can pull large data sets with the service and response JSON can go up to 5MB with gzip compression. I currently use Rails 6 and Ruby 2.7.2 and Puma web server. Slow clients tend to prevent other users from accessing the system. Am considering a switch to Unicorn.
Consider trying to use puma workers first. puma -w basically. That will launch multiple puma processes to manage the requests, like unicorn, but also run threads within those processes. You can turn the number of workers and number of threads to find the right memory footprint / request per second balance.
Pros of Jetty
- Lightweight14
- Very fast10
- Embeddable9
- Scalable5
- Very thin5
Pros of Unicorn
- Fast81
- Performance59
- Web server36
- Very light30
- Open Source30
- Rack http server27
- Load balancing18
- Great process management14
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Cons of Jetty
- Student0
Cons of Unicorn
- Not multithreaded4
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