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Mongoose Web Server vs Unicorn: What are the differences?
Introduction
In the world of web servers, Mongoose and Unicorn are popular choices for serving web applications. Understanding the key differences between Mongoose Web Server and Unicorn can help developers make informed decisions based on their specific requirements.
Programming Language Compatibility: Mongoose Web Server is written in C language, making it highly compatible with C-based applications, while Unicorn is written in Ruby, making it more suitable for Ruby on Rails applications.
Concurrency Model: Mongoose Web Server follows a multi-threaded approach where each connection is handled by a separate thread, while Unicorn follows a multi-process model, with each process handling a single connection. This affects how they handle requests and manage resources.
Scalability: Unicorn is known for its scalability as it can easily handle a high number of concurrent connections due to its process-per-connection model. On the other hand, Mongoose Web Server may face limitations in handling a large number of connections due to its thread-based approach.
Configuration: Unicorn is generally considered to have more complex configuration settings compared to Mongoose Web Server, which provides simpler configuration options. Developers may choose based on their preference and technical expertise when it comes to configuration setup.
Community and Ecosystem: Unicorn has a large and active community of Ruby developers supporting and contributing to its ecosystem, providing a wealth of resources and plugins. Mongoose Web Server, on the other hand, may have a smaller community and ecosystem due to its language-specific nature.
In Summary, understanding the key differences such as programming language compatibility, concurrency model, scalability, configuration complexity, and community support can help developers decide between Mongoose Web Server and Unicorn based on their project requirements.
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 Mongoose Web Server
- Light weight1
- Easy to configure1
- Web server1
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 Mongoose Web Server
Cons of Unicorn
- Not multithreaded4
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