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What is pyperformance?

colesbury/pyperformance — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-07-17 · repo last pushed 2021-09-17

1PythonAudience · researcherComplexity · 3/5DormantLicenseSetup · moderate

In one sentence

A standardized suite of real-world Python benchmarks that lets you measure and compare how fast different Python versions or implementations actually run.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((repo))
    What it does
      Real world benchmarks
      Compare Python versions
      Reproducible results
    Tech stack
      Python
      CPython
      PyPy
    Use cases
      Catch performance regressions
      Compare implementations
      Baseline your setup
    Audience
      Runtime engineers
      Performance engineers
      Researchers

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What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Run a standardized benchmark suite to see if a Python change made things faster or slower.

USE CASE 2

Compare performance across CPython, PyPy, and other Python implementations fairly.

USE CASE 3

Get a baseline performance measurement for your own Python setup.

USE CASE 4

Catch performance regressions automatically as part of continuous testing.

What is it built with?

Python

How does it compare?

colesbury/pyperformancea-bissell/unleash-liteabhiinnovates/whatsapp-hr-assistant
Stars111
LanguagePythonPythonPython
Last pushed2021-09-17
MaintenanceDormant
Setup difficultymoderatehardhard
Complexity3/54/53/5
Audienceresearcherresearcherdeveloper

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

Requires installing multiple Python versions or implementations to get useful comparisons.

Use freely for any purpose, including commercial use, as long as you keep the copyright notice.

So what is it?

This is a collection of performance tests designed to measure how fast Python runs. Instead of artificial tests that only measure one thing in isolation, pyperformance focuses on real-world scenarios, like running actual applications or common programming tasks, to see how different versions or implementations of Python perform in practice. Think of it like a standardized speedway where you can test different cars under the same conditions. A developer or team maintaining Python (or an alternative Python implementation) can run these benchmarks to see if changes they made actually made the language faster or slower. It's a fair, reproducible way to measure performance across different setups and Python versions. The tool is meant to be the go-to source that the entire Python community trusts. Because Python has multiple implementations (CPython is the most common, but there's also PyPy, Jython, and others), having one agreed-upon set of benchmarks helps everyone compare fairly. You can install pyperformance as a package and run it on your machine to get a baseline of how your Python setup performs, or use it as part of continuous testing to catch performance regressions before they ship. Someone working on the Python runtime itself, a performance engineer optimizing Python for their company, or a researcher comparing Python implementations would all use this suite. The README doesn't detail what specific benchmarks are included, but the philosophy is clear: real applications matter more than toy problems when it comes to understanding real-world speed.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Show me how to install pyperformance and run the full benchmark suite on my machine.
Prompt 2
Explain how to use pyperformance to compare CPython and PyPy performance.
Prompt 3
Help me set up pyperformance in a CI pipeline to catch performance regressions.
Prompt 4
Show me how to run a single benchmark from pyperformance and interpret the results.

Frequently asked questions

What is pyperformance?

A standardized suite of real-world Python benchmarks that lets you measure and compare how fast different Python versions or implementations actually run.

What language is pyperformance written in?

Mainly Python. The stack also includes Python.

Is pyperformance actively maintained?

Dormant — no commits in 2+ years (last push 2021-09-17).

What license does pyperformance use?

Use freely for any purpose, including commercial use, as long as you keep the copyright notice.

How hard is pyperformance to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated moderate, with roughly 30min to a first successful run.

Who is pyperformance for?

Mainly researcher.

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