Web API Benchmarking: Python (FastAPI) vs Rust (Axum) with Database (Dockerized)

When it comes to building web APIs, developers have a plethora of tools and languages to choose from. In this article, we will compare the performance of two popular web frameworks – Python’s FastAPI and Rust’s Axum, with a database connection running in a Docker container.

Python (FastAPI)

FastAPI is a modern web framework for building APIs with Python. It is known for its speed and efficiency, thanks to its use of asynchronous programming. FastAPI is built on top of Pydantic and Starlette, providing a robust and scalable solution for building APIs.

Setting Up FastAPI

To run FastAPI with a database in a Docker container, you will need to install FastAPI and Docker on your system. Follow the steps below to set up FastAPI:

1. Install FastAPI using pip: pip install fastapi
2. Create a FastAPI app and define your API endpoints
3. Set up a database connection using an ORM like SQLAlchemy
4. Create a Docker container for your database using Docker Compose

Rust (Axum)

Axum is a web framework for Rust that focuses on performance and safety. It is built on top of the Tokio runtime, providing fast and reliable asynchronous handling of web requests. Axum is designed to take advantage of Rust’s ownership system to ensure memory safety and prevent common runtime errors.

Setting Up Axum

To run Axum with a database in a Docker container, you will need to install Rust and Docker on your system. Follow the steps below to set up Axum:

1. Install Axum using Cargo: cargo install axum
2. Create an Axum app and define your API endpoints
3. Set up a database connection using a Rust ORM like Diesel
4. Create a Docker container for your database using Docker Compose

Benchmarking

Once you have set up FastAPI and Axum with a database running in a Docker container, you can now benchmark the performance of both frameworks. Use tools like Apache Bench or wrk to send a large number of requests to your API endpoints and measure the response time and throughput.

Compare the results from both FastAPI and Axum to see which framework performs better under heavy load and how they handle database queries. Consider factors like response time, throughput, and error rate when evaluating the performance of each framework.

Conclusion

Web API benchmarking is an essential step in evaluating the performance of web frameworks and ensuring that your application can handle the expected load. By comparing the performance of Python’s FastAPI and Rust’s Axum with a database connection running in a Docker container, you can make an informed decision about which framework is best suited for your project.