xf vs ipb speed

[majdi]

hello,

i run an ipb forum and its loading very slow, google webmasterstool result is very bad and as you know this penalize the SEO.
I am wondering how is xenforo speed? can anyone share with us his webmasterstool result?

 

[Jason]

AFAIK forum software has minimal effect on the speed in most cases. I've seen big board phpBB forums having almost no delay. It's really mostly hardware and server configuration (e.g. Apache is slower than Nginx, non-optimized vs optimized MySQL config...).

I agree for the most part, but software can have a detrimental effect on performance just as much, in some cases. Also, Apache really isn't that much slower than Nginx. In some cases it will out perform it. You could even trim Apache down to the state of Nginx and lighttpd, though you'd lose a lot of the functionality it provides. It's just a matter of configuring and compiling Apache for your needs. The default configuration most linux distributions ship with is for the broad masses, not for those being in the need of maintaining a high-load web server. Same goes for MySQL, which is usually the biggest culprit -- partly because a lot of people don't due any tuning (+ caching), and some forum software packages contain highly inefficient queries (the latter only exaggerating the former).

That said, every XenForo installation I've ran across so far has been extremely responsive! In fact, I think that was one of the first things I commented about when I registered here, heh.

 

[Alex Vojacek]

Are you crazy?

Apache out performing nginx?, not even compiling it and taking it all away, that's for sure. If you put varnish on top I believe you, but nginx will eat apache for breakfast any day. Lighttpd comes close but nginx is gaining a lot of reputation lately.

Put up a server with nginx, php-fpm varnish and apc and I hardly think apache can compete, not only in speed but in resources consumption.

 

[Filmoviz]

I will test and will write my opinion soon. Regards

 

[Jason]

Are you crazy?

Apache out performing nginx?, not even compiling it and taking it all away, that's for sure. If you put varnish on top I believe you, but nginx will eat apache for breakfast any day. Lighttpd comes close but nginx is gaining a lot of reputation lately.

Put up a server with nginx, php-fpm varnish and apc and I hardly think apache can compete, not only in speed but in resources consumption.

Talk about resurrecting dead threads...

I'm guessing you've never worked with Apache in a high-scalability situation. True, it'll most likely always consume more resources than nginx (by design), but if you tweak it enough, it can perform on par with nginx. You'll lose a lot of the features that some people claim make Apache so great, but it's doable.

 

[ekine]

When checking my site on IP.Board & Xenforo on the same server with the same settings, whichsiteloadsfaster tells me that my IP.Board site is 3x faster. I was not expecting this result and I am not sure if this result is really a true measurement.

 

[CTXMedia]

I spent a lot of time optimising IP.Board when I ran it (documented in the IPS forums [same username as here]) and got it going faster than most other people's IP.Board installs; I spent a similar amount of time optimising XF too, albeit changing different server settings and adding new modules specific to XF, but equally got it running much faster too than when first installed.

Most people though don't have either the inclination or technical knowledge to spend months shaving milliseconds off page load times.

 

[dutchbb]

Also, Apache really isn't that much slower than Nginx. In some cases it will out perform it.

I have tried both on the same server, with same traffic, same software... Apache was professionally optimized to the max. Could not come close the nginx in terms of speed, server load, memory use... Not missing any Apache features either including the control panel, it's all bloat anyway. Most big boards have already switched. But please don't believe me, just try it.

 

[Jason]

I have tried both on the same server, with same traffic, same software... Apache was professionally optimized to the max. Could not come close the nginx in terms of speed, server load, memory use... Not missing any Apache features either including the control panel, it's all bloat anyway. Most big boards have already switched. But please don't believe me, just try it.

I wouldn't have made the comment unless I had.

I tend to use Nginx and php5-fpm when working with PHP (which is very little nowadays). It requires a lot less raw power, is easy to configure and maintain and I'm just partial to that setup. I've also seen other places integrate both Nginx and Apache into their architecture, with Apache MPM Prefork with mod_php, and others using FastCGI/PHP-FPM, which allows them to use the faster MPM worker (since PHP can remain non-threaded, but Apache serves threaded). Some have Apache in front of Nginx, and others the exact opposite (using Apache as an application server).

While I was at Yahoo, we used Apache extensively in many high-load situations, and more recently at SOE/SNE. It is more than capable of performing on par with Nginx, if one tinkers enough with it. The whole point of the original comment was that configuration is everything. Most people do not utilize the full potential of their tools.