Understanding Ruby Web Server Internals - Puma, Falcon, and Pitchfork Compared

Explore the internal workings of three modern Ruby web servers in this 25-minute conference talk that compares Puma, Falcon, and Pitchfork's distinct execution models and performance characteristics. Learn how pre-forking and copy-on-write mechanisms minimize boot time and memory usage, discover how Falcon eliminates traditional blocking I/O challenges in Ruby to enable new approaches for IO-bound workloads, and understand why Puma's hybrid model effectively balances concurrency, performance, and memory usage. Examine how Pitchfork optimizes for latency and memory efficiency, making it an excellent choice for CPU-bound applications, and gain practical insights into choosing, tuning, and optimizing the right web server for your specific Ruby application requirements.