Well it just so happens that I think ØMQ and Mongrel 2 are to praise here. Yes, having a thin wrapper around Mongrel's backend api helps as well, but you can't

Well it just so happens that I think ØMQ and Mongrel 2 are to praise here. Yes, having a thin wrapper around Mongrel's backend api helps as well, but you can't compare it to Symfony or Zend unless it's run tested with all features of a regular application. Db, Auth, Sessions etc. edit: same goes to tests on symfony's site. We've been using Symfony since pre 1.0 days and you'll be lucky to hit 25% of these request rates once you use most of the common features.