[aosaigh]

As a matter of interest, what makes nginx so fast?

[scott_karana]

Tight C, and more importantly, very little dynamic/runtime support.

(Eg, nearly static configuration, very few flow or looping constructs, unless you explicitly use something optional like Lua)

[wfn]

> unless you explicitly use something optional like Lua

I've actually at one point considered writing some light web apps as nginx modules, in Lua. In the end though, it's usually enough to pluck the lowest hanging fruit, which (as a rule is) caching... Cache as much as possible (including when you have a python web app behind nginx).

[bobwaycott]

You might be interested in OpenResty.