performance

Benchmarks

The same fixture source runs under both frameworks and bun bench measures them side by side. Every number below is one full run's output — no estimates, no best-of cherry-picking.

First-page client JS (gzip)9.5–65× less
Framework install size — 7.1 MB vs 420.7 MB59× smaller
First page, cold10–12× faster
Production build7.2–8.8× faster
Warm request (dev)1.6–4.7× faster
Dev server ready3.8–4.3× faster
Dev server memory3.4–4.1× less
Warm request (prod)2–3.4× faster

Ranges span all three fixtures. Absolute numbers per fixture are below. pnext trails on two metrics: dev warm requests on the larger fixtures, and production idle memory (~112 MB vs Next's ~86–91 MB, Bun's runtime baseline).

hello-worldA single page.

Dev server ready

56.4 ms212.3 ms

3.76×

Dev first page HTML

79.9 ms993.5 ms

12.44×

Dev warm request (p50 of 7)

3.0 ms14.0 ms

4.69×

HMR save → visible

21.9 ms44.8 ms

2.04×

Production build (wall)

291.3 ms2569.4 ms

8.82×

Prod start (ready)

60.7 ms110.9 ms

1.83×

Prod warm request (p50 of 7)

0.6 ms1.2 ms

2.05×

Dev server RSS (ready + 7 warm)

130.8 MB536.4 MB

4.10×

Prod build peak RSS

124.2 MB455.8 MB

3.67×

Prod server RSS (ready + 7 warm)

85.2 MB85.7 MB

1.01×

Framework install size

7.1 MB420.7 MB

59.14×

First-page client JS (gzip)

2.19 KB141.78 KB

64.67×

First-page client JS (raw)

4.43 KB502.47 KB

113.36×

First-page JS files

1.67×

Zero-island route client JS

4.43 KB502.47 KB

113.36×

ssrA server-rendered site.

Dev server ready

56.0 ms212.8 ms

3.80×

Dev first page HTML

93.5 ms1043.3 ms

11.16×

Dev warm request (p50 of 7)

16.5 ms26.4 ms

1.60×

HMR save → visible

264.3 ms68.3 ms

0.26×

Production build (wall)

310.5 ms2738.8 ms

8.82×

Prod start (ready)

57.1 ms105.5 ms

1.85×

Prod warm request (p50 of 7)

0.5 ms1.3 ms

2.50×

Dev server RSS (ready + 7 warm)

151.3 MB553.6 MB

3.66×

Prod build peak RSS

136.8 MB456.6 MB

3.34×

Prod server RSS (ready + 7 warm)

86.0 MB85.9 MB

1.00×

Framework install size

7.1 MB420.7 MB

59.14×

First-page client JS (gzip)

11.39 KB142.03 KB

12.47×

First-page client JS (raw)

27.36 KB502.78 KB

18.37×

First-page JS files

1.50×

Zero-island route client JS

4.46 KB502.47 KB

112.56×

dashboardA mid-size admin app — 30 routes, 18 client islands.

Dev server ready

57.1 ms246.4 ms

4.31×

Dev first page HTML

127.0 ms1285.8 ms

10.12×

Dev warm request (p50 of 7)

21.6 ms34.1 ms

1.58×

HMR save → visible

300.4 ms97.6 ms

0.32×

Production build (wall)

637.5 ms4566.3 ms

7.16×

Prod start (ready)

55.6 ms128.8 ms

2.32×

Prod warm request (p50 of 7)

0.5 ms1.7 ms

3.41×

Dev server RSS (ready + 7 warm)

168.6 MB577.1 MB

3.42×

Prod build peak RSS

188.0 MB569.0 MB

3.03×

Prod server RSS (ready + 7 warm)

87.3 MB90.6 MB

1.04×

Framework install size

7.1 MB420.7 MB

59.14×

First-page client JS (gzip)

15.26 KB144.85 KB

9.50×

First-page client JS (raw)

38.51 KB507.42 KB

13.18×

First-page JS files

1.50×

Ratio is Next.js ÷ pnext, so above 1.00× means pnext is ahead. Lower is better for every metric here.

Client runtime bundles

Runtime	Raw	Gzip	Brotli
router-prefetch-only	473 B	348 B	283 B
combined-router-hydrator	10.47 KB	4.47 KB	4.07 KB

Method

Run of 2026-08-20 on CI — Blacksmith 4 vCPU (Intel Xeon), 16 GB RAM, Ubuntu 22.04 x64. Bun 1.3.10, Next.js 16.2.12. 5 per metric (first discarded), medians reported.
Every fixture runs unmodified on both frameworks (via compat.next), same app from the same source.
Cold starts include on-demand compilation; memory is measured across the whole process tree at a fixed point, never sampled arbitrarily.
Full details, targets, and the exact commands are in the performance reference.