Let's Be Honest — Does the Stack Matter?
You could build the same app in your regular stack in 2 weeks instead of 2 days with Fractal — the world won’t change because of it.
Is Fractal code easier to read? That’s subjective. A developer who spent 10 years in Perl might find their syntax more comfortable.
More flexible for changes? Maybe, but if you already know all your app’s requirements — and don’t expect a major pivot — that might not matter either.
But There’s One Thing That Always Matters
Performance. Speed. The thing that users feel immediately.
Even a small delay in the UI separates a $30 phone from a $1200 one. Speed is brand. Once users get used to a fast, responsive interface, even a single unnecessary progress bar becomes annoying.
Today, I’m proud to say: none of the 23 apps we’ve built on Fractal have a single progress bar.
It's Just the Beginning
Most apps so far are internal or test projects — they have features, but not massive loads. Optimization is still ahead. Fractal is like a racecar that just hit the track — fast, but with room for engineering improvements.
Fractal Portal: A Mature Example
One of our most advanced apps is the Fractal Portal.
- Jira-like project management
- Slack-style messaging
- Built-in blog system
- Deployment & monitoring tools for Fractal Cloud
- Student portal for training & exams
- 12 permission domains
- Fully translated into 7 languages
- Domain model exceeds 300+ relational tables
How Fast Does It Work?
Right now, average page load time is about 100ms. On a warm cache, it's just 12–15ms.
Sounds great, but let’s be honest — these results are not from an optimized setup. The server is a 10-year-old laptop with a mobile CPU that wants to go to sleep every second.
Traffic goes through two routers, two Wi-Fi networks — no fiber involved. Average ping is around 8–10ms. Page generation time? ~1ms. The rest is networking overhead.
More Testing Will Reveal Bugs
I'm sure once we hit real-world production, we'll uncover performance issues. That’s normal.
But Fractal has already crossed the line — it’s no longer a broken-down cart. Even with imperfections, it’s a smoking racecar — already better than any horse in the stable.