Why Is Elixir Best To Boost Your App Performance?

Last Updated: 

February 7, 2024

If you are a small business owner looking to build a mobile or web app. Then there are high chances that you might be interested in ways to make it more scalable and successful. Indeed, a flawless app is your guarantee to ensure unending profits and prosperity. But you still might have questions like which language should I use? Then let us end all your queries because Elixir is your ultimate answer.  With a guarantee to boost app performance, Elixir promises to ensure scalability and security.

This language has it all productivity, security, flexibility, and incredible community support. Convincing more companies to make it part of their robust technical edifice. This also caused an increase in the demand for Elixir software developers.

No doubt, Elixir is a famous choice so let’s see how it can increase the performance of your app.

Key Takeaways on Boosting Your App Performance:

  1. Concurrency Boost: Elixir's concurrency capability, managed through lightweight processes (Actors), allows for efficient multitasking. This feature optimises app performance by leveraging multicore processors effectively.
  2. Fault Tolerance Advantage: Elixir ensures high reliability and fault tolerance. The Erlang VM separates dysfunctional modules automatically, guaranteeing system functionality in case of errors. Redundancy setups, like data caching during database unavailability, contribute to robust fault tolerance.
  3. Efficiency and Speed: Elixir's efficient language design results in smaller file spaces, enhancing API speed. Compiling into BEAM bytecode, it provides speed advantages without sacrificing performance, often outpacing alternatives like Ruby and NodeJS.
  4. Clear and Easy Syntax: Elixir's clear syntax and readability, coupled with its functional and process-oriented nature, make it an accessible language for both beginners and experienced developers.
  5. Scalability through Traffic Management: Elixir's traffic management, powered by Erlang's BEAM and actor model, facilitates horizontal scaling. The built-in distribution mechanism makes it easy to develop scalable and distributed systems, adapting to increased traffic seamlessly.
  6. Productivity Features: Elixir offers modern features like the pipe operator, protocols, built-in documentation, and a package manager, enhancing productivity and making it a developer-friendly language.
  7. Effective Memory Management: Built on the Erlang/OTP platform, Elixir provides automatic memory management and garbage collection. This ensures stability and predictable performance by minimising latency and optimising for low pause times.
  8. Low Latency Performance: Operating on the BEAM VM, Elixir is designed for low latency, offering predictable response times. The real-time nature of the Erlang scheduling system ensures timely attention to critical processes.
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How Elixir Helps In Boosting App Performance? 

Elixir is a concurrent and general-purpose programming language that is built to develop scalable and maintainable apps. It runs on Erlang VM, known for building low-latency, fault-tolerance, and distributed systems. All characteristics and more enable the developers to be productive in several domains such as:

  • Web development.
  • Embedded software.
  • Machine learning.
  • Data pipelines.
  • Multimedia processing.

Let’s have a look at the ways how Elixir language performance can improve your app 

1. Concurrency

One of the best things about Elixir is its concurrency, meaning its capability to carry out multiple tasks simultaneously. Elixir maintains the concurrency through Actors (the lightweight processes that can receive and deliver messages among themselves).  This feature allows the development of highly concurrent apps, allowing for better use of multicore processors.

2. Fault Tolerance

Elixir has unmatched reliability as well as fault tolerance. Via Elixir you can develop apps and systems that can handle runtime errors with high precision. 

Erlang VM automatically separates the dysfunctional modules, which ensures that the entire system works in the event of failure. It also allows to set up redundancies.
For instance, it enables the developers to design the system so that the data is available via cache in case the database is inaccessible.

3. Efficiency & Speed

Elixir is an efficient language and it allows building smaller file spaces, also enabling the developers to enhance the speed of APIs. It compiles into BEAM bytecode and fetches all the advantages related to speed and efficiency without giving rise to any performance issues. 

Elixir (in some circles) is considered to be faster than Ruby and NodeJS making it one of the top choices for app development as well as server design.

4. Easy Syntax

One of the biggest advantages of Elixir is the availability of clear syntax and easy code sets. Also, for beginners, the Elixir language is easy with its clear syntax rules. Its final code is highly readable. Not to forget, Elixir itself is functional, distributed, and process-oriented.

5. Scalability

Elixir is well-known because of its traffic management. As Erlang’s BEAM makes full use of its CPUs and distributed hardware.  In easy words, Elixir’s actor model, combined with Erlang VM enables horizontal scaling. The Elixir’s built-in distribution mechanism bestows it the characteristic of being straightforward to develop a scalable and distributed system. 

So the apps built on Elixir easily grow with increased traffic and it has the full ability to work across many computers, making it easy for developers to build scalable systems.

6. Productivity

Elixir is a modern and productive programming language because of certain features such as

  • Pipe operator
  • Protocols
  • Built-in documentation
  • Package manager

Elixir is developed on top of Erlang Virtual Machine (EVM)  which is developed by Ericsson. 

7. Memory Management

Another one of the chief advantages of Elixir is that it is built on the Erlang/ OTP platform. That provides automatic memory management and garbage collection. The garbage collection facilitates some latency, also the BEAM VM is optimised for low pause times. It is this ability of Elixir that helps promote stability and predictable performance.

8. Low Latency

Elixir, operating on the BEAM VM is developed for low latency offering predictable response times. Other than this, the real-time nature of the Erlang scheduling system ensures critical processes get timely attention, making it a viable option for apps with strict performance requirements.

9. Native Implemented Functions (NIFs)

Elixir enables the use of NIFs, which are the functions deployed in languages like C or Rust. NIFs can be implemented in interface with low-level system resources, execute CPU-intensive tasks, or include existing libraries for complex operations. Elevating the overall performance of the Elixir apps.

10. Portability

The super feature of portability makes Elixir stand out in the market.  Elixir apps can be deployed in different environments. This flexibility also allows the developers to select the most feasible infrastructure for their app’s performance requirements, whether it’s on-premises, in containerised environments, or the cloud.

11. Hot Code Swapping

Elixir helps developers upgrade code in a running system without causing downtime with the help of hot code swapping. This feature is important for apps that need high availability, as it allows seamless maintenance and updates.

12. Community Support

Elixir developers have a super vibrant community to help young developers reach their full potential and give their optimum performance. This also helps the developers build efficient systems without starting from scratch.

13. Immutable Data Structures

Elixir has an immutable data structure which means it prefers using data that does not change. This makes it easy to manage various tasks taking place at the same time. Helping the developers avoid confusion and errors.

Take Away

Elixir’s performance does not doubt its position as a robust and efficient programming language. With marvellous features like concurrency, parallel execution, scalability, fault tolerance, immutable data structures, and hot swapping. Elixir is now a suitable choice for the development of web and mobile apps for the business of any niche. So if you are a company willing to have real-time connection with your users at the same time want to score more users or wish to assess user behaviour. Then building a web or mobile app is the best investment you can make and Elixir with no or less downtime and upgraded code, clean syntax can contribute to this appeal. 

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