Must I use Phoenix framework?

Of course there is nothing requiring you to use Phoenix You have several options in the community, such as dropping down to plain Plug (which phoenix is built on), or using another Elixir webserver/library combo like Ace/Raxx, or even using Cowboy (an Erlang web server) from Elixir. Using Phoenix will not impose measurable overhead performance wise, and what you may lose by forgoing it depends on what exactly you’re building– which we have light details on. I will say Phoenix is great for API servers and it’s probably your most mature option. The SQLServer integration will be handled the same way regardless of your choice web wise. Maybe prototype out a couple options and see what fits best?

I guess you’d need to clarify what you mean by “super fast”, “forex api server”, and how you are planning to use sqlserver in this setup.

Since phoenix is mostly geared towards web dev, it’s TCP-based. For “super fast” you might want to go with UDP. Although I’m not sure what “forex api server” here means, do you plan to make API requests to some other exchanges, and aggregate the results? And you might want to pick an in-memory database instead of a disk-based one.

I know Erlang has been used for matching engine, so if you do the same then the most difficult problem is solved. As for supporting stuff like API, not sure Erlang/Elixir is a good choice, if you truly want to minimize CPU/RAM use you should be looking at C/C++.

Thanks for contributing! I will use Redis in place of sqlserver. “Forex api server” means I want to build a backend for currency exchange and trading where a frontend using angular or anything will feed from. “Super fast” bec it is expected to support millions of concurrent transactions. I am new to Elixir but I believe elixir is the favorite option.

Thanks for contributing. Since Phoenix has no performance overhead, then I will go with it. I ve updated the questions just to add details on what I am about to build. Appreciation!!

“Super fast” and supporting millions of transactions is not the same thing. One is speed, the other is concurrency. What I meant when I asked you for further clarifications was, I wanted you to specify some thresholds like <100us for how long a transaction in your opinion should take.

For financial data I’d worry about consistency first and foremost, not the speed. I’m not quite familiar with redis, but if it’s single threaded like voltdb, then it could be a good choice.

I recommend to read article: The Road to 2 Million Websocket Connections in Phoenix and many other tips, tutorials etc. shared by community.

If you’re wondering whether to use Phoenix or not, I highly recommend you read the preface and opening chapter of Programming Phoenix - these chapters are free to download and honestly does one of the best jobs to sell a piece of technology I have ever seen! It’ll make the hairs on the back of you neck stand up

I checked out the book but it wan’t free.