His async code creates a pool with only 10 max connections[1] (the default). Whereas his sync pool[2], with a flask app that has 16 workers, has significantly more database connections.

I expect upping this number would have a positive effect on asyncio numbers because the only thing[3] this[4] is[5] measuring[6] is how many database connections you have, and is about as far from a realistic workload as you can get.

Change your app to make 3 parallel requests to httpbin, collect the responses and insert them into the database. That's an actually realistic asyncio workload rather than a single DB query on a very contested pool. I'd be very interested to see how sync frameworks fare with that.

1. https://github.com/calpaterson/python-web-perf/blob/master/a...

2. https://github.com/calpaterson/python-web-perf/blob/master/s...

3. https://github.com/calpaterson/python-web-perf/blob/master/a...

4. https://github.com/calpaterson/python-web-perf/blob/master/a...

5. https://github.com/calpaterson/python-web-perf/blob/master/a...

6. https://github.com/calpaterson/python-web-perf/blob/master/a...