WF4 Rules and MS BRE performance comparison

Question

I'm comparing Business Rule Engine (BRE) (Which is with BizTalk Server) and WF 4.0 (a part of .Net Framework 4.0) to use as a Rune Engine.

Comparing the performance I found this article, which compares these 2 engines using some tests.

It concludes that WF would fail in the performance test in all cases except the First Hit condition which is not a concern in most cases.

The test seems very specific and conditions of most real cases seems different. (As the article says so).

Although as the BRE uses RETE algorithm, how much of real world cases happen to have conditions that RETE would help? Would the lack of RETE in WF 4.0 a risk to use it as a rule engine?

Besides it's using WF 3.5 and I know that there's some performance improvements on WF 4.0.

So my question is:

Question: What are the performance risks of using WF 4.0 over BRE?

Answer 1

It's unlikely you'll ever find a direct, and meaningful, comparison of the two, particularly on performance.

So, having direct experience with the BizTalk BRE and vicarious experience with the WF Rules Engine, I'll say that there are no 'risks' choosing one over the other, especially with Performance.

Even if you have an app that will process 10 million tx/day, there are many other places to optimize before any difference in the two rules engines will be even noticeable.

Having said that, the decision should be made based on what environment you're already working in. Meaning, if you are developing a BizTalk app, use the BRE. If you are developing a Win WF app, use the WF Rules Engine.