use Benchmark qw(:all) ;

my $count = 1_000;

cmpthese($count,
         {
          'C++' => 'qx{curl -i http://localhost/cgi/hello.cgi}',
          'Perl' => 'qx{curl -i http://localhost/cgi/hello2.cgi}',
         });

__END__

Perl under FCGI. C++ as plain executable.

# first run
      Rate  C++ Perl
C++  340/s   --  -5%
Perl 360/s   6%   --

# second run b/c the first seemed too good
      Rate  C++ Perl
C++  287/s   --  17%
Perl 246/s -14%   --