# Service Script vs. Java Services

Service Scripts perform slower than java services. There is an overhead on scripting that comes from xml manipulation and xpath evaluation. Lots of moves, complicated XPath - proportional to amount of XPath. Here are some tips:

- One complicated XPath expression should be faster than several smaller ones - the overhead is in the setup.
- Smaller documents will process faster - think about that when designing script schemas - only send what you need.

Parent topic: Development Performance Guidelines