Threading vs Multiprocessing

Concurrency Concepts

Choosing Between Threads and Processes

Threads share memory but fight the GIL. Processes run in parallel but require IPC. Pick the right model with this checklist.

Compare at a glanceSee hybrid patterns

Comparison

Aspect	Threading	Multiprocessing
Best for	I/O-bound workloads	CPU-bound workloads
Memory	Shared	Separate
Communication	Shared state, Queue, Lock	Queue, Pipe, Manager
Overhead	Low	Higher (startup, serialization)
GIL impact	Yes	No (each process has its own GIL)

Hybrid patterns

• Use a thread pool per process when you need both CPU-bound and I/O-bound work.
• Combine multiprocessing for heavy tasks and asyncio or threading inside each worker for I/O.
• Always profile—sometimes a single optimized process beats orchestrated concurrency.

Next up in your learning path

threading module

Deep dive into locks, events, and queues.

Threads

multiprocessing module

Manage pools and shared state across processes.

Processes

Async vs threads

Compare threads with asyncio for I/O workloads.

Async