diff --git a/test/perf/README b/test/perf/README
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9c95d99
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/perf/README
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+This directory contains the performance tests. These tests contain basic
+routines that perform a single action and output the result in seconds, with a
+basic description of what has been done. The timing is done via the native Date
+object to ensure that it can be run both server and client-side.
+
+It is important that each test performs only a single operation to ensure that
+the prior operations have no consequences on the previous, at least when run
+server-side by invoking a separate executable for each.
diff --git a/test/perf/common.js b/test/perf/common.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..75ec0cf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/perf/common.js
@@ -0,0 +1,91 @@
+/**
+ * Common performance testing functionality
+ *
+ *  Copyright (C) 2010 Mike Gerwitz
+ *
+ *  This file is part of ease.js.
+ *
+ *  ease.js is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
+ *  terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the Free
+ *  Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option)
+ *  any later version.
+ *
+ *  This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
+ *  ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
+ *  FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU Lesser General Public License
+ *  for more details.
+ *
+ *  You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
+ *  along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+ *
+ * @author  Mike Gerwitz
+ * @package performance
+ */
+
+/**
+ * Stores start time
+ * @type  {number}
+ */
+var start = 0;
+
+
+/**
+ * Includes a module from the lib directory
+ *
+ * @param  {string}  name  module name
+ *
+ * @return  {Object}  module exports
+ */
+exports.require = function( name )
+{
+    return require( '../../lib/' + name );
+};
+
+
+/**
+ * A simple wrapper to perform testing and output the result
+ *
+ * @param  {function()}  test  performance test to perform
+ * @param  {string=}     desc  test description
+ *
+ * @return  {undefined}
+ */
+exports.test = function( test, desc )
+{
+    exports.start();
+    test();
+    exports.report( desc );
+};
+
+
+/**
+ * Starts the timer
+ *
+ * @return  {undefined}
+ */
+exports.start = function()
+{
+    start = ( new Date() ).getTime();
+};
+
+
+/**
+ * Outputs the time elapsed, followed by the description (if available)
+ *
+ * @param  {string=}  desc  test description
+ *
+ * @return  {undefined}
+ */
+exports.report = function( desc )
+{
+    desc = desc || '';
+
+    var end   = ( new Date() ).getTime(),
+        total = ( ( end - start ) / 1000 ).toFixed( 3 )
+    ;
+
+    console.log( total + 's' +
+        ( ( desc ) ? ( ': ' + desc ) : '' )
+    );
+};
+
diff --git a/test/perf/perf-class-define.js b/test/perf/perf-class-define.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b4eb20b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/perf/perf-class-define.js
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+/**
+ * Tests amount of time taken to declare 1000 classes
+ *
+ *  Copyright (C) 2010 Mike Gerwitz
+ *
+ *  This file is part of ease.js.
+ *
+ *  ease.js is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
+ *  terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the Free
+ *  Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option)
+ *  any later version.
+ *
+ *  This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
+ *  ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
+ *  FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU Lesser General Public License
+ *  for more details.
+ *
+ *  You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
+ *  along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+ *
+ * @author  Mike Gerwitz
+ * @package performance
+ */
+
+
+var common = require( __dirname + '/common.js' ),
+    Class  = common.require( 'class' )
+
+    count = 1000
+;
+
+
+common.test( function()
+{
+    var i = count;
+
+    while ( i-- )
+    {
+         Class( {} );
+    }
+
+}, 'Declare ' + count + ' empty anonymous classes' );
diff --git a/test/perf/perf-class-inst-anon-empty.js b/test/perf/perf-class-inst-anon-empty.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..69220a8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/perf/perf-class-inst-anon-empty.js
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+/**
+ * Tests amount of time taken to instantiate anonymous classes
+ *
+ *  Copyright (C) 2010 Mike Gerwitz
+ *
+ *  This file is part of ease.js.
+ *
+ *  ease.js is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
+ *  terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the Free
+ *  Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option)
+ *  any later version.
+ *
+ *  This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
+ *  ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
+ *  FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU Lesser General Public License
+ *  for more details.
+ *
+ *  You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
+ *  along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+ *
+ * @author  Mike Gerwitz
+ * @package performance
+ */
+
+
+var common = require( __dirname + '/common.js' ),
+    Class  = common.require( 'class' )
+
+    count = 5000,
+    Foo   = Class( {} )
+;
+
+
+common.test( function()
+{
+    var i = count;
+
+    while ( i-- )
+    {
+        Foo();
+    }
+
+}, 'Instantiate ' + count + ' empty anonymous classes' );
diff --git a/test/perf/perf-class-inst-named-empty.js b/test/perf/perf-class-inst-named-empty.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5ee920f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/perf/perf-class-inst-named-empty.js
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+/**
+ * Tests amount of time taken to instantiate named classes
+ *
+ *  Copyright (C) 2010 Mike Gerwitz
+ *
+ *  This file is part of ease.js.
+ *
+ *  ease.js is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
+ *  terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the Free
+ *  Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option)
+ *  any later version.
+ *
+ *  This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
+ *  ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
+ *  FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU Lesser General Public License
+ *  for more details.
+ *
+ *  You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
+ *  along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+ *
+ * @author  Mike Gerwitz
+ * @package performance
+ */
+
+
+var common = require( __dirname + '/common.js' ),
+    Class  = common.require( 'class' )
+
+    count = 5000,
+    Foo   = Class( 'Foo', {} )
+;
+
+common.test( function()
+{
+    var i = count;
+
+    while ( i-- )
+    {
+        // to be extra confident that V8 or another compiler won't realize this
+        // is useless and optimize it out
+        Foo();
+    }
+
+}, 'Instantiate ' + count + ' empty named classes' );
diff --git a/test/perf/perf-class-require.js b/test/perf/perf-class-require.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..065c50d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/perf/perf-class-require.js
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+/**
+ * Tests amount of time spent on requiring class module
+ *
+ *  Copyright (C) 2010 Mike Gerwitz
+ *
+ *  This file is part of ease.js.
+ *
+ *  ease.js is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
+ *  terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the Free
+ *  Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option)
+ *  any later version.
+ *
+ *  This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
+ *  ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
+ *  FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU Lesser General Public License
+ *  for more details.
+ *
+ *  You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
+ *  along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+ *
+ * @author  Mike Gerwitz
+ * @package performance
+ */
+
+
+var common = require( __dirname + '/common.js' );
+
+// we run this test once because require() will cache the object in memory
+common.test( function()
+{
+    common.require( 'class' );
+}, 'Require class module' );
+