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So Python runs in very low memory because of no JIT. You can run say 10 copies of your Python Web server in the space of 1 Java runtime. Will the Java runtime still win? Sure the benchmarks prove it. But there are advantages to running in low memory. Really cheap hosting for low traffic stuff comes to mind... java on a cheap host tends to be disaster.

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Not because of JIT, but because of refcounting GC. Also the JVM probably loads (and does, or at least is prepared to do - http://www.azulsystems.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/2... ) too much crap. (And probably the jigsaw and modular and whatever OpenJDK projects will help with that.)

Furthermore, Python is not really memory prudent either. PHP is much better in that regard (very fast startup time, fast page render times, but a rather different approach).

If you're running a low traffic site the hosting is a rounding error. We're talking about $5-10 here. Is that really a justification for anything? If money is THAT important you just write the app with Nginx/SQLite/Lua in the first place.

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