Finally got around to testing it. Particlefx gets a stable 31fps for me on my LG V20 (go.animate() is still 24fps). The gideros bunnymark particles performance is very similar, slightly higher on average but wayyy more erratic.
A side note, the Defold APK size was less than 3mb, and the Gideros APK size with the single sprite and script is over 7mb. The more I use both engines the more mature Defold seems in comparison to Gideros, and I can honestly see Defold outpacing Gideros in development at this rate. I haven’t seen any major updates (or even plans) in a while from them but this all stands to question and could change in a heartbeat if things pick up over on their end.
Does finding those spikes in the profiler open up possibilities to make improvements?