diff --git a/benchmark/base.py b/benchmark/base.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..23638088d28
--- /dev/null
+++ b/benchmark/base.py
@@ -0,0 +1,157 @@
+import unittest
+from functools import wraps
+from time import perf_counter
+import platform
+
+import numpy as np
+
+from Orange.data import Table
+
+# override method prefix for niceness
+BENCH_METHOD_PREFIX = 'bench'
+unittest.TestLoader.testMethodPrefix = BENCH_METHOD_PREFIX
+
+
+def _timeitlike_time_format(time_seconds, precision=3):
+    """Shamelessly adapted formatting from timeit.py
+
+    Parameters
+    ----------
+    time_seconds : float
+        The time in seconds
+    precision : int
+        The precision of the output. All digits.
+
+    Returns
+    -------
+    str
+        A timeit-like format (with usec, msec, sec).
+    """
+    usec = time_seconds * 1e6
+    if usec < 1000:
+        return "%.*g usec" % (precision, usec)
+    else:
+        msec = usec / 1000
+        if msec < 1000:
+            return "%.*g msec" % (precision, msec)
+        else:
+            sec = msec / 1000
+            return "%.*g sec" % (precision, sec)
+
+
+def _bench_skipper(condition, skip_message):
+    """A decorator factory for sipping benchmarks conditionally.
+
+    Parameters
+    ----------
+    condition : bool or function
+        A boolean value or a lambda callback to determine
+        whether the benchmark should be skipped.
+    skip_message : str
+        The message to display if the bench is skipped.
+
+    Returns
+    -------
+    function
+        The custom skip decorator.
+    """
+    def decorator(func):
+        if (isinstance(condition, bool) and condition) or \
+                (not isinstance(condition, bool) and condition()):
+            # display a message and skip bench
+            wrapper = unittest.skip("[{}] skipped: {}\n".format(_get_bench_name(func), skip_message))(func)
+        else:
+            # allow execution
+            @wraps(func)
+            def wrapper(*args, **kwargs):
+                func(*args, **kwargs)
+        return wrapper
+    return decorator
+
+
+def _get_bench_name(bench_func):
+    """Get the benchmark name from its function object."""
+    return bench_func.__name__[len(BENCH_METHOD_PREFIX) + 1:]
+
+
+def benchmark(setup=None, number=10, repeat=3, warmup=5):
+    """A parametrized decorator to benchmark the test.
+
+    Setting up the bench can happen in the normal setUp,
+    which is applied to all benches identically, and additionally
+    the setup parameter, which is bench-specific.
+
+    Parameters
+    ----------
+    setup : function
+        A function to call once to set up the test.
+    number : int
+        The number of loops of repeat repeats to run.
+    repeat : int
+        The number of repeats in each loop.
+    warmup : int
+        The number of warmup runs of the function.
+    """
+    def real_decorator(func):
+        @wraps(func)
+        def wrapper(self, *args, **kwargs):
+            if setup is not None:
+                setup(self)
+            for i in range(warmup):
+                func(self, *args, **kwargs)
+            clock_time_starts = np.zeros((number, repeat))
+            clock_time_ends = np.zeros((number, repeat))
+            for i in range(number):
+                for j in range(repeat):
+                    clock_time_starts[i, j] = perf_counter()
+                    func(self, *args, **kwargs)
+                    clock_time_ends[i, j] = perf_counter()
+            clock_times = (clock_time_ends - clock_time_starts).min(axis=1)
+
+            print("[{}] with {} loops, best of {}:"
+                  .format(_get_bench_name(func), number, repeat))
+            print("\tmin {:4s} per loop".format(_timeitlike_time_format(clock_times.min())))
+            print("\tavg {:4s} per loop".format(_timeitlike_time_format(clock_times.mean())))
+        return wrapper
+    return real_decorator
+
+
+pandas_only = _bench_skipper(not hasattr(Table, '_metadata'),
+                             "Not a pandas environment.")
+non_pandas_only = _bench_skipper(hasattr(Table, '_metadata'),
+                                 "Not a pre-pandas environment.")
+
+
+# see Benchmark.setUpClass()
+global_setup_ran = False
+
+
+class Benchmark(unittest.TestCase):
+    """A base class for all benchmarks."""
+
+    @classmethod
+    def getPlatformSpecificDetails(cls):
+        """Get Windows/Linux/OSX-specific details as a string."""
+        win = platform.win32_ver()
+        lin = platform.linux_distribution()
+        osx = platform.mac_ver()
+        if win[0]:
+            return "{} {} {}".format(*win[:3])
+        elif lin[0]:
+            return "{} {} {}".format(*lin)
+        elif osx[0]:
+            return "OSX {} {}".format(osx[0], osx[2])
+        else:
+            return "no specific system info"
+
+    @classmethod
+    def setUpClass(cls):
+        """Runs once globally to print system information."""
+        global global_setup_ran
+        if not global_setup_ran:
+            print("\nRunning benchmark with {} v{} on {} ({})"
+                  .format(platform.python_implementation(),
+                          platform.python_version(),
+                          platform.platform(),
+                          Benchmark.getPlatformSpecificDetails()))
+            global_setup_ran = True
diff --git a/benchmark/bench_basic.py b/benchmark/bench_basic.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..048f2bfcb86
--- /dev/null
+++ b/benchmark/bench_basic.py
@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
+from .base import Benchmark, benchmark, pandas_only, non_pandas_only
+from Orange.data import Table
+from Orange.preprocess import Discretize
+from Orange.preprocess.discretize import EqualFreq
+
+# noinspection PyBroadException
+try:
+    from Orange.data.filter import FilterContinuous, FilterDiscrete, Values
+except:
+    # legacy only
+    pass
+
+
+# noinspection PyStatementEffect
+class BenchBasic(Benchmark):
+    def setUp(self):
+        self.iris = Table('iris')
+        self.adult = Table('adult')
+        self.discretizer = Discretize(EqualFreq(n=3))
+
+    @benchmark(number=100)
+    def bench_iris_read(self):
+        Table('iris')
+
+    @benchmark(number=5, warmup=1)
+    def bench_adult_read(self):
+        Table('adult')
+
+    @benchmark(number=100)
+    def bench_iris_create_X(self):
+        self.iris.X
+
+    @benchmark(number=50)
+    def bench_adult_create_X(self):
+        self.adult.X
+
+    @pandas_only
+    @benchmark(number=20)
+    def bench_adult_filter_pandas(self):
+        self.adult[(self.adult.age > 30) & (self.adult.workclass == 'Private')]
+
+    @non_pandas_only
+    @benchmark(number=20)
+    def bench_adult_filter_pre_pandas(self):
+        age_filter = FilterContinuous(self.adult.domain["age"], FilterContinuous.Greater, 30)
+        workclass_filter = FilterDiscrete(self.adult.domain["workclass"], [0])
+        combined = Values([age_filter, workclass_filter])
+        combined(self.adult)
+
+    @benchmark(number=50)
+    def bench_iris_basic_stats(self):
+        self.iris._compute_basic_stats()
+
+    @benchmark(number=20)
+    def bench_iris_distributions(self):
+        self.iris._compute_distributions()
+
+    @benchmark()
+    def bench_iris_contingency(self):
+        self.iris._compute_contingency()
+
+    @benchmark()
+    def bench_iris_discretize(self):
+        self.discretizer(self.iris)
+
+    @pandas_only
+    @benchmark()
+    def bench_iris_iteration_pandas(self):
+        for _, _ in self.iris.iterrows():
+            pass
+
+    @non_pandas_only
+    @benchmark()
+    def bench_iris_iteration_pre_pandas(self):
+        for _ in self.iris:
+            pass