diff --git a/app/services/projects/create_service.rb b/app/services/projects/create_service.rb
index faf1ee008e7..5b84527eccf 100644
--- a/app/services/projects/create_service.rb
+++ b/app/services/projects/create_service.rb
@@ -94,8 +94,6 @@ module Projects
         @project.team << [current_user, :master, current_user]
       end
 
-      @project.update_column(:last_activity_at, @project.created_at)
-
       if @project.import?
         @project.import_start
       end
diff --git a/db/migrate/20151020145526_add_services_template_index.rb b/db/migrate/20151020145526_add_services_template_index.rb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..1b04f313565
--- /dev/null
+++ b/db/migrate/20151020145526_add_services_template_index.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+class AddServicesTemplateIndex < ActiveRecord::Migration
+  def change
+    add_index :services, :template
+  end
+end
diff --git a/db/schema.rb b/db/schema.rb
index 4bde9f0b748..73fc83c3d6b 100644
--- a/db/schema.rb
+++ b/db/schema.rb
@@ -667,6 +667,7 @@ ActiveRecord::Schema.define(version: 20151026182941) do
 
   add_index "services", ["created_at", "id"], name: "index_services_on_created_at_and_id", using: :btree
   add_index "services", ["project_id"], name: "index_services_on_project_id", using: :btree
+  add_index "services", ["template"], name: "index_services_on_template", using: :btree
 
   create_table "snippets", force: true do |t|
     t.string   "title"
diff --git a/spec/benchmarks/services/projects/create_service_spec.rb b/spec/benchmarks/services/projects/create_service_spec.rb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..25ed48c34fd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spec/benchmarks/services/projects/create_service_spec.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+require 'spec_helper'
+
+describe Projects::CreateService, benchmark: true do
+  describe '#execute' do
+    let(:user) { create(:user, :admin) }
+
+    let(:group) do
+      group = create(:group)
+
+      create(:group_member, group: group, user: user)
+
+      group
+    end
+
+    benchmark_subject do
+      name    = SecureRandom.hex
+      service = described_class.new(user,
+                                    name:             name,
+                                    path:             name,
+                                    namespace_id:     group.id,
+                                    visibility_level: Gitlab::VisibilityLevel::PUBLIC)
+
+      service.execute
+    end
+
+    it { is_expected.to iterate_per_second(0.5) }
+  end
+end