This paper provides a discussion on the performance of the fractional order proportional-integral-derivative (FOPID)controllers designed by using artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm for fractional order systems. Some measures of the step response, i.e., integral of time weighted absolute error (ITAE), integrated squared error (ISE), settling time, and overshoot, are used to evaluate the performance of the FOPID controlled systems. Simulation experiments are compared with the success of the classical PID controllers optimized by the ABC algorithm, and with the other methods given in literature. The results demonstrate that ABC algorithm based FOPID controlled systems perform significantly better performance than the other ones.