The invention relates to a performance evaluation method for a pump. The method comprises the steps that a vibration acceleration signal of a motor bearing connected to the pump in the pump shutdown process is collected, and transient impact data in the vibration acceleration signal are extracted, a freely-attenuated vibration kinetic model is used as a basis, nonlinear data fitting is carried out on the transient impact data, optimal shock response parameters are obtained, and the performance of the pump is evaluated by the optimal shock response parameters; data which can express the performance of the pump under transient conditions are extracted, status information of the pump in the shut down process is given out more accurately and more comprehensively, the status information is used for performance evaluation of the pump, and evaluation is more accurate; and especially in the start and shutdown switching process of multiple pumps, monitoring and analyzing with the above method can provide timely and accurate performance evaluation results on equipment maintenance persons.