Benchmarks of Go serialization methods

This is a test suite for benchmarking various Go serialization methods.

Tested serialization methods

• encoding/gob
• encoding/json
• github.com/json-iterator/go
• github.com/alecthomas/binary
• github.com/davecgh/go-xdr/xdr
• github.com/Sereal/Sereal/Go/sereal
• github.com/ugorji/go/codec
• github.com/vmihailenco/msgpack/v4
• labix.org/v2/mgo/bson
• github.com/tinylib/msgp (code generator for msgpack)
• google.golang.org/protobuf (generated code)
• github.com/gogo/protobuf (generated code, optimized version of goprotobuf)
• go.dedis.ch/protobuf (reflection based)
• github.com/google/flatbuffers
• github.com/hprose/hprose-go/io
• github.com/glycerine/go-capnproto
• zombiezen.com/go/capnproto2
• github.com/andyleap/gencode
• github.com/pascaldekloe/colfer
• github.com/linkedin/goavro
• github.com/ikkerens/ikeapack
• github.com/niubaoshu/gotiny
• github.com/prysmaticlabs/go-ssz
• github.com/200sc/bebop (generated code)
• github.com/shamaton/msgpackgen (generated code)
• github.com/mus-format/mus-go
• wellquite.org/bebop (generated code)

Running the benchmarks

go get -u -t
go test -bench='.*' ./

To update the table in the README:

./stats.sh

Recommendation

If performance, correctness and interoperability are the most important factors, gogoprotobuf is currently the best choice. It does require a pre-processing step (eg. via Go 1.4's "go generate" command).

But as always, make your own choice based on your requirements.

Data

The data being serialized is the following structure with randomly generated values:

type A struct {
    Name     string
    BirthDay time.Time
    Phone    string
    Siblings int
    Spouse   bool
    Money    float64
}

Results

2023-11-09 Results with Go 1.21.4 darwin/arm64 on an Apple M1 Max processor.

benchmark	iter	time/iter	bytes/op	allocs/op	tt.sec	tt.kb	ns/alloc
Benchmark_Gotiny_Marshal-10	6962595	168 ns/op	48	168	1.17	33420	1.00
Benchmark_Gotiny_Unmarshal-10	13797159	88 ns/op	48	112	1.22	66226	0.79
Benchmark_GotinyNoTime_Marshal-10	7157514	169 ns/op	48	168	1.22	34356	1.01
Benchmark_GotinyNoTime_Unmarshal-10	14069850	84 ns/op	47	96	1.19	67521	0.88
Benchmark_Msgp_Marshal-10	19623474	61 ns/op	97	128	1.20	190347	0.48
Benchmark_Msgp_Unmarshal-10	11416347	106 ns/op	97	112	1.22	110738	0.95
Benchmark_VmihailencoMsgpack_Marshal-10	3626785	330 ns/op	92	264	1.20	33366	1.25
Benchmark_VmihailencoMsgpack_Unmarshal-10	2779572	422 ns/op	92	160	1.17	25572	2.64
Benchmark_Json_Marshal-10	2446729	486 ns/op	143	194	1.19	35135	2.51
Benchmark_Json_Unmarshal-10	841398	1336 ns/op	143	351	1.12	12082	3.81
Benchmark_JsonIter_Marshal-10	3517827	339 ns/op	133	200	1.19	46892	1.70
Benchmark_JsonIter_Unmarshal-10	2728002	432 ns/op	133	152	1.18	36364	2.84
Benchmark_EasyJson_Marshal-10	2795341	425 ns/op	143	882	1.19	40141	0.48
Benchmark_EasyJson_Unmarshal-10	2882943	396 ns/op	143	112	1.14	41427	3.54
Benchmark_Bson_Marshal-10	2903034	412 ns/op	110	376	1.20	31933	1.10
Benchmark_Bson_Unmarshal-10	1940450	618 ns/op	110	224	1.20	21344	2.76
Benchmark_MongoBson_Marshal-10	2002221	588 ns/op	110	240	1.18	22024	2.45
Benchmark_MongoBson_Unmarshal-10	1832785	670 ns/op	110	408	1.23	20160	1.64
Benchmark_Gob_Marshal-10	551840	2161 ns/op	162	1744	1.19	8972	1.24
Benchmark_Gob_Unmarshal-10	123770	9786 ns/op	162	7720	1.21	2012	1.27
Benchmark_XDR_Marshal-10	2269971	525 ns/op	84	376	1.19	19067	1.40
Benchmark_XDR_Unmarshal-10	2818861	424 ns/op	84	216	1.20	23678	1.97
Benchmark_UgorjiCodecMsgpack_Marshal-10	2644554	468 ns/op	91	1240	1.24	24065	0.38
Benchmark_UgorjiCodecMsgpack_Unmarshal-10	2664181	447 ns/op	91	688	1.19	24244	0.65
Benchmark_UgorjiCodecBinc_Marshal-10	2405847	501 ns/op	95	1256	1.21	22855	0.40
Benchmark_UgorjiCodecBinc_Unmarshal-10	2938502	409 ns/op	95	688	1.20	27915	0.59
Benchmark_Sereal_Marshal-10	1000000	1012 ns/op	132	832	1.01	13200	1.22
Benchmark_Sereal_Unmarshal-10	977356	1210 ns/op	132	976	1.18	12901	1.24
Benchmark_Binary_Marshal-10	1763468	683 ns/op	61	360	1.21	10757	1.90
Benchmark_Binary_Unmarshal-10	2047929	576 ns/op	61	320	1.18	12492	1.80
Benchmark_FlatBuffers_Marshal-10	3836520	313 ns/op	95	376	1.20	36523	0.83
Benchmark_FlatBuffers_Unmarshal-10	12118488	98 ns/op	95	112	1.19	115428	0.88
Benchmark_CapNProto_Marshal-10	1582750	695 ns/op	96	4392	1.10	15194	0.16
Benchmark_CapNProto_Unmarshal-10	5813928	206 ns/op	96	192	1.20	55813	1.08
Benchmark_CapNProto2_Marshal-10	2330149	520 ns/op	96	1452	1.21	22369	0.36
Benchmark_CapNProto2_Unmarshal-10	5733844	210 ns/op	96	272	1.21	55044	0.77
Benchmark_Hprose_Marshal-10	3745573	319 ns/op	82	422	1.20	30803	0.76
Benchmark_Hprose_Unmarshal-10	2646633	445 ns/op	82	304	1.18	21773	1.47
Benchmark_Hprose2_Marshal-10	6750758	177 ns/op	82	0	1.20	55578	0.00
Benchmark_Hprose2_Unmarshal-10	5225089	228 ns/op	82	136	1.19	42986	1.68
Benchmark_Protobuf_Marshal-10	4145830	289 ns/op	52	144	1.20	21558	2.01
Benchmark_Protobuf_Unmarshal-10	3617934	330 ns/op	52	184	1.19	18813	1.79
Benchmark_Pulsar_Marshal-10	5215272	233 ns/op	51	304	1.22	26916	0.77
Benchmark_Pulsar_Unmarshal-10	5162821	234 ns/op	51	256	1.21	26640	0.91
Benchmark_Gogoprotobuf_Marshal-10	24577173	48 ns/op	53	64	1.20	130259	0.76
Benchmark_Gogoprotobuf_Unmarshal-10	14057605	85 ns/op	53	96	1.20	74505	0.89
Benchmark_Gogojsonpb_Marshal-10	264712	4516 ns/op	125	3095	1.20	3324	1.46
Benchmark_Gogojsonpb_Unmarshal-10	199486	6014 ns/op	125	3379	1.20	2509	1.78
Benchmark_Colfer_Marshal-10	26230510	45 ns/op	51	64	1.18	134037	0.70
Benchmark_Colfer_Unmarshal-10	16755222	72 ns/op	51	112	1.21	85451	0.64
Benchmark_Gencode_Marshal-10	19474090	59 ns/op	53	80	1.16	103212	0.75
Benchmark_Gencode_Unmarshal-10	17293776	69 ns/op	53	112	1.20	91657	0.62
Benchmark_GencodeUnsafe_Marshal-10	33785923	35 ns/op	46	48	1.21	155415	0.75
Benchmark_GencodeUnsafe_Unmarshal-10	20288104	59 ns/op	46	96	1.20	93325	0.62
Benchmark_XDR2_Marshal-10	18158763	66 ns/op	60	64	1.20	108952	1.03
Benchmark_XDR2_Unmarshal-10	26721618	45 ns/op	60	32	1.20	160329	1.41
Benchmark_GoAvro_Marshal-10	1418862	842 ns/op	47	584	1.19	6668	1.44
Benchmark_GoAvro_Unmarshal-10	579901	2111 ns/op	47	2312	1.22	2725	0.91
Benchmark_GoAvro2Text_Marshal-10	963158	1254 ns/op	133	1320	1.21	12887	0.95
Benchmark_GoAvro2Text_Unmarshal-10	1000000	1145 ns/op	133	736	1.15	13369	1.56
Benchmark_GoAvro2Binary_Marshal-10	3323559	361 ns/op	47	464	1.20	15620	0.78
Benchmark_GoAvro2Binary_Unmarshal-10	3095734	388 ns/op	47	544	1.20	14549	0.71
Benchmark_Ikea_Marshal-10	2889531	414 ns/op	55	184	1.20	15892	2.25
Benchmark_Ikea_Unmarshal-10	3885115	309 ns/op	55	160	1.20	21368	1.93
Benchmark_ShamatonMapMsgpack_Marshal-10	4632297	262 ns/op	92	192	1.21	42617	1.36
Benchmark_ShamatonMapMsgpack_Unmarshal-10	4736762	252 ns/op	92	168	1.20	43578	1.50
Benchmark_ShamatonArrayMsgpack_Marshal-10	5141290	233 ns/op	50	160	1.20	25706	1.46
Benchmark_ShamatonArrayMsgpack_Unmarshal-10	5920248	202 ns/op	50	168	1.20	29601	1.20
Benchmark_ShamatonMapMsgpackgen_Marshal-10	16191991	74 ns/op	92	96	1.20	148966	0.77
Benchmark_ShamatonMapMsgpackgen_Unmarshal-10	8227104	145 ns/op	92	112	1.20	75689	1.30
Benchmark_ShamatonArrayMsgpackgen_Marshal-10	20387590	58 ns/op	50	64	1.20	101937	0.92
Benchmark_ShamatonArrayMsgpackgen_Unmarshal-10	14803118	80 ns/op	50	112	1.19	74015	0.72
Benchmark_SSZNoTimeNoStringNoFloatA_Marshal-10	593461	2002 ns/op	55	440	1.19	3264	4.55
Benchmark_SSZNoTimeNoStringNoFloatA_Unmarshal-10	388472	3102 ns/op	55	1184	1.21	2136	2.62
Benchmark_Bebop_200sc_Marshal-10	27845754	42 ns/op	55	64	1.19	153151	0.67
Benchmark_Bebop_200sc_Unmarshal-10	30457110	39 ns/op	55	32	1.21	167514	1.24
Benchmark_Bebop_Wellquite_Marshal-10	27176578	43 ns/op	55	64	1.19	149471	0.68
Benchmark_Bebop_Wellquite_Unmarshal-10	27232033	44 ns/op	55	32	1.20	149776	1.38
Benchmark_FastJson_Marshal-10	4538410	264 ns/op	133	504	1.20	60723	0.52
Benchmark_FastJson_Unmarshal-10	1820494	662 ns/op	133	1704	1.21	24358	0.39
Benchmark_MUS_Marshal-10	29512822	40 ns/op	46	48	1.20	135758	0.85
Benchmark_MUS_Unmarshal-10	23131359	52 ns/op	46	32	1.21	106404	1.63
Benchmark_MUSUnsafe_Marshal-10	31768863	37 ns/op	49	64	1.20	155667	0.59
Benchmark_MUSUnsafe_Unmarshal-10	53609522	22 ns/op	49	0	1.22	262686	0.00

Totals:

benchmark	iter	time/iter	bytes/op	allocs/op	tt.sec	tt.kb	ns/alloc
Benchmark_MUSUnsafe_-10	85378385	60 ns/op	98	64	5.17	836708	0.95
Benchmark_Bebop_200sc_-10	58302864	82 ns/op	110	96	4.79	641331	0.86
Benchmark_Bebop_Wellquite_-10	54408611	87 ns/op	110	96	4.77	598494	0.91
Benchmark_MUS_-10	52644181	92 ns/op	92	80	4.90	484326	1.16
Benchmark_GencodeUnsafe_-10	54074027	94 ns/op	92	144	5.13	497481	0.66
Benchmark_XDR2_-10	44880381	111 ns/op	120	96	4.99	538564	1.16
Benchmark_Colfer_-10	42985732	117 ns/op	102	176	5.04	438884	0.67
Benchmark_Gencode_-10	36767866	129 ns/op	106	192	4.75	389739	0.67
Benchmark_Gogoprotobuf_-10	38634778	134 ns/op	106	160	5.19	409528	0.84
Benchmark_ShamatonArrayMsgpackgen_-10	35190708	139 ns/op	100	176	4.91	351907	0.79
Benchmark_Msgp_-10	31039821	168 ns/op	194	240	5.22	602172	0.70
Benchmark_ShamatonMapMsgpackgen_-10	24419095	219 ns/op	184	208	5.37	449311	1.06
Benchmark_GotinyNoTime_-10	21227364	254 ns/op	95	264	5.39	203761	0.96
Benchmark_Gotiny_-10	20759754	256 ns/op	96	280	5.32	199293	0.92
Benchmark_Hprose2_-10	11975847	406 ns/op	164	136	4.86	197122	2.99
Benchmark_FlatBuffers_-10	15955008	412 ns/op	190	488	6.58	303863	0.84
Benchmark_ShamatonArrayMsgpack_-10	11061538	435 ns/op	100	328	4.82	110615	1.33
Benchmark_Pulsar_-10	10378093	467 ns/op	103	560	4.85	107112	0.83
Benchmark_ShamatonMapMsgpack_-10	9369059	514 ns/op	184	360	4.82	172390	1.43
Benchmark_Protobuf_-10	7763764	619 ns/op	104	328	4.81	80743	1.89
Benchmark_Ikea_-10	6774646	723 ns/op	110	344	4.90	74521	2.10
Benchmark_CapNProto2_-10	8063993	731 ns/op	192	1724	5.90	154828	0.42
Benchmark_GoAvro2Binary_-10	6419293	749 ns/op	94	1008	4.81	60341	0.74
Benchmark_VmihailencoMsgpack_-10	6406357	752 ns/op	184	424	4.82	117876	1.77
Benchmark_Hprose_-10	6392206	764 ns/op	164	726	4.89	105158	1.05
Benchmark_JsonIter_-10	6245829	771 ns/op	266	352	4.82	166513	2.19
Benchmark_EasyJson_-10	5678284	821 ns/op	287	994	4.66	163137	0.83
Benchmark_CapNProto_-10	7396678	902 ns/op	192	4584	6.68	142016	0.20
Benchmark_UgorjiCodecBinc_-10	5344349	910 ns/op	190	1944	4.87	101542	0.47
Benchmark_UgorjiCodecMsgpack_-10	5308735	916 ns/op	182	1928	4.87	96618	0.48
Benchmark_FastJson_-10	6358904	926 ns/op	267	2208	5.89	170164	0.42
Benchmark_XDR_-10	5088832	950 ns/op	168	592	4.84	85492	1.61
Benchmark_Bson_-10	4843484	1030 ns/op	220	600	4.99	106556	1.72
Benchmark_MongoBson_-10	3835006	1258 ns/op	220	648	4.83	84370	1.94
Benchmark_Binary_-10	3811397	1260 ns/op	122	680	4.80	46499	1.85
Benchmark_Json_-10	3288127	1822 ns/op	287	545	5.99	94435	3.34
Benchmark_Sereal_-10	1977356	2222 ns/op	264	1808	4.39	52202	1.23
Benchmark_GoAvro2Text_-10	1963158	2399 ns/op	267	2056	4.71	52514	1.17
Benchmark_GoAvro_-10	1998763	2953 ns/op	94	2896	5.90	18788	1.02
Benchmark_SSZNoTimeNoStringNoFloatA_-10	981933	5104 ns/op	110	1624	5.01	10801	3.14
Benchmark_Gogojsonpb_-10	464198	10530 ns/op	251	6474	4.89	11669	1.63
Benchmark_Gob_-10	675610	11947 ns/op	325	9464	8.07	21970	1.26

Issues

The benchmarks can also be run with validation enabled.

VALIDATE=1 go test -bench='.*' ./

Unfortunately, several of the serializers exhibit issues:

1. (minor) BSON drops sub-microsecond precision from time.Time.
2. (minor) Ugorji Binc Codec drops the timezone name (eg. "EST" -> "-0500") from time.Time.

--- FAIL: BenchmarkBsonUnmarshal-8
    serialization_benchmarks_test.go:115: unmarshaled object differed:
        &{20b999e3621bd773 2016-01-19 14:05:02.469416459 -0800 PST f017c8e9de 4 true 0.20887343719329818}
        &{20b999e3621bd773 2016-01-19 14:05:02.469 -0800 PST f017c8e9de 4 true 0.20887343719329818}
--- FAIL: BenchmarkUgorjiCodecBincUnmarshal-8
    serialization_benchmarks_test.go:115: unmarshaled object differed:
        &{20a1757ced6b488e 2016-01-19 14:05:15.69474534 -0800 PST 71f3bf4233 0 false 0.8712180830484527}
        &{20a1757ced6b488e 2016-01-19 14:05:15.69474534 -0800 -0800 71f3bf4233 0 false 0.8712180830484527}

All other fields are correct however.

Additionally, while not a correctness issue, FlatBuffers, ProtoBuffers, Cap'N'Proto, ikeapack and MUS do not support time types directly. In the benchmarks an int64 value is used to hold a UnixNano timestamp.

Bebop (both libraries, by nature of the format) natively supports times rounded to 100ns ticks, and this is what is currently benchmarked (a unix nano timestamp is another valid approach).

MUSUnsafe results were obtained using the mus-go unsafe package. With this package, after decoding a byte slice into a string, any change to this slice will change the contents of the string. In such cases, the slice can be reused only after processing the received result.

3. (major) Goprotobuf has been disabled in the above, as it is no longer maintained and is incompatible with the latest changes to Google's Protobuf package. See discussions: 1, 2.

panic: protobuf tag not enough fields in ProtoBufA.state:

goroutine 148 [running]:
github.com/gogo/protobuf/proto.(*unmarshalInfo).computeUnmarshalInfo(0xc0000d9c20)
	/home/ken/src/go/pkg/mod/github.com/gogo/[email protected]/proto/table_unmarshal.go:341 +0x135f
github.com/gogo/protobuf/proto.(*unmarshalInfo).unmarshal(0xc0000d9c20, {0xcff820?}, {0xc000122fc0, 0x35, 0x35})
	/home/ken/src/go/pkg/mod/github.com/gogo/[email protected]/proto/table_unmarshal.go:138 +0x67
github.com/gogo/protobuf/proto.(*InternalMessageInfo).Unmarshal(0xc00013a8c0?, {0xe6d5f0, 0xc000114060}, {0xc000122fc0?, 0x35?, 0x35?})
	/home/ken/src/go/pkg/mod/github.com/gogo/[email protected]/proto/table_unmarshal.go:63 +0xd0
github.com/gogo/protobuf/proto.(*Buffer).Unmarshal(0xc00009fe28, {0xe6d5f0, 0xc000114060})
	/home/ken/src/go/pkg/mod/github.com/gogo/[email protected]/proto/decode.go:424 +0x153
github.com/gogo/protobuf/proto.Unmarshal({0xc000122fc0, 0x35, 0x35}, {0xe6d5f0, 0xc000114060})
	/home/ken/src/go/pkg/mod/github.com/gogo/[email protected]/proto/decode.go:342 +0xe6
github.com/alecthomas/go_serialization_benchmarks.Benchmark_Goprotobuf_Unmarshal(0xc0000d5680)
	/home/ken/src/go/src/github.com/alecthomas/go_serialization_benchmarks/serialization_benchmarks_test.go:853 +0x26a
testing.(*B).runN(0xc0000d5680, 0x1)
	/usr/local/go/src/testing/benchmark.go:193 +0x102
testing.(*B).run1.func1()
	/usr/local/go/src/testing/benchmark.go:233 +0x59
created by testing.(*B).run1
	/usr/local/go/src/testing/benchmark.go:226 +0x9c
exit status 2
FAIL	github.com/alecthomas/go_serialization_benchmarks	61.159s