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)
github.com/deneonet/benc

Running the benchmarks

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

To update the table in the README:

./stats.sh

Recommendation

If correctness and interoperability are the most important factors, protobuf and json do the job good. If speed matters, MUS and BENC are probably the best choice.

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

2023-11-16 Results with Go 1.21.4 linux/amd64 with processor 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-11300H @ 3.10GHz

benchmark	iter	time/iter	bytes/op	allocs/op	tt.sec	tt.kb	ns/alloc
Benchmark_Gotiny_Marshal-8	5175884	264 ns/op	48	168	1.37	24844	1.58
Benchmark_Gotiny_Unmarshal-8	7481815	145 ns/op	47	112	1.09	35905	1.30
Benchmark_GotinyNoTime_Marshal-8	4763344	268 ns/op	47	168	1.28	22859	1.60
Benchmark_GotinyNoTime_Unmarshal-8	9295584	130 ns/op	48	96	1.21	44618	1.36
Benchmark_Msgp_Marshal-8	12086298	110 ns/op	97	128	1.34	117237	0.86
Benchmark_Msgp_Unmarshal-8	6761966	186 ns/op	97	112	1.26	65591	1.67
Benchmark_VmihailencoMsgpack_Marshal-8	2206149	499 ns/op	92	264	1.10	20296	1.89
Benchmark_VmihailencoMsgpack_Unmarshal-8	1907919	600 ns/op	92	160	1.15	17552	3.75
Benchmark_Json_Marshal-8	1505756	770 ns/op	151	208	1.16	22842	3.70
Benchmark_Json_Unmarshal-8	674160	1670 ns/op	151	351	1.13	10220	4.76
Benchmark_JsonIter_Marshal-8	2389435	519 ns/op	141	200	1.24	33738	2.60
Benchmark_JsonIter_Unmarshal-8	1742654	677 ns/op	141	216	1.18	24623	3.14
Benchmark_EasyJson_Marshal-8	1491632	845 ns/op	151	896	1.26	22613	0.94
Benchmark_EasyJson_Unmarshal-8	2055382	535 ns/op	151	112	1.10	31159	4.78
Benchmark_Bson_Marshal-8	1733908	675 ns/op	110	376	1.17	19072	1.80
Benchmark_Bson_Unmarshal-8	1340866	864 ns/op	110	224	1.16	14749	3.86
Benchmark_MongoBson_Marshal-8	1374638	923 ns/op	110	240	1.27	15121	3.85
Benchmark_MongoBson_Unmarshal-8	1208486	999 ns/op	110	408	1.21	13293	2.45
Benchmark_Gob_Marshal-8	452556	3222 ns/op	162	1744	1.46	7354	1.85
Benchmark_Gob_Unmarshal-8	77752	16301 ns/op	162	7720	1.27	1264	2.11
Benchmark_XDR_Marshal-8	1408309	913 ns/op	92	440	1.29	12956	2.08
Benchmark_XDR_Unmarshal-8	1724904	664 ns/op	92	231	1.15	15869	2.88
Benchmark_UgorjiCodecMsgpack_Marshal-8	1722421	764 ns/op	91	1240	1.32	15674	0.62
Benchmark_UgorjiCodecMsgpack_Unmarshal-8	1552963	844 ns/op	91	688	1.31	14131	1.23
Benchmark_UgorjiCodecBinc_Marshal-8	1458865	872 ns/op	95	1256	1.27	13859	0.69
Benchmark_UgorjiCodecBinc_Unmarshal-8	1684272	910 ns/op	95	688	1.53	16000	1.32
Benchmark_Sereal_Marshal-8	818120	1693 ns/op	132	832	1.39	10799	2.03
Benchmark_Sereal_Unmarshal-8	523800	1940 ns/op	132	976	1.02	6914	1.99
Benchmark_Binary_Marshal-8	1156994	1030 ns/op	61	360	1.19	7057	2.86
Benchmark_Binary_Unmarshal-8	1309048	883 ns/op	61	320	1.16	7985	2.76
Benchmark_FlatBuffers_Marshal-8	2113926	565 ns/op	95	376	1.20	20141	1.51
Benchmark_FlatBuffers_Unmarshal-8	6082993	166 ns/op	95	112	1.01	57946	1.48
Benchmark_CapNProto_Marshal-8	980739	1092 ns/op	96	4392	1.07	9415	0.25
Benchmark_CapNProto_Unmarshal-8	3516151	320 ns/op	96	192	1.13	33755	1.67
Benchmark_CapNProto2_Marshal-8	1310677	1129 ns/op	96	1452	1.48	12582	0.78
Benchmark_CapNProto2_Unmarshal-8	3776460	410 ns/op	96	272	1.55	36254	1.51
Benchmark_Hprose_Marshal-8	2180806	499 ns/op	85	390	1.09	18589	1.28
Benchmark_Hprose_Unmarshal-8	1823271	746 ns/op	85	303	1.36	15554	2.46
Benchmark_Hprose2_Marshal-8	4629981	246 ns/op	85	0	1.14	39475	0.00
Benchmark_Hprose2_Unmarshal-8	3439027	346 ns/op	85	136	1.19	29328	2.55
Benchmark_Protobuf_Marshal-8	2780270	417 ns/op	52	144	1.16	14457	2.90
Benchmark_Protobuf_Unmarshal-8	2198923	503 ns/op	52	184	1.11	11434	2.74
Benchmark_Pulsar_Marshal-8	3066033	438 ns/op	51	304	1.35	15820	1.44
Benchmark_Pulsar_Unmarshal-8	3018387	428 ns/op	51	256	1.29	15547	1.67
Benchmark_Gogoprotobuf_Marshal-8	11825176	86 ns/op	53	64	1.02	62673	1.35
Benchmark_Gogoprotobuf_Unmarshal-8	7308174	140 ns/op	53	96	1.02	38733	1.46
Benchmark_Gogojsonpb_Marshal-8	180114	7772 ns/op	125	3095	1.40	2264	2.51
Benchmark_Gogojsonpb_Unmarshal-8	123753	8544 ns/op	125	3375	1.06	1554	2.53
Benchmark_Colfer_Marshal-8	15535346	84 ns/op	51	64	1.31	79339	1.32
Benchmark_Colfer_Unmarshal-8	11936880	122 ns/op	52	112	1.46	62071	1.09
Benchmark_Gencode_Marshal-8	12112273	107 ns/op	53	80	1.30	64195	1.34
Benchmark_Gencode_Unmarshal-8	8852018	142 ns/op	53	112	1.26	46915	1.27
Benchmark_GencodeUnsafe_Marshal-8	21924096	62 ns/op	46	48	1.37	100850	1.30
Benchmark_GencodeUnsafe_Unmarshal-8	10802174	110 ns/op	46	96	1.19	49690	1.15
Benchmark_XDR2_Marshal-8	12868144	110 ns/op	60	64	1.42	77208	1.72
Benchmark_XDR2_Unmarshal-8	17968026	66 ns/op	60	32	1.19	107808	2.07
Benchmark_GoAvro_Marshal-8	1000000	1246 ns/op	47	584	1.25	4700	2.13
Benchmark_GoAvro_Unmarshal-8	406524	3571 ns/op	47	2312	1.45	1910	1.54
Benchmark_GoAvro2Text_Marshal-8	570015	2303 ns/op	133	1320	1.31	7626	1.74
Benchmark_GoAvro2Text_Unmarshal-8	846238	1588 ns/op	133	736	1.34	11322	2.16
Benchmark_GoAvro2Binary_Marshal-8	1801123	672 ns/op	47	464	1.21	8465	1.45
Benchmark_GoAvro2Binary_Unmarshal-8	1789248	589 ns/op	47	544	1.05	8409	1.08
Benchmark_Ikea_Marshal-8	2166458	531 ns/op	55	184	1.15	11915	2.89
Benchmark_Ikea_Unmarshal-8	2764864	429 ns/op	55	160	1.19	15206	2.68
Benchmark_ShamatonMapMsgpack_Marshal-8	2728044	462 ns/op	92	192	1.26	25098	2.41
Benchmark_ShamatonMapMsgpack_Unmarshal-8	3132741	374 ns/op	92	168	1.17	28821	2.23
Benchmark_ShamatonArrayMsgpack_Marshal-8	3066362	374 ns/op	50	160	1.15	15331	2.34
Benchmark_ShamatonArrayMsgpack_Unmarshal-8	3704914	351 ns/op	50	168	1.30	18524	2.09
Benchmark_ShamatonMapMsgpackgen_Marshal-8	9664315	132 ns/op	92	96	1.28	88911	1.38
Benchmark_ShamatonMapMsgpackgen_Unmarshal-8	6034456	224 ns/op	92	112	1.35	55516	2.00
Benchmark_ShamatonArrayMsgpackgen_Marshal-8	10569614	100 ns/op	50	64	1.06	52848	1.57
Benchmark_ShamatonArrayMsgpackgen_Unmarshal-8	9751200	146 ns/op	50	112	1.43	48756	1.31
Benchmark_SSZNoTimeNoStringNoFloatA_Marshal-8	495163	2378 ns/op	55	440	1.18	2723	5.40
Benchmark_SSZNoTimeNoStringNoFloatA_Unmarshal-8	278251	3984 ns/op	55	1184	1.11	1530	3.36
Benchmark_Bebop_200sc_Marshal-8	14961906	81 ns/op	55	64	1.21	82290	1.27
Benchmark_Bebop_200sc_Unmarshal-8	20842504	61 ns/op	55	32	1.27	114633	1.91
Benchmark_Bebop_Wellquite_Marshal-8	17579114	72 ns/op	55	64	1.28	96685	1.13
Benchmark_Bebop_Wellquite_Unmarshal-8	20299090	66 ns/op	55	32	1.34	111644	2.06
Benchmark_FastJson_Marshal-8	3281961	382 ns/op	133	504	1.26	43912	0.76
Benchmark_FastJson_Unmarshal-8	1261986	919 ns/op	133	1704	1.16	16885	0.54
Benchmark_BENC_Marshal-8	21525518	65 ns/op	51	64	1.41	109780	1.02
Benchmark_BENC_Unmarshal-8	23009800	60 ns/op	51	32	1.39	117349	1.89
Benchmark_BENCUnsafe_Marshal-8	20615397	52 ns/op	51	64	1.08	105138	0.82
Benchmark_BENCUnsafe_Unmarshal-8	54961459	21 ns/op	51	0	1.21	280303	0.00
Benchmark_MUS_Marshal-8	18902049	64 ns/op	46	48	1.22	86949	1.35
Benchmark_MUS_Unmarshal-8	15403171	76 ns/op	46	32	1.18	70854	2.39
Benchmark_MUSUnsafe_Marshal-8	20805338	65 ns/op	49	64	1.35	101946	1.02
Benchmark_MUSUnsafe_Unmarshal-8	35980262	29 ns/op	49	0	1.06	176303	0.00

Totals:

benchmark	iter	time/iter	bytes/op	allocs/op	tt.sec	tt.kb	ns/alloc
Benchmark_BENCUnsafe_-8	75576856	74 ns/op	102	64	5.64	770883	1.17
Benchmark_MUSUnsafe_-8	56785600	94 ns/op	98	64	5.37	556498	1.48
Benchmark_BENC_-8	44535318	125 ns/op	102	96	5.61	454260	1.31
Benchmark_Bebop_Wellquite_-8	37878204	138 ns/op	110	96	5.25	416660	1.44
Benchmark_MUS_-8	34305220	140 ns/op	92	80	4.84	315608	1.76
Benchmark_Bebop_200sc_-8	35804410	142 ns/op	110	96	5.09	393848	1.48
Benchmark_GencodeUnsafe_-8	32726270	172 ns/op	92	144	5.65	301081	1.20
Benchmark_XDR2_-8	30836170	176 ns/op	120	96	5.44	370034	1.84
Benchmark_Colfer_-8	27472226	206 ns/op	103	176	5.68	283156	1.18
Benchmark_Gogoprotobuf_-8	19133350	226 ns/op	106	160	4.33	202813	1.42
Benchmark_ShamatonArrayMsgpackgen_-8	20320814	247 ns/op	100	176	5.03	203208	1.41
Benchmark_Gencode_-8	20964291	249 ns/op	106	192	5.23	222221	1.30
Benchmark_Msgp_-8	18848264	297 ns/op	194	240	5.61	365656	1.24
Benchmark_ShamatonMapMsgpackgen_-8	15698771	356 ns/op	184	208	5.60	288857	1.71
Benchmark_GotinyNoTime_-8	14058928	398 ns/op	95	264	5.61	134951	1.51
Benchmark_Gotiny_-8	12657699	410 ns/op	95	280	5.19	121501	1.47
Benchmark_Hprose2_-8	8069008	592 ns/op	170	136	4.78	137608	4.36
Benchmark_ShamatonArrayMsgpack_-8	6771276	725 ns/op	100	328	4.91	67712	2.21
Benchmark_FlatBuffers_-8	8196919	732 ns/op	190	488	6.00	156184	1.50
Benchmark_ShamatonMapMsgpack_-8	5860785	836 ns/op	184	360	4.90	107838	2.32
Benchmark_Pulsar_-8	6084420	867 ns/op	103	560	5.28	62736	1.55
Benchmark_Protobuf_-8	4979193	920 ns/op	104	328	4.59	51783	2.81
Benchmark_Ikea_-8	4931322	961 ns/op	110	344	4.74	54244	2.79
Benchmark_VmihailencoMsgpack_-8	4114068	1099 ns/op	184	424	4.52	75698	2.59
Benchmark_JsonIter_-8	4132089	1196 ns/op	282	416	4.94	116731	2.88
Benchmark_Hprose_-8	4004077	1245 ns/op	170	693	4.99	68289	1.80
Benchmark_GoAvro2Binary_-8	3590371	1261 ns/op	94	1008	4.53	33749	1.25
Benchmark_FastJson_-8	4543947	1302 ns/op	267	2208	5.92	121596	0.59
Benchmark_EasyJson_-8	3547014	1380 ns/op	303	1008	4.90	107545	1.37
Benchmark_CapNProto_-8	4496890	1412 ns/op	192	4584	6.35	86340	0.31
Benchmark_Bson_-8	3074774	1539 ns/op	220	600	4.73	67645	2.57
Benchmark_CapNProto2_-8	5087137	1539 ns/op	192	1724	7.83	97673	0.89
Benchmark_XDR_-8	3133213	1578 ns/op	184	671	4.95	57651	2.35
Benchmark_UgorjiCodecMsgpack_-8	3275384	1609 ns/op	182	1928	5.27	59611	0.83
Benchmark_UgorjiCodecBinc_-8	3143137	1783 ns/op	190	1944	5.60	59719	0.92
Benchmark_Binary_-8	2466042	1913 ns/op	122	680	4.72	30085	2.81
Benchmark_MongoBson_-8	2583124	1923 ns/op	220	648	4.97	56828	2.97
Benchmark_Json_-8	2179916	2440 ns/op	303	559	5.32	66116	4.37
Benchmark_Sereal_-8	1341920	3633 ns/op	264	1808	4.88	35426	2.01
Benchmark_GoAvro2Text_-8	1416253	3891 ns/op	267	2056	5.51	37898	1.89
Benchmark_GoAvro_-8	1406524	4817 ns/op	94	2896	6.78	13221	1.66
Benchmark_SSZNoTimeNoStringNoFloatA_-8	773414	6362 ns/op	110	1624	4.92	8507	3.92
Benchmark_Gogojsonpb_-8	303867	16316 ns/op	251	6470	4.96	7636	2.52
Benchmark_Gob_-8	530308	19523 ns/op	325	9464	10.35	17240	2.06

Issues

The benchmarks can also be run with validation enabled.

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

Unfortunately, several of the serializers exhibit issues:

(minor) BSON drops sub-microsecond precision from time.Time.
(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.

(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

alecthomas/go_serialization_benchmarks

alecthomas

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