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/ymz-ncnk/musgo (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

2023-03-19 Results with Go 1.20.2 darwin/arm64 on an Apple M1 Pro processor.

benchmark	iter	time/iter	bytes/op	allocs/op	tt.sec	tt.kb	ns/alloc
Benchmark_Gotiny_Marshal-8	6910878	164 ns/op	48	168	1.14	33172	0.98
Benchmark_Gotiny_Unmarshal-8	13162723	90 ns/op	48	112	1.19	63181	0.81
Benchmark_GotinyNoTime_Marshal-8	7306672	163 ns/op	48	168	1.20	35072	0.97
Benchmark_GotinyNoTime_Unmarshal-8	14211855	84 ns/op	48	96	1.20	68216	0.88
Benchmark_Msgp_Marshal-8	18400051	66 ns/op	97	128	1.23	178480	0.52
Benchmark_Msgp_Unmarshal-8	11166733	107 ns/op	97	112	1.20	108317	0.96
Benchmark_VmihailencoMsgpack_Marshal-8	3738108	322 ns/op	92	264	1.20	34390	1.22
Benchmark_VmihailencoMsgpack_Unmarshal-8	2877516	416 ns/op	92	160	1.20	26473	2.60
Benchmark_Json_Marshal-8	2333619	513 ns/op	148	208	1.20	34700	2.47
Benchmark_Json_Unmarshal-8	876066	1339 ns/op	148	351	1.17	13027	3.81
Benchmark_JsonIter_Marshal-8	3414224	350 ns/op	138	200	1.20	47218	1.75
Benchmark_JsonIter_Unmarshal-8	2518658	476 ns/op	138	215	1.20	34833	2.21
Benchmark_EasyJson_Marshal-8	2640439	451 ns/op	148	896	1.19	39263	0.50
Benchmark_EasyJson_Unmarshal-8	2858536	418 ns/op	148	112	1.20	42506	3.74
Benchmark_Bson_Marshal-8	2860502	418 ns/op	110	376	1.20	31465	1.11
Benchmark_Bson_Unmarshal-8	1930910	623 ns/op	110	224	1.20	21240	2.78
Benchmark_MongoBson_Marshal-8	2019808	594 ns/op	110	240	1.20	22217	2.48
Benchmark_MongoBson_Unmarshal-8	1813014	660 ns/op	110	408	1.20	19943	1.62
Benchmark_Gob_Marshal-8	554912	2129 ns/op	163	1616	1.18	9078	1.32
Benchmark_Gob_Unmarshal-8	114760	10493 ns/op	163	7768	1.20	1877	1.35
Benchmark_XDR_Marshal-8	2199034	545 ns/op	88	376	1.20	19351	1.45
Benchmark_XDR_Unmarshal-8	2682135	447 ns/op	88	216	1.20	23602	2.07
Benchmark_UgorjiCodecMsgpack_Marshal-8	2700848	438 ns/op	91	1240	1.18	24577	0.35
Benchmark_UgorjiCodecMsgpack_Unmarshal-8	2670764	451 ns/op	91	688	1.20	24303	0.66
Benchmark_UgorjiCodecBinc_Marshal-8	2528095	474 ns/op	95	1256	1.20	24016	0.38
Benchmark_UgorjiCodecBinc_Unmarshal-8	2868908	419 ns/op	95	688	1.20	27254	0.61
Benchmark_Sereal_Marshal-8	1000000	1024 ns/op	132	832	1.02	13200	1.23
Benchmark_Sereal_Unmarshal-8	969272	1234 ns/op	132	976	1.20	12794	1.26
Benchmark_Binary_Marshal-8	1726345	694 ns/op	61	360	1.20	10530	1.93
Benchmark_Binary_Unmarshal-8	2007010	598 ns/op	61	320	1.20	12242	1.87
Benchmark_FlatBuffers_Marshal-8	3699286	324 ns/op	95	376	1.20	35150	0.86
Benchmark_FlatBuffers_Unmarshal-8	11826961	100 ns/op	95	112	1.19	112639	0.90
Benchmark_CapNProto_Marshal-8	1537599	746 ns/op	96	4392	1.15	14760	0.17
Benchmark_CapNProto_Unmarshal-8	5760372	207 ns/op	96	192	1.20	55299	1.08
Benchmark_CapNProto2_Marshal-8	2257982	534 ns/op	96	1452	1.21	21676	0.37
Benchmark_CapNProto2_Unmarshal-8	5674141	211 ns/op	96	272	1.20	54471	0.78
Benchmark_Hprose_Marshal-8	3417669	353 ns/op	82	450	1.21	28127	0.79
Benchmark_Hprose_Unmarshal-8	2459268	485 ns/op	82	304	1.19	20220	1.60
Benchmark_Hprose2_Marshal-8	5984535	200 ns/op	82	0	1.20	49216	0.00
Benchmark_Hprose2_Unmarshal-8	4719901	254 ns/op	82	136	1.20	38830	1.87
Benchmark_Protobuf_Marshal-8	4109466	291 ns/op	52	144	1.20	21369	2.03
Benchmark_Protobuf_Unmarshal-8	3563036	333 ns/op	52	184	1.19	18527	1.81
Benchmark_Pulsar_Marshal-8	7813304	153 ns/op	51	96	1.20	40316	1.60
Benchmark_Pulsar_Unmarshal-8	5099353	237 ns/op	51	256	1.21	26307	0.93
Benchmark_Gogoprotobuf_Marshal-8	23081472	51 ns/op	53	64	1.20	122331	0.81
Benchmark_Gogoprotobuf_Unmarshal-8	13722277	87 ns/op	53	96	1.20	72728	0.91
Benchmark_Gogojsonpb_Marshal-8	261174	4574 ns/op	125	3103	1.19	3288	1.47
Benchmark_Gogojsonpb_Unmarshal-8	195382	6093 ns/op	125	3379	1.19	2457	1.80
Benchmark_Colfer_Marshal-8	25008987	47 ns/op	51	64	1.19	127770	0.74
Benchmark_Colfer_Unmarshal-8	15736904	75 ns/op	51	112	1.18	80258	0.67
Benchmark_Gencode_Marshal-8	16971225	69 ns/op	53	80	1.18	89947	0.87
Benchmark_Gencode_Unmarshal-8	14103494	84 ns/op	53	112	1.20	74748	0.76
Benchmark_GencodeUnsafe_Marshal-8	32042224	37 ns/op	46	48	1.20	147394	0.78
Benchmark_GencodeUnsafe_Unmarshal-8	19686882	60 ns/op	46	96	1.20	90559	0.63
Benchmark_XDR2_Marshal-8	17436548	68 ns/op	60	64	1.19	104619	1.07
Benchmark_XDR2_Unmarshal-8	25500716	46 ns/op	60	32	1.20	153004	1.47
Benchmark_GoAvro_Marshal-8	1208142	998 ns/op	47	728	1.21	5678	1.37
Benchmark_GoAvro_Unmarshal-8	489298	2435 ns/op	47	2544	1.19	2299	0.96
Benchmark_GoAvro2Text_Marshal-8	922174	1279 ns/op	133	1320	1.18	12338	0.97
Benchmark_GoAvro2Text_Unmarshal-8	1000000	1156 ns/op	133	736	1.16	13380	1.57
Benchmark_GoAvro2Binary_Marshal-8	3268442	367 ns/op	47	464	1.20	15361	0.79
Benchmark_GoAvro2Binary_Unmarshal-8	3011289	398 ns/op	47	544	1.20	14153	0.73
Benchmark_Ikea_Marshal-8	2916994	411 ns/op	55	184	1.20	16043	2.24
Benchmark_Ikea_Unmarshal-8	3703088	323 ns/op	55	160	1.20	20366	2.02
Benchmark_ShamatonMapMsgpack_Marshal-8	4550641	263 ns/op	92	192	1.20	41865	1.37
Benchmark_ShamatonMapMsgpack_Unmarshal-8	4591184	261 ns/op	92	168	1.20	42238	1.56
Benchmark_ShamatonArrayMsgpack_Marshal-8	5046403	236 ns/op	50	160	1.19	25232	1.48
Benchmark_ShamatonArrayMsgpack_Unmarshal-8	5755782	206 ns/op	50	168	1.19	28778	1.23
Benchmark_ShamatonMapMsgpackgen_Marshal-8	15044930	79 ns/op	92	96	1.19	138413	0.83
Benchmark_ShamatonMapMsgpackgen_Unmarshal-8	7666126	157 ns/op	92	112	1.20	70528	1.40
Benchmark_ShamatonArrayMsgpackgen_Marshal-8	18860732	63 ns/op	50	64	1.20	94303	0.99
Benchmark_ShamatonArrayMsgpackgen_Unmarshal-8	14339086	84 ns/op	50	112	1.20	71695	0.75
Benchmark_SSZNoTimeNoStringNoFloatA_Marshal-8	597661	1944 ns/op	55	440	1.16	3287	4.42
Benchmark_SSZNoTimeNoStringNoFloatA_Unmarshal-8	389184	3084 ns/op	55	1184	1.20	2140	2.60
Benchmark_Bebop_Marshal-8	23227604	51 ns/op	55	64	1.19	127751	0.80
Benchmark_Bebop_Unmarshal-8	30521892	38 ns/op	55	32	1.18	167870	1.21
Benchmark_FastJson_Marshal-8	4377237	276 ns/op	133	504	1.21	58567	0.55
Benchmark_FastJson_Unmarshal-8	1757622	686 ns/op	133	1704	1.21	23516	0.40
Benchmark_Musgo_Marshal-8	26404720	44 ns/op	46	48	1.17	121461	0.92
Benchmark_Musgo_Unmarshal-8	17563813	67 ns/op	46	96	1.19	80793	0.71
Benchmark_MusgoUnsafe_Marshal-8	29941893	40 ns/op	46	48	1.20	137732	0.83
Benchmark_MusgoUnsafe_Unmarshal-8	26668123	44 ns/op	46	64	1.19	122673	0.70

Totals:

benchmark	iter	time/iter	bytes/op	allocs/op	tt.sec	tt.kb	ns/alloc
Benchmark_MusgoUnsafe_-8	56610016	84 ns/op	92	112	4.80	520812	0.76
Benchmark_Bebop_-8	53749496	89 ns/op	110	96	4.82	591244	0.93
Benchmark_GencodeUnsafe_-8	51729106	98 ns/op	92	144	5.09	475907	0.68
Benchmark_Musgo_-8	43968533	112 ns/op	92	144	4.93	404510	0.78
Benchmark_XDR2_-8	42937264	115 ns/op	120	96	4.95	515247	1.20
Benchmark_Colfer_-8	40745891	122 ns/op	102	176	5.00	415974	0.70
Benchmark_Gogoprotobuf_-8	36803749	138 ns/op	106	160	5.11	390119	0.87
Benchmark_ShamatonArrayMsgpackgen_-8	33199818	147 ns/op	100	176	4.90	331998	0.84
Benchmark_Gencode_-8	31074719	154 ns/op	106	192	4.80	329392	0.81
Benchmark_Msgp_-8	29566784	173 ns/op	194	240	5.14	573595	0.72
Benchmark_ShamatonMapMsgpackgen_-8	22711056	236 ns/op	184	208	5.37	417883	1.14
Benchmark_GotinyNoTime_-8	21518527	247 ns/op	96	264	5.33	206577	0.94
Benchmark_Gotiny_-8	20073601	255 ns/op	96	280	5.13	192706	0.91
Benchmark_Pulsar_-8	12912657	391 ns/op	103	352	5.05	133245	1.11
Benchmark_FlatBuffers_-8	15526247	425 ns/op	190	488	6.60	295402	0.87
Benchmark_ShamatonArrayMsgpack_-8	10802185	443 ns/op	100	328	4.79	108021	1.35
Benchmark_Hprose2_-8	10704436	454 ns/op	164	136	4.87	176098	3.34
Benchmark_ShamatonMapMsgpack_-8	9141825	525 ns/op	184	360	4.80	168209	1.46
Benchmark_Protobuf_-8	7672502	625 ns/op	104	328	4.80	79794	1.91
Benchmark_Ikea_-8	6620082	734 ns/op	110	344	4.86	72820	2.14
Benchmark_VmihailencoMsgpack_-8	6615624	738 ns/op	184	424	4.89	121727	1.74
Benchmark_CapNProto2_-8	7932123	745 ns/op	192	1724	5.91	152296	0.43
Benchmark_GoAvro2Binary_-8	6279731	766 ns/op	94	1008	4.81	59029	0.76
Benchmark_JsonIter_-8	5932882	826 ns/op	276	415	4.91	164103	1.99
Benchmark_Hprose_-8	5876937	839 ns/op	164	754	4.93	96687	1.11
Benchmark_EasyJson_-8	5498975	870 ns/op	297	1008	4.79	163539	0.86
Benchmark_UgorjiCodecMsgpack_-8	5371612	889 ns/op	182	1928	4.78	97763	0.46
Benchmark_UgorjiCodecBinc_-8	5397003	894 ns/op	190	1944	4.83	102543	0.46
Benchmark_CapNProto_-8	7297971	954 ns/op	192	4584	6.96	140121	0.21
Benchmark_FastJson_-8	6134859	962 ns/op	267	2208	5.91	164168	0.44
Benchmark_XDR_-8	4881169	992 ns/op	176	592	4.85	85908	1.68
Benchmark_Bson_-8	4791412	1042 ns/op	220	600	5.00	105411	1.74
Benchmark_MongoBson_-8	3832822	1254 ns/op	220	648	4.81	84322	1.94
Benchmark_Binary_-8	3733355	1293 ns/op	122	680	4.83	45546	1.90
Benchmark_Json_-8	3209685	1852 ns/op	297	559	5.95	95456	3.31
Benchmark_Sereal_-8	1969272	2258 ns/op	264	1808	4.45	51988	1.25
Benchmark_GoAvro2Text_-8	1922174	2435 ns/op	267	2056	4.68	51437	1.18
Benchmark_GoAvro_-8	1697440	3433 ns/op	94	3272	5.83	15955	1.05
Benchmark_SSZNoTimeNoStringNoFloatA_-8	986845	5028 ns/op	110	1624	4.96	10855	3.10
Benchmark_Gogojsonpb_-8	456556	10667 ns/op	251	6482	4.87	11491	1.65
Benchmark_Gob_-8	669672	12622 ns/op	327	9384	8.45	21911	1.35

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 and ikeapack do not support time types directly. In the benchmarks an int64 value is used to hold a UnixNano timestamp.

(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

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 140 Commits
bin		bin
Colfer.go		Colfer.go
FlatBufferA.go		FlatBufferA.go
Makefile		Makefile
MusgoA.musgen.go		MusgoA.musgen.go
MusgoAUnsafe.musgen.go		MusgoAUnsafe.musgen.go
README.md		README.md
flatbuffers-structdef.fbs		flatbuffers-structdef.fbs
gencode-unsafe.schema		gencode-unsafe.schema
gencode-unsafe.schema.gen.go		gencode-unsafe.schema.gen.go
gencode.schema		gencode.schema
gencode.schema.gen.go		gencode.schema.gen.go
go.mod		go.mod
go.sum		go.sum
msgp_gen.go		msgp_gen.go
musgo-gen.go		musgo-gen.go
serialization_benchmarks_test.go		serialization_benchmarks_test.go
stats.sh		stats.sh
structdef-bebop.bop		structdef-bebop.bop
structdef-bebop.go		structdef-bebop.go
structdef-enkoko.go		structdef-enkoko.go
structdef-gogo.pb.go		structdef-gogo.pb.go
structdef-gogo.proto		structdef-gogo.proto
structdef-musgo.go		structdef-musgo.go
structdef-pulsar.proto		structdef-pulsar.proto
structdef-pulsar.pulsar.go		structdef-pulsar.pulsar.go
structdef.capnp		structdef.capnp
structdef.capnp.go		structdef.capnp.go
structdef.capnp2		structdef.capnp2
structdef.capnp2.go		structdef.capnp2.go
structdef.colf		structdef.colf
structdef.go		structdef.go
structdef.pb.go		structdef.pb.go
structdef.proto		structdef.proto
structdef_avro.go		structdef_avro.go
structdef_easyjson.go		structdef_easyjson.go
structdef_msgpackgen.go		structdef_msgpackgen.go
structdefxdr.go		structdefxdr.go
structdefxdr_generated.go		structdefxdr_generated.go
tools.go		tools.go

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