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

2023-02-06 Results with Go 1.20 linux/amd64 on an AMD Ryzen 9 3900X 12-Core Processor

benchmark	iter	time/iter	bytes/op	allocs/op	tt.sec	tt.kb	ns/alloc
Benchmark_Gotiny_Marshal-24	2404591	525 ns/op	48	168	1.26	11542	3.12
Benchmark_Gotiny_Unmarshal-24	4128519	280 ns/op	48	112	1.16	19816	2.51
Benchmark_GotinyNoTime_Marshal-24	2301190	523 ns/op	48	168	1.20	11045	3.12
Benchmark_GotinyNoTime_Unmarshal-24	4499371	257 ns/op	48	96	1.16	21596	2.69
Benchmark_Msgp_Marshal-24	6255897	190 ns/op	97	128	1.19	60682	1.49
Benchmark_Msgp_Unmarshal-24	3318363	364 ns/op	97	112	1.21	32188	3.25
Benchmark_VmihailencoMsgpack_Marshal-24	962323	1155 ns/op	92	264	1.11	8853	4.38
Benchmark_VmihailencoMsgpack_Unmarshal-24	667622	1586 ns/op	92	160	1.06	6142	9.91
Benchmark_Json_Marshal-24	1000000	1827 ns/op	151	208	1.83	15160	8.78
Benchmark_Json_Unmarshal-24	259165	4483 ns/op	151	351	1.16	3928	12.77
Benchmark_JsonIter_Marshal-24	905325	1242 ns/op	141	200	1.12	12792	6.21
Benchmark_JsonIter_Unmarshal-24	659034	1656 ns/op	141	216	1.09	9312	7.67
Benchmark_EasyJson_Marshal-24	897210	1395 ns/op	151	896	1.25	13601	1.56
Benchmark_EasyJson_Unmarshal-24	824758	1406 ns/op	151	112	1.16	12503	12.55
Benchmark_Bson_Marshal-24	793263	1464 ns/op	110	376	1.16	8725	3.89
Benchmark_Bson_Unmarshal-24	482554	2351 ns/op	110	224	1.13	5308	10.50
Benchmark_MongoBson_Marshal-24	527124	2136 ns/op	110	240	1.13	5798	8.90
Benchmark_MongoBson_Unmarshal-24	528327	2374 ns/op	110	408	1.25	5811	5.82
Benchmark_Gob_Marshal-24	169804	6793 ns/op	163	1616	1.15	2777	4.20
Benchmark_Gob_Unmarshal-24	33820	35276 ns/op	163	7768	1.19	553	4.54
Benchmark_XDR_Marshal-24	533103	2028 ns/op	92	439	1.08	4904	4.62
Benchmark_XDR_Unmarshal-24	669247	1691 ns/op	92	231	1.13	6157	7.32
Benchmark_UgorjiCodecMsgpack_Marshal-24	930394	1193 ns/op	91	1240	1.11	8466	0.96
Benchmark_UgorjiCodecMsgpack_Unmarshal-24	701311	1490 ns/op	91	688	1.04	6381	2.17
Benchmark_UgorjiCodecBinc_Marshal-24	822146	1367 ns/op	95	1256	1.12	7810	1.09
Benchmark_UgorjiCodecBinc_Unmarshal-24	805404	1362 ns/op	95	688	1.10	7651	1.98
Benchmark_Sereal_Marshal-24	399870	3612 ns/op	132	832	1.44	5278	4.34
Benchmark_Sereal_Unmarshal-24	298658	3769 ns/op	132	976	1.13	3942	3.86
Benchmark_Binary_Marshal-24	489596	2319 ns/op	61	360	1.14	2986	6.44
Benchmark_Binary_Unmarshal-24	567476	1965 ns/op	61	320	1.12	3461	6.14
Benchmark_FlatBuffers_Marshal-24	1000000	1024 ns/op	95	376	1.02	9518	2.72
Benchmark_FlatBuffers_Unmarshal-24	4338973	273 ns/op	95	112	1.19	41280	2.44
Benchmark_CapNProto_Marshal-24	554866	2094 ns/op	96	4392	1.16	5326	0.48
Benchmark_CapNProto_Unmarshal-24	2061580	578 ns/op	96	192	1.19	19791	3.01
Benchmark_CapNProto2_Marshal-24	830979	1334 ns/op	96	1452	1.11	7977	0.92
Benchmark_CapNProto2_Unmarshal-24	2015412	586 ns/op	96	272	1.18	19347	2.16
Benchmark_Hprose_Marshal-24	1531195	706 ns/op	85	319	1.08	13054	2.21
Benchmark_Hprose_Unmarshal-24	716538	1474 ns/op	85	303	1.06	6108	4.86
Benchmark_Hprose2_Marshal-24	3021306	368 ns/op	85	0	1.11	25747	0.00
Benchmark_Hprose2_Unmarshal-24	1433833	832 ns/op	85	136	1.19	12221	6.12
Benchmark_Protobuf_Marshal-24	1298545	935 ns/op	52	144	1.21	6752	6.49
Benchmark_Protobuf_Unmarshal-24	908842	1168 ns/op	52	184	1.06	4725	6.35
Benchmark_Gogoprotobuf_Marshal-24	7548626	156 ns/op	53	64	1.18	40007	2.45
Benchmark_Gogoprotobuf_Unmarshal-24	4389771	286 ns/op	53	96	1.26	23265	2.99
Benchmark_Gogojsonpb_Marshal-24	81925	15127 ns/op	125	3103	1.24	1030	4.87
Benchmark_Gogojsonpb_Unmarshal-24	59716	19601 ns/op	125	3372	1.17	749	5.81
Benchmark_Colfer_Marshal-24	9303571	122 ns/op	51	64	1.14	47513	1.92
Benchmark_Colfer_Unmarshal-24	5323239	221 ns/op	52	112	1.18	27680	1.98
Benchmark_Gencode_Marshal-24	4799440	252 ns/op	53	80	1.21	25437	3.16
Benchmark_Gencode_Unmarshal-24	4207510	274 ns/op	53	112	1.16	22299	2.45
Benchmark_GencodeUnsafe_Marshal-24	11602610	98 ns/op	46	48	1.14	53372	2.05
Benchmark_GencodeUnsafe_Unmarshal-24	6123943	195 ns/op	46	96	1.20	28170	2.04
Benchmark_XDR2_Marshal-24	6591649	184 ns/op	60	64	1.22	39549	2.89
Benchmark_XDR2_Unmarshal-24	6934723	167 ns/op	60	32	1.16	41608	5.22
Benchmark_GoAvro_Marshal-24	369241	3029 ns/op	47	728	1.12	1735	4.16
Benchmark_GoAvro_Unmarshal-24	158101	7150 ns/op	47	2544	1.13	743	2.81
Benchmark_GoAvro2Text_Marshal-24	294999	3840 ns/op	133	1320	1.13	3947	2.91
Benchmark_GoAvro2Text_Unmarshal-24	305624	3726 ns/op	133	736	1.14	4089	5.06
Benchmark_GoAvro2Binary_Marshal-24	959138	1121 ns/op	47	464	1.08	4507	2.42
Benchmark_GoAvro2Binary_Unmarshal-24	922796	1199 ns/op	47	544	1.11	4337	2.20
Benchmark_Ikea_Marshal-24	885784	1287 ns/op	55	184	1.14	4871	6.99
Benchmark_Ikea_Unmarshal-24	1000000	1014 ns/op	55	160	1.01	5500	6.34
Benchmark_ShamatonMapMsgpack_Marshal-24	1433352	841 ns/op	92	192	1.21	13186	4.38
Benchmark_ShamatonMapMsgpack_Unmarshal-24	1411447	902 ns/op	92	168	1.27	12985	5.37
Benchmark_ShamatonArrayMsgpack_Marshal-24	1567261	755 ns/op	50	160	1.18	7836	4.72
Benchmark_ShamatonArrayMsgpack_Unmarshal-24	1666802	719 ns/op	50	168	1.20	8334	4.28
Benchmark_ShamatonMapMsgpackgen_Marshal-24	4747718	251 ns/op	92	96	1.19	43679	2.62
Benchmark_ShamatonMapMsgpackgen_Unmarshal-24	2764378	435 ns/op	92	112	1.20	25432	3.89
Benchmark_ShamatonArrayMsgpackgen_Marshal-24	6674094	179 ns/op	50	64	1.20	33370	2.80
Benchmark_ShamatonArrayMsgpackgen_Unmarshal-24	5670154	262 ns/op	50	112	1.49	28350	2.35
Benchmark_SSZNoTimeNoStringNoFloatA_Marshal-24	188692	5692 ns/op	55	440	1.07	1037	12.94
Benchmark_SSZNoTimeNoStringNoFloatA_Unmarshal-24	133633	9550 ns/op	55	1184	1.28	734	8.07
Benchmark_Bebop_Marshal-24	7810525	153 ns/op	55	64	1.20	42957	2.40
Benchmark_Bebop_Unmarshal-24	9193828	126 ns/op	55	32	1.16	50566	3.94
Benchmark_FastJson_Marshal-24	1528498	801 ns/op	133	504	1.23	20451	1.59
Benchmark_FastJson_Unmarshal-24	610503	1888 ns/op	133	1704	1.15	8168	1.11
Benchmark_Musgo_Marshal-24	10092196	122 ns/op	46	48	1.24	46424	2.56
Benchmark_Musgo_Unmarshal-24	5498397	215 ns/op	46	96	1.18	25292	2.24
Benchmark_MusgoUnsafe_Marshal-24	10406475	114 ns/op	46	48	1.19	47869	2.38
Benchmark_MusgoUnsafe_Unmarshal-24	10281271	114 ns/op	46	64	1.18	47293	1.80

Totals:

benchmark	iter	time/iter	bytes/op	allocs/op	tt.sec	tt.kb	ns/alloc
Benchmark_MusgoUnsafe_-24	20687746	229 ns/op	92	112	4.74	190327	2.05
Benchmark_Bebop_-24	17004353	280 ns/op	110	96	4.76	187047	2.92
Benchmark_GencodeUnsafe_-24	17726553	294 ns/op	92	144	5.21	163084	2.04
Benchmark_Musgo_-24	15590593	337 ns/op	92	144	5.27	143433	2.35
Benchmark_Colfer_-24	14626810	344 ns/op	103	176	5.04	150758	1.96
Benchmark_XDR2_-24	13526372	352 ns/op	120	96	4.76	162316	3.67
Benchmark_ShamatonArrayMsgpackgen_-24	12344248	442 ns/op	100	176	5.46	123442	2.51
Benchmark_Gogoprotobuf_-24	11938397	443 ns/op	106	160	5.29	126547	2.77
Benchmark_Gencode_-24	9006950	527 ns/op	106	192	4.75	95473	2.75
Benchmark_Msgp_-24	9574260	555 ns/op	194	240	5.31	185740	2.31
Benchmark_ShamatonMapMsgpackgen_-24	7512096	686 ns/op	184	208	5.16	138222	3.30
Benchmark_GotinyNoTime_-24	6800561	781 ns/op	96	264	5.31	65285	2.96
Benchmark_Gotiny_-24	6533110	805 ns/op	96	280	5.27	62717	2.88
Benchmark_Hprose2_-24	4455139	1201 ns/op	170	136	5.35	75942	8.83
Benchmark_FlatBuffers_-24	5338973	1297 ns/op	190	488	6.93	101611	2.66
Benchmark_ShamatonArrayMsgpack_-24	3234063	1474 ns/op	100	328	4.77	32340	4.50
Benchmark_ShamatonMapMsgpack_-24	2844799	1743 ns/op	184	360	4.96	52344	4.84
Benchmark_CapNProto2_-24	2846391	1920 ns/op	192	1724	5.47	54650	1.11
Benchmark_Protobuf_-24	2207387	2103 ns/op	104	328	4.64	22956	6.41
Benchmark_Hprose_-24	2247733	2180 ns/op	170	622	4.90	38326	3.50
Benchmark_Ikea_-24	1885784	2301 ns/op	110	344	4.34	20743	6.69
Benchmark_GoAvro2Binary_-24	1881934	2320 ns/op	94	1008	4.37	17690	2.30
Benchmark_CapNProto_-24	2616446	2672 ns/op	192	4584	6.99	50235	0.58
Benchmark_UgorjiCodecMsgpack_-24	1631705	2683 ns/op	182	1928	4.38	29697	1.39
Benchmark_FastJson_-24	2139001	2689 ns/op	267	2208	5.75	57239	1.22
Benchmark_UgorjiCodecBinc_-24	1627550	2729 ns/op	190	1944	4.44	30923	1.40
Benchmark_VmihailencoMsgpack_-24	1629945	2741 ns/op	184	424	4.47	29990	6.46
Benchmark_EasyJson_-24	1721968	2801 ns/op	303	1008	4.82	52210	2.78
Benchmark_JsonIter_-24	1564359	2898 ns/op	282	416	4.53	44208	6.97
Benchmark_XDR_-24	1202350	3719 ns/op	184	670	4.47	22123	5.55
Benchmark_Bson_-24	1275817	3815 ns/op	220	600	4.87	28067	6.36
Benchmark_Binary_-24	1057072	4284 ns/op	122	680	4.53	12896	6.30
Benchmark_MongoBson_-24	1055451	4510 ns/op	220	648	4.76	23219	6.96
Benchmark_Json_-24	1259165	6310 ns/op	303	559	7.95	38177	11.29
Benchmark_Sereal_-24	698528	7381 ns/op	264	1808	5.16	18441	4.08
Benchmark_GoAvro2Text_-24	600623	7566 ns/op	267	2056	4.54	16072	3.68
Benchmark_GoAvro_-24	527342	10179 ns/op	94	3272	5.37	4957	3.11
Benchmark_SSZNoTimeNoStringNoFloatA_-24	322325	15242 ns/op	110	1624	4.91	3545	9.39
Benchmark_Gogojsonpb_-24	141641	34728 ns/op	251	6475	4.92	3559	5.36
Benchmark_Gob_-24	203624	42069 ns/op	327	9384	8.57	6664	4.48

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 139 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.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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