Programming Language and compiler
Benchmarks

Crystal VS Zig benchmarks

Current benchmark data was generated on Fri Aug 01 2025, full log can be found HERE

CONTRIBUTIONS are WELCOME!

[x86_64][4 cores] AMD EPYC 7763 64-Core Processor (Model 1)

* -m in a file name stands for multi-threading or multi-processing

* -i in a file name stands for direct intrinsics usage. (Usage of simd intrinsics via libraries is not counted)

* -ffi in a file name stands for non-stdlib FFI usage

* (You may find time < time(user) + time(sys) for some non-parallelized programs, the overhead is from GC or JIT compiler, which are allowed to take advantage of multi-cores as that's more close to real-world scenarios.)

binarytrees

Input: 18

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 1.cr 1231ms 8.3ms 64.2MB 1203ms 10ms crystal 1.17.0
zig 1.zig 1735ms 12ms 49.0MB 1707ms 13ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 1.cr 104ms 1.6ms 11.0MB 90ms 0ms crystal 1.17.0
zig 1.zig 150ms 1.6ms 7.0MB 140ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

coro-prime-sieve

Input: 4000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 1.cr 1489ms 15ms 19.9MB 1420ms 57ms crystal 1.17.0

Input: 1000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 1.cr 82ms 4.6ms 7.1MB 57ms 10ms crystal 1.17.0

edigits

Input: 250001

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 1.cr 57ms 1.8ms 6.5MB 40ms 3ms crystal 1.17.0
zig 1.zig 2263ms 4.3ms 2.5MB 2233ms 10ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 100000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 1.cr 22ms 1.7ms 5.3MB 10ms 0ms crystal 1.17.0
zig 1.zig 379ms 2.3ms 1.9MB 363ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

fannkuch-redux

Input: 11

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 2-m.zig 639ms 3.6ms 1.4MB 2410ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 3-i.zig 1763ms 1.4ms 1.0MB 1753ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 1.cr 2510ms 4.1ms 2.9MB 2497ms 0ms crystal 1.17.0
zig 1.zig 2716ms 2.1ms 1.0MB 2707ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 10

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 2-m.zig 59ms 0.3ms 1.4MB 200ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 3-i.zig 147ms 0.4ms 1.0MB 140ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 1.cr 207ms 2.7ms 2.9MB 200ms 0ms crystal 1.17.0
zig 1.zig 229ms 0.3ms 1.0MB 220ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

fasta

Input: 2500000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 89ms 0.7ms 1.0MB 80ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 2.cr 540ms 2.0ms 3.6MB 450ms 77ms crystal 1.17.0
crystal 1.cr 681ms 2.0ms 14.6MB 570ms 97ms crystal 1.17.0

Input: 250000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 11ms 0.7ms 1.0MB 0ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 2.cr 57ms 0.8ms 3.6MB 40ms 0ms crystal 1.17.0
crystal 1.cr 72ms 0.8ms 4.4MB 53ms 7ms crystal 1.17.0

helloworld

Input: QwQ

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 0.9ms 0.0ms 1.1MB 0ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 1.cr 1.9ms 0.1ms 2.9MB 0ms 0ms crystal 1.17.0

http-server

Input: 3000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 1.cr 1962ms 442ms 300.0MB 300ms 437ms crystal 1.17.0

Input: 500

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 1.cr 1239ms 102ms 53.0MB 27ms 77ms crystal 1.17.0

lru

Input: 1000 1000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 33ms 1.4ms 2.8MB 23ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 0-unsafe.cr 37ms 0.9ms 3.0MB 30ms 0ms crystal 1.17.0
crystal 1.cr 70ms 1.9ms 3.0MB 60ms 0ms crystal 1.17.0

Input: 1000 3000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 94ms 3.0ms 2.8MB 87ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 0-unsafe.cr 105ms 1.9ms 3.0MB 97ms 0ms crystal 1.17.0
crystal 1.cr 201ms 2.2ms 3.0MB 190ms 0ms crystal 1.17.0

Input: 100 500000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 15ms 0.5ms 1.3MB 10ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 0-unsafe.cr 19ms 1.2ms 3.0MB 10ms 0ms crystal 1.17.0
crystal 1.cr 33ms 1.2ms 3.0MB 20ms 0ms crystal 1.17.0

mandelbrot

Input: 5000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 248ms 0.3ms 4.1MB 240ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 1.cr 314ms 1.7ms 9.3MB 303ms 0ms crystal 1.17.0

Input: 1000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 12ms 0.1ms 1.1MB 0ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 1.cr 17ms 0.1ms 5.8MB 10ms 0ms crystal 1.17.0

merkletrees

Input: 17

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 1.cr 838ms 12ms 64.2MB 820ms 7ms crystal 1.17.0
zig 1.zig 860ms 0.1ms 41.0MB 830ms 13ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 1.cr 177ms 4.2ms 22.3MB 160ms 0ms crystal 1.17.0
zig 1.zig 179ms 1.9ms 11.0MB 163ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

nbody

Input: 5000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 3.zig 198ms 0.5ms 1.0MB 190ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 2.zig 279ms 0.5ms 1.0MB 270ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 315ms 0.9ms 1.1MB 310ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 2.cr 345ms 2.9ms 3.4MB 337ms 0ms crystal 1.17.0
crystal 1.cr 346ms 3.1ms 3.4MB 337ms 0ms crystal 1.17.0

Input: 500000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 3.zig 22ms 0.4ms 1.0MB 10ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 2.zig 30ms 0.1ms 1.0MB 20ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 33ms 0.3ms 1.1MB 30ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 2.cr 37ms 0.5ms 3.4MB 30ms 0ms crystal 1.17.0
crystal 1.cr 39ms 0.1ms 3.4MB 30ms 0ms crystal 1.17.0

nsieve

Input: 12

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 267ms 6.8ms 40.2MB 250ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 2.cr 301ms 3.1ms 8.3MB 290ms 0ms crystal 1.17.0
zig 2.zig 328ms 0.3ms 6.0MB 320ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 1.cr 420ms 4.6ms 43.0MB 403ms 0ms crystal 1.17.0

Input: 10

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 55ms 1.6ms 10.9MB 43ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 2.cr 74ms 0.2ms 4.5MB 70ms 0ms crystal 1.17.0
zig 2.zig 81ms 1.3ms 2.3MB 70ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 1.cr 89ms 0.6ms 13.2MB 80ms 0ms crystal 1.17.0

pidigits

Input: 8000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 1.cr 1960ms 30ms 6.3MB 1927ms 17ms crystal 1.17.0
zig 1.zig 2446ms 4.8ms 2.2MB 2420ms 10ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 4000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 1.cr 438ms 11ms 5.0MB 430ms 0ms crystal 1.17.0
zig 1.zig 570ms 5.8ms 1.8MB 563ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

spectral-norm

Input: 8000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 3687ms 4.1ms 1.4MB 3677ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 1.cr 3758ms 11ms 4.5MB 3750ms 0ms crystal 1.17.0

Input: 4000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 928ms 2.8ms 1.3MB 920ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 1.cr 941ms 1.2ms 4.5MB 930ms 0ms crystal 1.17.0

Input: 2000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 232ms 0.3ms 1.3MB 220ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 1.cr 242ms 3.7ms 3.9MB 233ms 0ms crystal 1.17.0