Programming Language and compiler
Benchmarks

Zig VS Crystal benchmarks

Current benchmark data was generated on Tue Jul 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 1302ms 4.1ms 64.2MB 1273ms 17ms crystal 1.16.3
zig 1.zig 2079ms 56ms 49.0MB 2047ms 17ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 1.cr 109ms 2.8ms 11.0MB 100ms 0ms crystal 1.16.3
zig 1.zig 152ms 1.7ms 7.0MB 140ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

edigits

Input: 250001

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 1.cr 58ms 0.7ms 7.5MB 43ms 0ms crystal 1.16.3
zig 1.zig 2256ms 12ms 2.5MB 2227ms 17ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 100000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 1.cr 23ms 1.3ms 5.3MB 10ms 0ms crystal 1.16.3
zig 1.zig 380ms 2.7ms 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 634ms 3.4ms 1.4MB 2393ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 3-i.zig 1791ms 48ms 1.0MB 1780ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 1.cr 2487ms 23ms 2.9MB 2473ms 0ms crystal 1.16.3
zig 1.zig 2728ms 20ms 1.0MB 2720ms 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 60ms 0.4ms 1.4MB 200ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 3-i.zig 147ms 0.3ms 1.0MB 140ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 1.cr 205ms 3.6ms 2.9MB 197ms 0ms crystal 1.16.3
zig 1.zig 228ms 1.0ms 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 88ms 0.6ms 1.0MB 80ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 2.cr 535ms 2.4ms 3.5MB 450ms 70ms crystal 1.16.3
crystal 1.cr 681ms 3.2ms 14.6MB 570ms 97ms crystal 1.16.3

Input: 250000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 10ms 0.1ms 1.0MB 0ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 2.cr 58ms 1.8ms 3.6MB 40ms 7ms crystal 1.16.3
crystal 1.cr 72ms 0.7ms 4.9MB 53ms 7ms crystal 1.16.3

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 2.0ms 0.1ms 2.9MB 0ms 0ms crystal 1.16.3

knucleotide

Input: 2500000_in

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1-m.zig 321ms 1.7ms 67.1MB 853ms 20ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 504ms 4.0ms 27.9MB 480ms 13ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 250000_in

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1-m.zig 65ms 0.5ms 54.4MB 127ms 37ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 67ms 2.4ms 15.4MB 50ms 3ms zig 0.14.1

lru

Input: 1000 1000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 0-unsafe.cr 36ms 0.7ms 3.0MB 30ms 0ms crystal 1.16.3
zig 1.zig 36ms 0.2ms 2.8MB 30ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 1.cr 65ms 1.5ms 3.0MB 57ms 0ms crystal 1.16.3

Input: 1000 3000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 90ms 0.4ms 2.8MB 80ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 0-unsafe.cr 102ms 0.4ms 3.0MB 90ms 0ms crystal 1.16.3
crystal 1.cr 189ms 6.6ms 3.0MB 177ms 0ms crystal 1.16.3

Input: 100 500000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 14ms 0.1ms 1.3MB 10ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 0-unsafe.cr 18ms 0.7ms 3.0MB 10ms 0ms crystal 1.16.3
crystal 1.cr 30ms 1.5ms 3.0MB 20ms 0ms crystal 1.16.3

mandelbrot

Input: 5000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 249ms 1.1ms 4.1MB 240ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 1.cr 315ms 1.4ms 9.3MB 303ms 0ms crystal 1.16.3

Input: 1000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 12ms 0.3ms 1.1MB 0ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 1.cr 17ms 0.4ms 6.4MB 10ms 0ms crystal 1.16.3

merkletrees

Input: 17

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 1.cr 867ms 21ms 64.2MB 843ms 10ms crystal 1.16.3
zig 1.zig 877ms 11ms 41.0MB 850ms 13ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 1.cr 174ms 3.9ms 22.3MB 157ms 0ms crystal 1.16.3
zig 1.zig 178ms 3.0ms 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 1.0ms 1.0MB 190ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 2.zig 279ms 0.3ms 1.0MB 270ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 315ms 1.5ms 1.1MB 307ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 2.cr 342ms 2.4ms 3.3MB 333ms 0ms crystal 1.16.3
crystal 1.cr 350ms 6.8ms 3.4MB 343ms 0ms crystal 1.16.3

Input: 500000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 3.zig 22ms 0.1ms 1.0MB 10ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 2.zig 30ms 0.0ms 1.0MB 20ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 33ms 0.1ms 1.1MB 30ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 1.cr 38ms 1.2ms 3.3MB 30ms 0ms crystal 1.16.3
crystal 2.cr 38ms 0.4ms 3.4MB 30ms 0ms crystal 1.16.3

nsieve

Input: 12

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 274ms 3.8ms 40.2MB 257ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 2.zig 325ms 2.5ms 6.0MB 313ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 2.cr 348ms 2.9ms 8.3MB 337ms 0ms crystal 1.16.3
crystal 1.cr 422ms 6.9ms 43.0MB 413ms 0ms crystal 1.16.3

Input: 10

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 50ms 2.9ms 10.9MB 40ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 2.zig 81ms 0.8ms 2.3MB 70ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 2.cr 87ms 1.4ms 4.5MB 80ms 0ms crystal 1.16.3
crystal 1.cr 90ms 3.2ms 13.2MB 83ms 0ms crystal 1.16.3

pidigits

Input: 8000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 1.cr 1981ms 59ms 6.2MB 1957ms 13ms crystal 1.16.3
zig 1.zig 2453ms 3.5ms 2.2MB 2427ms 17ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 4000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 1.cr 456ms 13ms 5.0MB 440ms 0ms crystal 1.16.3
zig 1.zig 564ms 2.2ms 1.8MB 553ms 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 3691ms 6.4ms 1.4MB 3683ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 1.cr 3763ms 15ms 4.6MB 3753ms 0ms crystal 1.16.3

Input: 4000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 925ms 2.3ms 1.3MB 913ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 1.cr 946ms 8.1ms 4.4MB 933ms 0ms crystal 1.16.3

Input: 2000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 233ms 1.3ms 1.3MB 223ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 1.cr 244ms 2.8ms 3.9MB 237ms 0ms crystal 1.16.3