Programming Language and compiler
Benchmarks

Zig VS Kotlin benchmarks

Current benchmark data was generated on Tue Mar 25 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
kotlin 1.kt 482ms 0.5ms 578.0MB 560ms 90ms kotlin/jvm 21
zig 1.zig 1906ms 32ms 49.0MB 1873ms 17ms zig 0.14.0
kotlin 1-m.kt 3201ms 42ms 246.5MB 5153ms 850ms kotlin/native 1.8.21

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
kotlin 1.kt 107ms 0.7ms 160.3MB 117ms 27ms kotlin/jvm 21
zig 1.zig 153ms 1.1ms 7.0MB 140ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
kotlin 1-m.kt 283ms 2.6ms 30.5MB 453ms 67ms kotlin/native 1.8.21

edigits

Input: 250001

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 2275ms 0.2ms 2.5MB 2243ms 17ms zig 0.14.0

Input: 100000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 384ms 2.2ms 1.9MB 370ms 3ms zig 0.14.0

fannkuch-redux

Input: 11

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 2-m.zig 637ms 0.7ms 1.4MB 2403ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 3-i.zig 1766ms 4.1ms 1.0MB 1753ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 1.zig 2713ms 3.8ms 1.0MB 2707ms 0ms zig 0.14.0

Input: 10

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 2-m.zig 60ms 0.8ms 1.4MB 200ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 3-i.zig 148ms 0.2ms 1.0MB 140ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 1.zig 230ms 0.3ms 1.0MB 220ms 0ms zig 0.14.0

fasta

Input: 2500000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 88ms 1.2ms 1.0MB 80ms 0ms zig 0.14.0

Input: 250000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 11ms 0.8ms 1.0MB 0ms 0ms zig 0.14.0

helloworld

Input: QwQ

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 1.0ms 0.0ms 1.1MB 0ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
kotlin 1.kt 2.2ms 0.4ms 2.6MB 0ms 0ms kotlin/native 1.8.21
kotlin 1.kt 59ms 4.0ms 47.2MB 56ms 16ms kotlin/jvm 21

knucleotide

Input: 2500000_in

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 500ms 4.6ms 26.3MB 480ms 7ms zig 0.14.0

Input: 250000_in

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 66ms 0.7ms 15.3MB 50ms 0ms zig 0.14.0

lru

Input: 1000 1000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 33ms 0.3ms 2.8MB 23ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
kotlin 1-m.kt 181ms 4.2ms 96.8MB 300ms 27ms kotlin/jvm 21
kotlin 2-m.kt 198ms 2.0ms 103.5MB 420ms 40ms kotlin/jvm 21
kotlin 2.kt 310ms 2.1ms 5.9MB 433ms 20ms kotlin/native 1.8.21
kotlin 1.kt 518ms 11ms 5.8MB 620ms 3ms kotlin/native 1.8.21

Input: 1000 3000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 95ms 2.4ms 2.8MB 87ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
kotlin 2-m.kt 307ms 3.5ms 215.7MB 537ms 43ms kotlin/jvm 21
kotlin 1.kt 335ms 2.6ms 204.7MB 443ms 43ms kotlin/jvm 21
kotlin 2.kt 927ms 16ms 7.1MB 1330ms 50ms kotlin/native 1.8.21
kotlin 1.kt 1539ms 8.4ms 5.8MB 1870ms 23ms kotlin/native 1.8.21

Input: 100 500000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 16ms 1.3ms 1.3MB 10ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
kotlin 2.kt 142ms 1.4ms 3.6MB 200ms 0ms kotlin/native 1.8.21
kotlin 1-m.kt 142ms 1.4ms 92.3MB 267ms 30ms kotlin/jvm 21
kotlin 2-m.kt 153ms 3.2ms 95.8MB 303ms 30ms kotlin/jvm 21
kotlin 1.kt 171ms 1.8ms 3.8MB 217ms 0ms kotlin/native 1.8.21

mandelbrot

Input: 5000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 247ms 0.1ms 4.0MB 240ms 0ms zig 0.14.0

Input: 1000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 12ms 0.2ms 1.1MB 10ms 0ms zig 0.14.0

merkletrees

Input: 17

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
kotlin 1.kt 361ms 2.6ms 681.5MB 383ms 97ms kotlin/jvm 21
zig 1.zig 878ms 6.2ms 41.0MB 853ms 10ms zig 0.14.0
kotlin 1-m.kt 1532ms 6.5ms 134.6MB 2337ms 353ms kotlin/native 1.8.21

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
kotlin 1.kt 133ms 0.6ms 208.5MB 157ms 37ms kotlin/jvm 21
zig 1.zig 181ms 5.2ms 11.0MB 167ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
kotlin 1-m.kt 312ms 1.7ms 38.5MB 457ms 73ms kotlin/native 1.8.21

nbody

Input: 5000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 2.zig 280ms 0.4ms 1.0MB 270ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 1.zig 315ms 1.2ms 1.1MB 303ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
kotlin 1n.kt 404ms 1.3ms 2.5MB 393ms 0ms kotlin/native 1.8.21
kotlin 1.kt 453ms 4.2ms 49.4MB 497ms 20ms kotlin/jvm 21

Input: 500000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 2.zig 30ms 0.1ms 1.0MB 20ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 1.zig 34ms 0.4ms 1.1MB 27ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
kotlin 1n.kt 44ms 0.5ms 2.5MB 37ms 0ms kotlin/native 1.8.21
kotlin 1.kt 123ms 1.5ms 49.5MB 170ms 13ms kotlin/jvm 21

nsieve

Input: 12

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 283ms 4.4ms 40.1MB 270ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 2.zig 331ms 3.8ms 6.0MB 320ms 0ms zig 0.14.0

Input: 10

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 56ms 2.5ms 10.8MB 47ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
zig 2.zig 81ms 0.9ms 2.3MB 70ms 0ms zig 0.14.0

pidigits

Input: 8000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 2466ms 27ms 2.2MB 2440ms 17ms zig 0.14.0
kotlin 1.kt 3765ms 63ms 355.2MB 4593ms 107ms kotlin/jvm 21
kotlin 1n.kt timeout 0.0ms 5.4MB 6277ms 300ms kotlin/native 1.8.21
kotlin 2n.kt timeout 0.0ms 6.3MB 4990ms 180ms kotlin/native 1.8.21

Input: 4000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 569ms 3.4ms 1.8MB 557ms 0ms zig 0.14.0
kotlin 1-m.kt 1000ms 30ms 355.3MB 1780ms 93ms kotlin/jvm 21
kotlin 1n.kt timeout 0.0ms 5.4MB 6287ms 287ms kotlin/native 1.8.21
kotlin 2n.kt timeout 0.0ms 6.2MB 5010ms 157ms kotlin/native 1.8.21

spectral-norm

Input: 8000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 3697ms 9.3ms 1.4MB 3690ms 0ms zig 0.14.0

Input: 4000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 925ms 2.3ms 1.3MB 917ms 0ms zig 0.14.0

Input: 2000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 234ms 0.2ms 1.3MB 230ms 0ms zig 0.14.0