Benchmarking zlib compression in node.js and comparing various methods and libraries.
-- standalone sync compression --
- 1 zlib deflateSync - tests
zlib.deflateSync()andzlib.inflateSync() - 2 zlib deflateRawSync - tests
zlib.deflateRawSync()andzlib.inflateRawSync() - 3 zlib gzipSync - tests
zlib.gzipSync()andzlib.gunzipSync() - 4 zlib brotliSync - tests
zlib.brotliCompressSync()andzlib.brotliDecompressSync() - 14 pako deflate - tests
pako.inflate()andpako.deflate() - 15 pako deflateRaw - tests
pako.inflateRaw()andpako.deflateRaw() - 16 pako gzip - tests
pako.gzip()andpako.ungzip()
-- shared context async compression --
- 5 zlib deflate stream - tests
new zlib.Deflate()andnew zlib.Inflate() - 6 zlib deflateRaw stream - tests
new zlib.DeflateRaw()andnew zlib.InflateRaw() - 7 zlib gzip stream - tests
new zlib.Gzip()andnew zlib.Gunzip() - 8 zlib brotli stream - tests
new zlib.BrotliCompress()andnew zlib.BrotliDecompress()
-- shared context sync compression --
- 9 fast-zlib deflate - tests
new fastzlib.Deflate()andnew fastzlib.Inflate() - 10 fast-zlib deflateRaw - tests
new fastzlib.DeflateRaw()andnew fastzlib.InflateRaw() - 11 fast-zlib gzip - tests
new fastzlib.Gzip()andnew fastzlib.Gunzip() - 12 fast-zlib brotliCompress - tests
new fastzlib.BrotliCompress()andnew fastzlib.BrotliDecompress() - 13 zlib-sync inflate - tests
new zlibsync.Inflate() - 17 pako deflate stream - tests
new pako.Inflate() - 18 pako deflateRaw stream - tests
new pako.Inflate({raw:true}) - 19 pako gzip stream - tests
new pako.Inflate({gzip:true}) - 20 minizlib deflate stream - tests
new minizlib.Inflate()andnew minizlib.Deflate() - 21 minizlib deflateRaw stream - tests
new minizlib.InflateRaw()andnew minizlib.DeflateRaw() - 22 minizlib gzip stream - tests
new minizlib.Gzip()andnew minizlib.Gunzip() - 23 minizlib brotli stream - tests
new minizlib.BrotliCompress()andnew minizlib.BrotliDecompress()
Install or clone this repo, cd into its folder and run:
node benchmark.js [options]
data - Name of a json file placed in the data folder. All values will be randomized on each sample to simulate real world usage. The keys remain intact (defaults to small.json).
tests - Comma-delimited list of tests to run.
[zlib option] - Any other standard zlib option.
Example:
node benchmark.js --data=medium.json --chunkSize=128 --tests=1,2,3,4
(run tests 1 2 3 and 4 on medium.json with a chunkSize of 128 bytes)
- Each test is run in a dedicated child process
- Each test does a 2 second warmup run before starting
- The test consists of 10 runs of 1 second each in order to obtain an average and a standard deviation
- Average memory usage is obtained from
process.memoryUsage().rssin the child process at the end of the test. This is only a rough estimate and may not reflect real world memory usage - Streams are difficult to benchmark correctly, especially async streams. Their results may be less accurate than other methods
- The tested data consists of a supplied json file with randomized values on each chunk in order to approximate real world usage.
Tested on an i5 7300HQ 2.5ghz running Node.js v15.4.0
node benchmark.js
Benchmarking small.json
1. zlib - deflateSync
DeflateSync x 25400.24 ops/sec ± 470.39 (10.687 MB/s)
InflateSync x 74891.53 ops/sec ± 2357.36 (23.953 MB/s)
Sampled 121827 chunks (51.256 MB) in 10.007 seconds
Average compression ratio: 76.02%
Average memory usage: 61.36 MB
2. zlib - deflateRawSync
DeflateRawSync x 23976.79 ops/sec ± 1708.90 (10.083 MB/s)
InflateRawSync x 66826.92 ops/sec ± 5566.99 (20.980 MB/s)
Sampled 112849 chunks (47.455 MB) in 10.008 seconds
Average compression ratio: 74.65%
Average memory usage: 58.60 MB
3. zlib - gzipSync
GzipSync x 22676.71 ops/sec ± 1505.06 (9.533 MB/s)
GunzipSync x 63257.99 ops/sec ± 7026.65 (20.937 MB/s)
Sampled 106896 chunks (44.934 MB) in 10.008 seconds
Average compression ratio: 78.74%
Average memory usage: 55.36 MB
4. zlib - brotliSync
BrotliCompress x 647.10 ops/sec ± 33.84 (0.272 MB/s)
BrotliDecompress x 24967.71 ops/sec ± 5562.10 (7.598 MB/s)
Sampled 6095 chunks (2.561 MB) in 10.010 seconds
Average compression ratio: 72.42%
Average memory usage: 30.93 MB
5. zlib - deflate stream
Deflate Stream x 17157.83 ops/sec ± 1544.04 (7.209 MB/s)
Inflate Stream x 31263.78 ops/sec ± 3107.25 (7.597 MB/s)
Sampled 77646 chunks (32.624 MB) in 10.015 seconds
Average compression ratio: 57.83%
Average memory usage: 53.82 MB
6. zlib - deflateRaw stream
DeflateRaw Stream x 17279.27 ops/sec ± 2337.75 (7.271 MB/s)
InflateRaw Stream x 31999.10 ops/sec ± 4434.06 (7.791 MB/s)
Sampled 78045 chunks (32.844 MB) in 10.012 seconds
Average compression ratio: 57.86%
Average memory usage: 54.61 MB
7. zlib - gzip stream
Gzip Stream x 17051.15 ops/sec ± 1957.37 (7.175 MB/s)
Gunzip Stream x 30287.39 ops/sec ± 4652.39 (7.376 MB/s)
Sampled 76832 chunks (32.328 MB) in 10.012 seconds
Average compression ratio: 57.87%
Average memory usage: 54.51 MB
8. zlib - brotli stream
BrotliCompress Stream x 639.42 ops/sec ± 37.03 (0.269 MB/s)
BrotliDecompress Stream x 9940.10 ops/sec ± 1822.08 (2.287 MB/s)
Sampled 5798 chunks (2.438 MB) in 10.011 seconds
Average compression ratio: 54.71%
Average memory usage: 58.31 MB
9. fast-zlib - deflate
Deflate x 29842.45 ops/sec ± 1551.95 (12.549 MB/s)
Inflate x 145668.62 ops/sec ± 8418.78 (35.437 MB/s)
Sampled 143051 chunks (60.155 MB) in 10.008 seconds
Average compression ratio: 57.85%
Average memory usage: 61.28 MB
10. fast-zlib - deflateRaw
DeflateRaw x 29804.53 ops/sec ± 2192.32 (12.537 MB/s)
InflateRaw x 149175.79 ops/sec ± 12970.10 (36.306 MB/s)
Sampled 144606 chunks (60.825 MB) in 10.008 seconds
Average compression ratio: 57.86%
Average memory usage: 63.58 MB
11. fast-zlib - gzip
Gzip x 27974.29 ops/sec ± 1053.99 (11.770 MB/s)
Gunzip x 134631.62 ops/sec ± 6162.16 (32.777 MB/s)
Sampled 132634 chunks (55.803 MB) in 10.008 seconds
Average compression ratio: 57.87%
Average memory usage: 61.85 MB
12. fast-zlib - brotli
BrotliCompress x 671.06 ops/sec ± 28.30 (0.282 MB/s)
BrotliDecompress x 47467.06 ops/sec ± 5695.65 (10.751 MB/s)
Sampled 6358 chunks (2.676 MB) in 10.013 seconds
Average compression ratio: 53.81%
Average memory usage: 61.05 MB
13. zlib-sync - deflate
Deflate - not available (zlib-sync does not support compression)
Inflate x 127540.53 ops/sec ± 7482.31 (31.059 MB/s)
Sampled 142303 chunks (59.887 MB) in 10.003 seconds
Average memory usage: 46.59 MB
14. pako - deflate
Deflate x 6384.33 ops/sec ± 364.59 (2.685 MB/s)
Inflate x 40045.09 ops/sec ± 1952.15 (12.803 MB/s)
Sampled 45023 chunks (18.936 MB) in 10.024 seconds
Average compression ratio: 76.02%
Average memory usage: 52.76 MB
15. pako - deflateRaw
DeflateRaw x 6412.28 ops/sec ± 306.58 (2.699 MB/s)
InflateRaw x 27206.21 ops/sec ± 2089.15 (8.549 MB/s)
Sampled 42086 chunks (17.714 MB) in 10.008 seconds
Average compression ratio: 74.66%
Average memory usage: 63.99 MB
16. pako - gzip
Gzip x 6016.89 ops/sec ± 702.60 (2.529 MB/s)
Ungzip x 38031.58 ops/sec ± 3673.65 (12.586 MB/s)
Sampled 42733 chunks (17.963 MB) in 10.007 seconds
Average compression ratio: 78.74%
Average memory usage: 64.91 MB
17. pako - deflate stream
Deflate stream x 13561.53 ops/sec ± 88.34 (5.705 MB/s)
Inflate stream - not available (pako v2 removed support for sync decompression)
Sampled 96169 chunks (40.453 MB) in 10.006 seconds
Average compression ratio: 57.86%
Average memory usage: 50.86 MB
18. pako - deflateRaw stream
Deflate stream x 13461.86 ops/sec ± 337.08 (5.663 MB/s)
Inflate stream - not available (pako v2 removed support for sync decompression)
Sampled 95430 chunks (40.147 MB) in 10.006 seconds
Average compression ratio: 57.87%
Average memory usage: 46.29 MB
19. pako - gzip stream
Deflate stream x 12937.64 ops/sec ± 683.29 (5.440 MB/s)
Inflate stream - not available (pako v2 removed support for sync decompression)
Sampled 91925 chunks (38.651 MB) in 10.006 seconds
Average compression ratio: 57.86%
Average memory usage: 49.34 MB
20. minizlib - deflate stream
Deflate stream x 27404.97 ops/sec ± 544.92 (11.524 MB/s)
Inflate stream x 102600.19 ops/sec ± 2532.22 (24.959 MB/s)
Sampled 133740 chunks (56.238 MB) in 10.007 seconds
Average compression ratio: 57.85%
Average memory usage: 63.06 MB
21. minizlib - deflateRaw stream
DeflateRaw stream x 27848.97 ops/sec ± 233.76 (11.716 MB/s)
InflateRaw stream x 104510.36 ops/sec ± 1684.35 (25.441 MB/s)
Sampled 136428 chunks (57.395 MB) in 10.007 seconds
Average compression ratio: 57.86%
Average memory usage: 62.46 MB
22. minizlib - gzip stream
Gzip stream x 27303.06 ops/sec ± 264.53 (11.488 MB/s)
Gunzip stream x 102541.21 ops/sec ± 2156.34 (24.966 MB/s)
Sampled 134307 chunks (56.512 MB) in 10.007 seconds
Average compression ratio: 57.86%
Average memory usage: 62.04 MB
23. minizlib - brotli stream
BrotliCompress stream x 752.10 ops/sec ± 49.18 (0.316 MB/s)
BrotliDecompress stream x 47502.85 ops/sec ± 6624.71 (10.736 MB/s)
Sampled 7158 chunks (3.010 MB) in 10.009 seconds
Average compression ratio: 53.74%
Average memory usage: 66.30 MB- General performance increased about 250% from node 12 to node 15.
- Brotli is extremely slow at compressing, maybe i missed something or there is something wrong with node's implementation.
- Compressing data below a certain size can make the compressed data larger than the actual data (for example compressing a string of 5 characters)
- The chunkSize option can have a substantial effect on decompression performance, especially as data grows larger. Best results were obtained when chunkSize was equal or slightly larger than the compressed data size
- The zlib-sync package seems nearly unaffected by chunkSize
- Sync compression is exponentially faster than Async as data gets smaller
- Performance difference between deflate, deflateRaw and gzip progressively becomes relevant as data size increases, otherwise the difference is negligible