Programming Language and compiler
Benchmarks

Results for 38 of 40 languages from this run on actest1.

Unavailable in this run: Hack, Lisp. Follow the run link for failure details.

Zig VS Crystal benchmarks

Current benchmark data was generated on Sun Sep 27 2026, full log can be found HERE

CONTRIBUTIONS are WELCOME!

[x86_64][4 cores] Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3687U CPU @ 2.10GHz (Model 58)

* -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 2516ms 29ms 57.1MB 2487ms 10ms crystal 1.11.2
zig 1.zig 2945ms 28ms 49.1MB 2920ms 7ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 1.cr 223ms 20ms 9.5MB 207ms 0ms crystal 1.11.2
zig 1.zig 280ms 53ms 7.1MB 240ms 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 100ms 23ms 7.2MB 83ms 3ms crystal 1.11.2
zig 1.zig 5068ms 18ms 2.4MB 5030ms 20ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 100000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 1.cr 33ms 2.6ms 4.9MB 20ms 0ms crystal 1.11.2
zig 1.zig 841ms 12ms 2.0MB 823ms 3ms 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 833ms 6.5ms 1.5MB 3140ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 3-i.zig 1413ms 43ms 1.1MB 1400ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 2763ms 12ms 1.1MB 2753ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 1.cr 3642ms 13ms 2.5MB 3633ms 0ms crystal 1.11.2

Input: 10

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 2-m.zig 77ms 2.6ms 1.5MB 243ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 3-i.zig 124ms 4.7ms 1.1MB 113ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 239ms 3.8ms 1.1MB 227ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 1.cr 295ms 1.0ms 2.5MB 280ms 0ms crystal 1.11.2

fasta

Input: 2500000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 138ms 0.5ms 1.1MB 127ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 2.cr 622ms 5.2ms 2.9MB 493ms 110ms crystal 1.11.2
crystal 1.cr 864ms 8.7ms 14.1MB 743ms 100ms crystal 1.11.2

Input: 250000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 17ms 1.2ms 1.1MB 10ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 2.cr 78ms 5.8ms 2.9MB 57ms 10ms crystal 1.11.2
crystal 1.cr 94ms 2.3ms 4.0MB 70ms 7ms crystal 1.11.2

helloworld

Input: QwQ

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 1.3ms 0.5ms 1.1MB 0ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 1.cr 2.8ms 0.5ms 2.5MB 0ms 0ms crystal 1.11.2

knucleotide

Input: 2500000_in

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1-m.zig 798ms 15ms 66.9MB 2580ms 27ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 1043ms 10ms 26.3MB 1013ms 7ms 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 117ms 4.2ms 55.0MB 293ms 43ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 130ms 6.2ms 15.5MB 107ms 3ms zig 0.14.1

lru

Input: 1000 1000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 51ms 1.5ms 2.7MB 40ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 0-unsafe.cr 55ms 2.8ms 2.9MB 40ms 0ms crystal 1.11.2
crystal 1.cr 88ms 0.3ms 2.4MB 80ms 0ms crystal 1.11.2

Input: 1000 3000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 143ms 5.9ms 2.7MB 133ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 0-unsafe.cr 155ms 2.1ms 2.5MB 147ms 0ms crystal 1.11.2
crystal 1.cr 260ms 6.8ms 2.5MB 250ms 0ms crystal 1.11.2

Input: 100 500000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 26ms 0.9ms 1.1MB 13ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 0-unsafe.cr 32ms 3.0ms 2.5MB 23ms 0ms crystal 1.11.2
crystal 1.cr 47ms 2.2ms 2.5MB 37ms 0ms crystal 1.11.2

mandelbrot

Input: 5000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 350ms 2.1ms 4.2MB 340ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 1.cr 507ms 1.0ms 9.4MB 493ms 0ms crystal 1.11.2

Input: 1000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 17ms 0.6ms 1.1MB 10ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 1.cr 27ms 0.6ms 6.1MB 20ms 0ms crystal 1.11.2

merkletrees

Input: 17

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 1.cr 1329ms 15ms 65.7MB 1307ms 10ms crystal 1.11.2
zig 1.zig 1494ms 63ms 41.2MB 1463ms 13ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 15

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 267ms 4.3ms 11.0MB 253ms 3ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 1.cr 270ms 3.0ms 23.9MB 253ms 0ms crystal 1.11.2

nbody

Input: 5000000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 3.zig 379ms 3.1ms 1.1MB 370ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 2.zig 470ms 2.9ms 1.1MB 457ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 510ms 3.2ms 1.1MB 500ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 2.cr 632ms 1.1ms 3.0MB 620ms 0ms crystal 1.11.2
crystal 1.cr 636ms 6.6ms 3.0MB 623ms 0ms crystal 1.11.2

Input: 500000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 3.zig 42ms 3.2ms 1.1MB 33ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 2.zig 50ms 2.1ms 1.1MB 40ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
zig 1.zig 56ms 2.3ms 1.1MB 47ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 2.cr 68ms 0.7ms 3.0MB 57ms 0ms crystal 1.11.2
crystal 1.cr 68ms 2.8ms 3.0MB 60ms 0ms crystal 1.11.2

nsieve

Input: 12

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 2.zig 552ms 15ms 6.0MB 543ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 2.cr 597ms 9.0ms 11.8MB 580ms 0ms crystal 1.11.2
zig 1.zig 958ms 9.6ms 40.1MB 940ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 1.cr 1077ms 11ms 42.4MB 1060ms 0ms crystal 1.11.2

Input: 10

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 2.zig 107ms 1.3ms 2.2MB 100ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 2.cr 116ms 1.9ms 5.3MB 100ms 0ms crystal 1.11.2
zig 1.zig 170ms 4.1ms 11.0MB 160ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 1.cr 210ms 7.1ms 21.0MB 197ms 0ms crystal 1.11.2

pidigits

Input: 8000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 3461ms 6.4ms 2.3MB 3433ms 13ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 1.cr 3508ms 129ms 5.6MB 3480ms 10ms crystal 1.11.2

Input: 4000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 1.cr 831ms 12ms 4.3MB 807ms 3ms crystal 1.11.2
zig 1.zig 854ms 121ms 1.9MB 837ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

spectral-norm

Input: 8000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 1.cr 11056ms 4.8ms 3.9MB 11043ms 0ms crystal 1.11.2
zig 1.zig 11057ms 6.2ms 1.1MB 11043ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 4000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
crystal 1.cr 2769ms 0.6ms 3.9MB 2757ms 0ms crystal 1.11.2
zig 1.zig 2773ms 1.4ms 1.1MB 2757ms 0ms zig 0.14.1

Input: 2000

lang code time stddev peak-mem mem time(user) time(sys) compiler compiler/runtime
zig 1.zig 697ms 1.0ms 1.1MB 690ms 0ms zig 0.14.1
crystal 1.cr 699ms 4.1ms 3.5MB 687ms 0ms crystal 1.11.2