Node.js Crypto Benchmarks (BETA)

Measures the execution time of a few crypto algorithm implementations on Node.js.

This is marked "beta" because I'm not an expert in Node.js, benchmarking, or using crypto algorithms; there's a good chance I made a mistake somewhere. Maybe once more people have looked over the code I'll remove the "beta" tag.

As with all benchmarks, be careful when interpreting the results!

• The exact Node.js version, OpenSSL version, and NPM package versions can make a big difference.
• The exact CPU you're running on can make a big difference, especially for native libraries, which may use entirely different code for different CPUs.
• This benchmark uses the library functions in a specific way (e.g. with a Buffer). Using them differently will give different results.
• This benchmark runs each algorithm implementation in a tight loop and measures total running time. It doesn't measure cache footprint, JIT time, and a bunch of other things that affect the overall performance of a real-world program.

Running

Clone this repo, then run:

$ yarn install
$ yarn run build  # or: yarn run watch
$ yarn run bench [--include <regex>] [--exclude <regex>] [--test]

Results

2026-01-20:

• GCP c4-standard-4: Node 24.13.0.
• GCP c4a-standard-4: Node 24.13.0.

2024-03-15:

• GCP n2-standard-4: Node 20.11.1.

2020-10-20:

• GCP e2-standard-4: Node 14.14.0.

2019-09-04:

• MacBook Pro 15" 2017: Node 8.15.0, Node 11.15.0.

Running benchmarks on GCP or AWS

Create new VM instance:

• Two physical cores (which typically corresponds to 4 "vCPUs")
• The latest Ubuntu LTS.

# SSH to machine.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install git libtool automake gcc g++ make tmux vim
curl https://get.volta.sh | bash

# Exit and re-SSH to pull in ~/.bashrc updates

git clone https://github.com/cakoose/nodejs-crypto-benchmarks.git
cd nodejs-crypto-benchmarks
yarn install
yarn run build

# Start a 'tmux' session so the benchmark continues running even if you disconnect

yarn run bench | tee results.txt

Explanation for non-obvious packages

• microtime: The benchmark package says to install that for higher-precision timing on Node.js