benchmark

Benchmarks

Disclaimer: These benchmarks may not reflect real-world usage scenarios and should not be taken too seriously without first conducting tests tailored to your specific use case.

If you feel any of the code available is wrong, please open a PR with a suggested fix.

The idea is just to hit some webpage doing a GET request to / and receiving the result body back.

For libraries that do not return the data as string, code to do that should be added, as is the case with Node.js http.request, node-fetch and node-libcurl.Easy.

Setup

pnpm --ignore-workspace install

Benchmarks

1. Standard Benchmark (index.js)

Tests raw HTTP client performance with continuous requests.

2. Context Switching Benchmark (context-switching.js)

Tests realistic scenarios where applications perform CPU-intensive work between requests.

Start

For the local server, you can use any HTTP server, such as simple-http-server:

cargo install simple-http-server

then:

simple-http-server -p 8080 .

The results below were obtained using the server.js Node.js server, which can be started with pnpm start-server.

Running Benchmarks

Standard benchmark:

pnpm start
# or
node benchmark/index.js

Context switching benchmark:

pnpm context-switching
# or
node benchmark/context-switching.js

You can customize the work simulation by setting these environment variables:

• HOST: Server hostname (default: 127.0.0.1)
• PORT: Server port (default: 8080)
• URL: Full URL to benchmark (overrides HOST/PORT)

Results

Format is:

#### <OS> - <CPU>
##### <http server implementation>
(results)

Scenario Continuous Requests (index.js)

Ubuntu WSL 22.04 - AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D 16 vCPUs

node server.js

libcurl/8.16.0 OpenSSL/3.5.2 zlib/1.3.1 brotli/1.1.0 zstd/1.5.7 libidn2/2.1.1 libssh2/1.10.0 nghttp2/1.66.0 ngtcp2/1.17.0 nghttp3/1.12.0 OpenLDAP/2.6.9
Node.js version: v24.8.0
Platform: linux x64
CPU Cores: 16 vCPUs | 47.0GB Mem

node.js http.request - GET                    | ██████████████████████─── | 4,852 ops/sec | 21 samples 
axios - GET                                   | █████████████──────────── | 2,928 ops/sec | 20 samples 
superagent - GET                              | █████████████▌─────────── | 2,995 ops/sec | 21 samples 
request - GET                                 | ███████████████▌───────── | 3,499 ops/sec | 21 samples 
fetch - GET                                   | █████████████████──────── | 3,744 ops/sec | 21 samples 
got - GET                                     | █████████████▌─────────── | 2,979 ops/sec | 20 samples 
ky - GET                                      | ████████████████───────── | 3,541 ops/sec | 21 samples 
node-libcurl curly - GET                      | █████████████████▌─────── | 3,924 ops/sec | 19 samples 
node-libcurl curly with object pool - GET     | ██████████████████▌────── | 4,147 ops/sec | 20 samples 
node-libcurl Curl - GET                       | ██████████████████─────── | 3,987 ops/sec | 18 samples 
node-libcurl Curl - reusing instance - GET    | ████████████████████▌──── | 4,512 ops/sec | 21 samples 
node-libcurl Easy - GET                       | ████████████████───────── | 3,594 ops/sec | 19 samples 
node-libcurl Easy - reusing instance - GET    | █████████████████████████ | 5,470 ops/sec | 21 samples 

libcurl/8.17.0 OpenSSL/3.5.2 zlib/1.3.1 brotli/1.1.0 zstd/1.5.7 libidn2/2.1.1 libssh2/1.10.0 nghttp2/1.66.0 ngtcp2/1.17.0 nghttp3/1.12.0 OpenLDAP/2.6.9
Node.js version: v24.8.0
Platform: linux x64
CPU Cores: 16 vCPUs | 47.0GB Mem

node.js http.request - GET                    | █████████████████──────── | 4,418 ops/sec | 19 samples 
axios - GET                                   | ███████████────────────── | 2,867 ops/sec | 21 samples 
superagent - GET                              | ███████████────────────── | 2,960 ops/sec | 21 samples 
request - GET                                 | ████████████▌──────────── | 3,232 ops/sec | 19 samples 
fetch - GET                                   | ███████████████▌───────── | 4,022 ops/sec | 21 samples 
got - GET                                     | ███████████────────────── | 2,877 ops/sec | 21 samples 
ky - GET                                      | ████████████▌──────────── | 3,326 ops/sec | 21 samples 
node-libcurl curly - GET                      | █████████████████▌─────── | 4,592 ops/sec | 19 samples 
node-libcurl curly with object pool - GET     | ███████████████████▌───── | 5,079 ops/sec | 20 samples 
node-libcurl Curl - GET                       | ██████████████████─────── | 4,729 ops/sec | 20 samples 
node-libcurl Curl - reusing instance - GET    | █████████████████████──── | 5,530 ops/sec | 19 samples 
node-libcurl Easy - GET                       | ███████████████────────── | 3,985 ops/sec | 20 samples 
node-libcurl Easy - reusing instance - GET    | █████████████████████████ | 6,444 ops/sec | 20 samples 

Windows 11 - AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D 16 vCPUs

node server.js

libcurl/8.16.0-DEV OpenSSL/3.5.3 zlib/1.3.1 brotli/1.1.0 zstd/1.5.7 c-ares/1.34.5 WinIDN libssh2/1.11.1_DEV nghttp2/1.67.1 ngtcp2/1.16.0 nghttp3/1.12.0 libgsasl/2.2.2
Node.js version: v24.9.0
Platform: win32 x64
CPU Cores: 16 vCPUs | 127.9GB Mem

node.js http.request - GET                    | ██████████████████─────── | 5,820 ops/sec | 21 samples
axios - GET                                   | █████████──────────────── | 2,987 ops/sec | 19 samples
superagent - GET                              | ██████─────────────────── | 1,960 ops/sec | 21 samples
request - GET                                 | ███████████▌───────────── | 3,729 ops/sec | 21 samples
fetch - GET                                   | ███████████████────────── | 4,853 ops/sec | 20 samples
got - GET                                     | ███████████▌───────────── | 3,696 ops/sec | 21 samples
ky - GET                                      | █████████████──────────── | 4,249 ops/sec | 20 samples
node-libcurl curly - GET                      | █████████████████──────── | 5,510 ops/sec | 19 samples
node-libcurl curly with object pool - GET     | ██████████████████▌────── | 5,950 ops/sec | 19 samples
node-libcurl Curl - GET                       | ██████████████████─────── | 5,759 ops/sec | 21 samples
node-libcurl Curl - reusing instance - GET    | █████████████████████──── | 6,688 ops/sec | 21 samples
node-libcurl Easy - GET                       | ███████────────────────── | 2,267 ops/sec | 20 samples
node-libcurl Easy - reusing instance - GET    | █████████████████████████ | 7,961 ops/sec | 20 samples

libcurl/8.17.0-DEV OpenSSL/3.5.3 zlib/1.3.1 brotli/1.1.0 zstd/1.5.7 c-ares/1.34.5 WinIDN libssh2/1.11.1_DEV nghttp2/1.67.1 ngtcp2/1.16.0 nghttp3/1.12.0 libgsasl/2.2.2
Node.js version: v24.9.0
Platform: win32 x64
CPU Cores: 16 vCPUs | 127.9GB Mem

node.js http.request - GET                    | ███████████████████▌───── | 5,271 ops/sec | 20 samples
axios - GET                                   | ██████████▌────────────── | 2,807 ops/sec | 21 samples
superagent - GET                              | ███████────────────────── | 1,880 ops/sec | 20 samples
request - GET                                 | █████████████──────────── | 3,506 ops/sec | 21 samples
fetch - GET                                   | ████████████████▌──────── | 4,430 ops/sec | 21 samples
got - GET                                     | ████████████▌──────────── | 3,401 ops/sec | 19 samples
ky - GET                                      | ███████████████────────── | 4,109 ops/sec | 21 samples
node-libcurl curly - GET                      | ████████████████████▌──── | 5,514 ops/sec | 20 samples
node-libcurl curly with object pool - GET     | ██████████████████████─── | 5,870 ops/sec | 20 samples
node-libcurl Curl - GET                       | █████████████████████──── | 5,626 ops/sec | 20 samples
node-libcurl Curl - reusing instance - GET    | █████████████████████████ | 6,662 ops/sec | 21 samples
node-libcurl Easy - GET                       | ████████───────────────── | 2,213 ops/sec | 20 samples
node-libcurl Easy - reusing instance - GET    | ███████████████████────── | 5,116 ops/sec | 19 samples

macOS 16 - m1

node server.js

libcurl/8.16.0 OpenSSL/3.5.2 zlib/1.2.12 brotli/1.1.0 zstd/1.4.9 libidn2/2.1.1 libssh2/1.10.0 nghttp2/1.66.0 ngtcp2/1.17.0 nghttp3/1.12.0 OpenLDAP/2.6.9
Node.js version: v24.8.0
Platform: darwin arm64
CPU Cores: 10 vCPUs | 32.0GB Mem

node.js http.request - GET                    | ███████████████████████▌─ | 11,678 ops/sec | 20 samples 
axios - GET                                   | ███████████────────────── | 5,577 ops/sec | 20 samples 
superagent - GET                              | ███████████────────────── | 5,506 ops/sec | 21 samples 
request - GET                                 | ████████████████───────── | 7,906 ops/sec | 21 samples 
fetch - GET                                   | ██████████████████▌────── | 9,210 ops/sec | 20 samples 
got - GET                                     | █████████████▌─────────── | 6,847 ops/sec | 21 samples 
ky - GET                                      | ████████████████▌──────── | 8,184 ops/sec | 21 samples 
node-libcurl curly - GET                      | ████████████████████▌──── | 10,262 ops/sec | 21 samples 
node-libcurl curly with object pool - GET     | ████████████████████▌──── | 10,068 ops/sec | 21 samples 
node-libcurl Curl - GET                       | ██████████████████████▌── | 11,141 ops/sec | 21 samples 
node-libcurl Curl - reusing instance - GET    | ████████████████████████▌ | 12,124 ops/sec | 20 samples 
node-libcurl Easy - GET                       | ██████████▌────────────── | 5,300 ops/sec | 19 samples 
node-libcurl Easy - reusing instance - GET    | █████████████████████████ | 12,250 ops/sec | 20 samples 

libcurl/8.17.0 OpenSSL/3.5.2 zlib/1.2.12 brotli/1.1.0 zstd/1.4.9 libidn2/2.1.1 libssh2/1.10.0 nghttp2/1.66.0 ngtcp2/1.17.0 nghttp3/1.12.0 OpenLDAP/2.6.9
Node.js version: v24.8.0
Platform: darwin arm64
CPU Cores: 10 vCPUs | 32.0GB Mem

node.js http.request - GET                    | █████████████████████████ | 14,874 ops/sec | 20 samples 
axios - GET                                   | ████████████▌──────────── | 7,552 ops/sec | 21 samples 
superagent - GET                              | ██████████▌────────────── | 6,442 ops/sec | 20 samples 
request - GET                                 | ███████████████────────── | 8,953 ops/sec | 20 samples 
fetch - GET                                   | ███████████████────────── | 9,158 ops/sec | 21 samples 
got - GET                                     | ████████████▌──────────── | 7,654 ops/sec | 20 samples 
ky - GET                                      | █████████████──────────── | 7,781 ops/sec | 21 samples 
node-libcurl curly - GET                      | ██████████████████─────── | 10,822 ops/sec | 21 samples 
node-libcurl curly with object pool - GET     | ███████████████████▌───── | 11,896 ops/sec | 20 samples 
node-libcurl Curl - GET                       | ███████████████████────── | 11,466 ops/sec | 20 samples 
node-libcurl Curl - reusing instance - GET    | █████████████████████──── | 12,758 ops/sec | 20 samples 
node-libcurl Easy - GET                       | ████████▌──────────────── | 5,269 ops/sec | 19 samples 
node-libcurl Easy - reusing instance - GET    | ████████████████████───── | 12,171 ops/sec | 20 samples  

Scenario Context Switching (context-switching.js)

Ubuntu WSL 22.04 - AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D 16 vCPUs

node server.js

libcurl/8.17.0 OpenSSL/3.5.2 zlib/1.3.1 brotli/1.1.0 zstd/1.5.7 libidn2/2.1.1 libssh2/1.10.0 nghttp2/1.66.0 ngtcp2/1.17.0 nghttp3/1.12.0 OpenLDAP/2.6.9
Node.js version: v24.8.0
Platform: linux x64
CPU Cores: 16 vCPUs | 47.0GB Mem

node.js http.request - GET                    | ███████████████████████── | 932 ops/sec | 20 samples 
axios - GET                                   | ████████████████████▌──── | 830 ops/sec | 20 samples 
superagent - GET                              | ███████████████████────── | 786 ops/sec | 19 samples 
request - GET                                 | █████████████████████▌─── | 872 ops/sec | 21 samples 
fetch - GET                                   | █████████████████████▌─── | 883 ops/sec | 21 samples 
got - GET                                     | █████████████████████──── | 850 ops/sec | 21 samples 
ky - GET                                      | ██████████████████▌────── | 750 ops/sec | 19 samples 
node-libcurl curly - GET                      | ███████████████████████▌─ | 950 ops/sec | 19 samples 
node-libcurl curly with object pool - GET     | ███████████████████████▌─ | 964 ops/sec | 17 samples 
node-libcurl Curl - GET                       | ████████████████████████▌ | 992 ops/sec | 19 samples 
node-libcurl Curl - reusing instance - GET    | █████████████████████████ | 1,008 ops/sec | 18 samples 
node-libcurl Easy - GET                       | ████████████████▌──────── | 676 ops/sec | 21 samples 
node-libcurl Easy - reusing instance - GET    | █████████████████──────── | 688 ops/sec | 19 samples