Benchmark: base64 vs json.stringify

Script Preparation code:

var dataShort = rand();
var dataLong = Array.from({ length: 100 }, rand).join("\n");
function rand() {
  return Math.random().toString(36);
}

Tests:

base64 short string
btoa(dataShort);
base64 long string
btoa(dataLong);
json short string
JSON.stringify(dataShort);
json long string
JSON.stringify(dataLong);

Historical Performance Data aggregated from 62 community runs

Desktop Results:

Chrome 38 runs

json short string

9.8M/s

base64 short string

6.3M/s

base64 long string

927K/s

json long string

355K/s

Fastest: json short string (27.7x faster)

View exact numbers

✓ json short string: 9,829,902 ops/sec
• base64 short string: 6,336,745 ops/sec
• base64 long string: 927,365 ops/sec
• json long string: 354,569 ops/sec

Firefox 13 runs

base64 short string

17.0M/s

json short string

9.8M/s

json long string

841K/s

base64 long string

496K/s

Fastest: base64 short string (34.2x faster)

View exact numbers

✓ base64 short string: 16,964,486 ops/sec
• json short string: 9,837,079 ops/sec
• json long string: 841,020 ops/sec
• base64 long string: 495,971 ops/sec

Safari 5 runs

json short string

8.7M/s

base64 short string

7.7M/s

json long string

929K/s

base64 long string

889K/s

Fastest: json short string (9.8x faster)

View exact numbers

✓ json short string: 8,697,679 ops/sec
• base64 short string: 7,653,014 ops/sec
• json long string: 929,392 ops/sec
• base64 long string: 888,515 ops/sec

Mobile Results:

Chrome 6 runs

json short string

4.8M/s

base64 short string

2.8M/s

base64 long string

393K/s

json long string

280K/s

Fastest: json short string (17.1x faster)

View exact numbers

✓ json short string: 4,785,281 ops/sec
• base64 short string: 2,804,198 ops/sec
• base64 long string: 392,636 ops/sec
• json long string: 280,238 ops/sec

Results show median performance across all community submissions. Run this benchmark yourself to verify on your device.

Rendered benchmark preparation results:

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Previous results

Test case name	Result
base64 short string
base64 long string
json short string
json long string

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Latest run results:

Run details: (Test run date: one month ago)

User agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_7) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/26.3.1 Safari/605.1.15

Browser/OS: Safari 26 on Mac OS X 10.15.7

View result in a separate tab

json short string

29.6M/s

base64 short string

20.0M/s

base64 long string

4.1M/s

json long string

570K/s

View exact numbers

Test name	Executions per second
✓ json short string	29,577,172 Ops/sec
base64 short string	20,040,678 Ops/sec
base64 long string	4,104,451 Ops/sec
json long string	570,098 Ops/sec

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model llama3.2:3b, generated one year ago):

LLMs can make mistakes. Check important info.

**Benchmark Overview**

The MeasureThat.net website allows users to create and run JavaScript microbenchmarks. The provided benchmark compares the execution times of two methods: `btoa` (base64 encoding) and `JSON.stringify`. These methods are used to encode data in a compact binary format.

**Test Cases**

There are four test cases:

1. **Base64 Short String**: Measures the execution time of `btoa(dataShort)`
2. **Base64 Long String**: Measures the execution time of `btoa(dataLong)`
3. **JSON Short String**: Measures the execution time of `JSON.stringify(dataShort)`
4. **JSON Long String**: Measures the execution time of `JSON.stringify(dataLong)`

**Options Compared**

The benchmark compares two encoding methods:

1. **Base64 (btoa)**: A binary-safe encoding scheme that represents data as a 64-character base64 string.
2. **JSON.stringify**: A method from the JavaScript standard library that converts a value to a JSON string.

**Pros and Cons of Each Approach**

**Base64 (btoa)**

Pros:

* Compact binary format
* Fast execution times

Cons:

* Not human-readable or machine-readable without additional processing
* May not be suitable for all data types (e.g., non-ASCII characters)

**JSON.stringify**

Pros:

* Human-readable and easy to debug
* Suitable for most data types, including strings, numbers, and objects

Cons:

* Larger byte size compared to base64
* Slower execution times due to string concatenation and JSON parsing

**Library Used**

In this benchmark, `btoa` uses the Web API's built-in base64 encoding function.

**Special JS Feature or Syntax**

There are no special JavaScript features or syntaxes used in this benchmark. The code only employs standard JavaScript constructs like variables, strings, and functions.

**Other Alternatives**

If you're looking for alternative encoding methods, consider:

1. **URLSearchParams**: A modern API for encoding URL parameters.
2. **text-encoding libraries**: Such as `utf8-escape` or `base64-js`, which provide more control over the encoding process.
3. **Custom encoding algorithms**: Depending on your specific requirements, you may want to implement a custom encoding algorithm using JavaScript.

**Example Use Cases**

Base64 encoding is commonly used in scenarios like:

* Data storage and transmission (e.g., images, videos, or audio files)
* URL parameter encoding
* Security-related applications (e.g., encryption, authentication)

JSON.stringify is often used for:

* Debugging and logging purposes
* Serializing data structures (e.g., objects, arrays) for storage or transfer
* Displaying data in human-readable formats

base64 vs json.stringify (version: 0)

Comparing performance of: `base64 short string vs base64 long string vs json short string vs json long string`

Created: 4 years ago by: Registered User

Go to the latest result

base64 short string

base64 long string

json short string

json long string

Historical Performance Data aggregated from 62 community runs

Desktop Results:

Chrome 38 runs

Firefox 13 runs

Safari 5 runs

Mobile Results:

Chrome 6 runs

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model llama3.2:3b, generated one year ago):

base64 vs json.stringify (version: 0)

Comparing performance of: base64 short string vs base64 long string vs json short string vs json long string

Created: 4 years ago by: Registered User

Go to the latest result

base64 short string

base64 long string

json short string

json long string

Historical Performance Data aggregated from 62 community runs

Desktop Results:

Chrome 38 runs

Firefox 13 runs

Safari 5 runs

Mobile Results:

Chrome 6 runs

Suite status: <idle, ready to run>

Fastest: N/A

Slowest: N/A

Autogenerated LLM Summary (model llama3.2:3b, generated one year ago):

Related benchmarks

Comparing performance of: `base64 short string vs base64 long string vs json short string vs json long string`