RABL vs. ActiveModel Serializers vs. Plain Ruby Presenters vs. ApiView

Performance benchmark of RABL, ActiveModel Serializers, and plain Ruby presenters for JSON serialization.

Setup

1. Clone the repo

    git clone git@github.com:ddd-ruby/json_serialization_benchmark.git
   

2. Change directory to json-serialization-benchmark

    cd json-serialization-benchmark
   

3. Install required gems

    bin/setup
   

Usage

• Run the benchmarks

   bin/benchmark
  

Results:

 user system total real allocations memsize
RABL Ultra Simple 1.911337 1.676705 3.588042 ( 3.589055) 80 9148
AMS Ultra Simple 0.243042 0.009323 0.252365 ( 0.254243) 44 2914
ActiveSerializer Ultra Simple 0.162020 0.000165 0.162185 ( 0.162234) 42 2810
Presenters Ultra Simple 0.092353 0.000240 0.092593 ( 0.092715) 24 1490
ApiView Ultra Simple 0.222568 0.000420 0.222988 ( 0.223057) 40 3132
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RABL Simple 10.372594 8.619620 18.992214 ( 19.004412) 441 57986
AMS Simple 1.294465 0.002461 1.296926 ( 1.299156) 200 15166
ActiveSerializer Simple 0.658684 0.001181 0.659865 ( 0.660253) 168 11734
Presenters Simple 0.368717 0.000406 0.369123 ( 0.369283) 96 6894
ApiView Simple 0.718818 0.001030 0.719848 ( 0.720012) 132 12212
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RABL Complex 21.018171 17.441400 38.459571 ( 38.487034) 889 120054
AMS Complex 1.971424 0.003565 1.974989 ( 1.977962) 317 23266
ActiveSerializer Complex 0.748860 0.000795 0.749655 ( 0.749899) 193 13500
Presenters Complex 0.764698 0.000652 0.765350 ( 0.765593) 199 14480
ApiView Complex 0.530054 0.001296 0.531350 ( 0.531919) 100 8306
Collection tests:
user system total real allocations memsize
RABL Ultra Simple: Collection 1.856389 1.676163 3.532552 ( 3.533854) 6885 924536
AMS Ultra Simple: Collection 0.233785 0.004487 0.238272 ( 0.239858) 5012 334842
ActiveSerializer Ultra Simple: Collection 0.154564 0.000387 0.154951 ( 0.154999) 4308 287874
Presenters Ultra Simple: Collection 0.082595 0.000511 0.083106 ( 0.083147) 2908 171874
ApiView Ultra Simple: Collection 0.155942 0.000971 0.156913 ( 0.156980) 3210 267354
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RABL Simple: Collection 10.511576 8.929531 19.441107 ( 19.486008) 42985 5826758
AMS Simple: Collection 1.925473 0.013268 1.938741 ( 1.949859) 29012 2167742
ActiveSerializer Simple: Collection 0.748552 0.003462 0.752014 ( 0.752574) 18508 1351474
Presenters Simple: Collection 0.469276 0.006352 0.475628 ( 0.476481) 12908 931474
ApiView Simple: Collection 0.652091 0.004302 0.656393 ( 0.656761) 12411 1175394
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RABL Complex: Collection 20.683123 17.411162 38.094285 ( 38.133114) 87786 12064159
AMS Complex: Collection 1.733472 0.010716 1.744188 ( 1.746106) 29012 2167742
ActiveSerializer Complex: Collection 0.843026 0.012633 0.855659 ( 0.855865) 21408 1563274
Presenters Complex: Collection 0.873950 0.006703 0.880653 ( 0.880845) 27408 1958874
ApiView Complex: Collection 0.450063 0.002952 0.453015 ( 0.453531) 9211 784794

Verdict

In recent MRI Ruby (2.5.7) ApiView does not hold a clear beneficial position and can be easily replaced by ActiveSerializer.