rasterize gdal vs rasterio

rasterize.py

def rasterize_geom(geom, src_offset, new_gt, all_touched):
    from rasterio import features
    geoms = [(geom, 1)]
    rv_array = features.rasterize(
        geoms,
        out_shape=(src_offset[3], src_offset[2]),
        transform=new_gt,
        fill=0,
        all_touched=all_touched)
    return rv_array


def rasterize_geom_gdal(geom, src_offset, new_gt, all_touched, spatial_ref):
    """
    deprecated, used rasterize_geom instead
    keeping this around as a reference for other gdal->rasterio efforts
    and because it's roughly 2x faster than rasterio implementation
    """
    from osgeo import ogr, gdal
    ogr_geom_type = shapely_to_ogr_type(geom.type)
    # Create a temporary vector layer in memory
    mem_drv = ogr.GetDriverByName(str("Memory"))
    mem_ds = mem_drv.CreateDataSource(str('out'))
    mem_layer = mem_ds.CreateLayer(str('out'), spatial_ref, ogr_geom_type)
    ogr_feature = ogr.Feature(feature_def=mem_layer.GetLayerDefn())
    ogr_geom = ogr.CreateGeometryFromWkt(geom.wkt)
    ogr_feature.SetGeometryDirectly(ogr_geom)
    mem_layer.CreateFeature(ogr_feature)

    # Rasterize it
    driver = gdal.GetDriverByName(str('MEM'))
    rvds = driver.Create(str('rvds'), src_offset[2], src_offset[3], 1, gdal.GDT_Byte)
    rvds.SetGeoTransform(new_gt)

    if all_touched:
        gdal.RasterizeLayer(rvds, [1], mem_layer, None, None,
                            burn_values=[1],
                            options=['ALL_TOUCHED=True'])
    else:
        gdal.RasterizeLayer(rvds, [1], mem_layer, None, None,
                            burn_values=[1],
                            options=['ALL_TOUCHED=False'])

    rv_array = rvds.ReadAsArray()
    return rv_array

The only downside: rasterize_geom is ~ 1.8x slower than rasterize_geom_gdal. Worth it for the safety and code clarity of the rasterio approach IMO.