PHP serializers (native, json, igbinary, msgpack) performance and size comparison (for session like, small, arrays dataset)

serialization.php

<?php

define('ITERATIONS', 1000000);

# [igbinary serializer PHP extension](https://github.com/igbinary/igbinary)
if (!extension_loaded('igbinary')) {
    throw new DomainException('Required PHP module "igbinary" is not loaded');
}

# [MessagePack binary serializer PHP extension](https://github.com/msgpack/msgpack-php)
if (!extension_loaded('msgpack')) {
    throw new DomainException('Required PHP module "msgpack" is not loaded');
}
ini_set('igbinary.compact_strings', true);

function millitime() {
    return (int) (microtime(true)*1000);
}

function timed(Closure $callable, $data) {
    $s = millitime();
    for ($i = 0; $i < ITERATIONS; $i++) { $callable($data); }
    return millitime() - $s;
}

function report(string $name, array $serializer, array $data, string $dataName) {
    echo "------------------------------\n";
    echo sprintf("[%s] %s:\n", $dataName, $name);
    echo "------------------------------\n";
    $value = $serializer[0]($data);
    echo sprintf("Length:             %s bytes\n", strlen($value));
    echo sprintf("Base64 length:      %s bytes\n", strlen(base64_encode($value)));
    $time1 = timed($serializer[0], $data);
    echo sprintf("Time (serialize):   %s ms\n", $time1);
    $time2 = timed($serializer[1], $value);
    echo sprintf("Time (unserialize): %s ms\n", $time2);
    echo sprintf("Time (total):       %s ms\n", $time1 + $time2);
    if ($data !== $serializer[1]($value)) {
        throw new RuntimeException(
            sprintf('Unserialized data "%s" (by %s serializer) is not valid!', $dataName, $name)
        );
    }
}

$dataSet = json_decode(file_get_contents('x-dataset.json'), true, JSON_THROW_ON_ERROR);

$serializers = [
    "Native" => [
        function(array $data) { return serialize($data); },
        function(string $data) { return unserialize($data); }
    ],
    "Json" => [
        function(array $data) { return json_encode($data); },
        function(string $data) { return json_decode($data, true); }
    ],
    "Igbinary" => [
        function(array $data) { return igbinary_serialize($data); },
        function(string $data) { return igbinary_unserialize($data); }
    ],
    "MessagePack" => [
        function(array $data) { return msgpack_pack($data); },
        function(string $data) { return msgpack_unpack($data); }
    ]
];

foreach ($dataSet as $dataName => $data) {
    foreach ($serializers as $name => $serializer) {
        report($name, $serializer, $data, $dataName);
    }
}

x-dataset.json

{
    "tiny": {
        "foo": {
            "user_id": 46337768,
            "roles": ["user"]
        }
    },
    "small": {
        "foo": {
            "user_id": 8625806709,
            "preferences": {
                "likes_animals": true,
                "favourite_color": "black",
                "is_insane": false
            },
            "roles": ["user", "batman"]
        },
        "bar": {
            "profession": "lifesaving",
            "top_speed": 1239.3421
        }
    },
    "medium": {
        "foo": {
            "user_id": 8625806709,
            "preferences": {
                "likes_animals": true,
                "favourite_color": "black",
                "counts": 7612
            },
            "profession": "lifesaving",
            "top_speed": 1163.7821,
            "token": "TL4cvaLajj7wFxqEMHLUDvGtAX9YZjcK.q3cejYbnj6ze",
            "date": "Wed 17 Jul 2019 02:13:34 PM UTC",
            "roles": ["user", "batman"],
            "favourite_gods": "Apollo, Zeus, Chaos, Charon",
            "ipv6": "2001:0db9:0000:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7337"
        },
        "bar": {
            "days": ["Friday", "Thursday", "Sunday"],
            "months": ["August", "September", "March", "April"],
            "unicode": "ąęółżźćńśł",
            "greek": "αβγεω"
        }
    },
    "big": {
        "session": {
            "user_id": 1844441354,
            "full_name": "Edward Scissorhands",
            "special_ability": "cutting",
            "roles": ["user", "member", "star", "barber"],
            "likes_children": true,
            "is_bird": false,
            "dislikes": ["liars", "lawyers"],
            "has_parents": false,
            "likes_birds": true,
            "timestamp": 1563366166,
            "token": "Z4fNqZeDML8v6CQvzVgrBNkavYMgeR5Q",
            "weekdays": ["Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday", "Saturday", "Sunday"],
            "months": "February, March, April, December, October, May, November",
            "uuid": "af764211-32e8-439e-8810-5b706cc3c7dc",
            "ipv6": "02a01:115f:0688:1610:0bce7:50da:dd70:905d"
        },
        "other": {
            "random": "CphdmDR78wDraQ46TFcPCadgWcukmPAz4JDZckWVsccsSR8Bpb2BW5uJ7MEjs6u6EWHtSfZahNcLvbXuXQFKwYjeBz9EvtmKfTPJLEJThygpzQunwYHDPCH22GwnKHWBcBbNRwjYTbYhRhfY7NtxfLq84K6D4S6S67wMtrpXsX696XXNB2buCbswL8KsQF9xpfatx9fNWWyDK7gcX4gb5jhtgTvWae6qkRGtQySpkfRVdJJMDQPjYWn6FGDGLkGW",
            "fill_some_space": "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Fusce euismod convallis est sit amet tincidunt. Proin euismod auctor enim, ut accumsan odio aliquam nec. Cras pharetra turpis eget sollicitudin porta. Praesent et iaculis ipsum, sed mollis sapien. Donec condimentum, purus et volutpat interdum, enim nisi fringilla neque, nec eleifend dui lectus ac ante. Proin maximus finibus diam, eu porttitor mi ullamcorper sed. Cras ac pellentesque justo. Nullam eget mi mi. Morbi ac dui nec augue sollicitudin aliquam. Integer orci ipsum, vehicula eu nisl sit amet, efficitur tristique erat. Nullam eget cursus nulla, et auctor risus. Aliquam bibendum diam erat, et volutpat justo maximus ut. Aliquam eleifend ex sapien, sit amet tincidunt turpis tempor vitae."
        },
        "deeper": {
            "date": "Wed 17 Jul 2019 02:13:11 PM UTC",
            "notes": "Pro verear perfecto at, sea an legere constituam. Aliquip forensibus ius ei, adhuc movet decore ut duo. Facer liber copiosae nec no. Errem persius has ea.",
            "unicode": "ąęółżźćńśł-ĄĘÓŁŻŹĆŃŚŁ",
            "greek": "αβγεω",
            "numbers": [2342, 9821, 0, 100000, 99999, 66666, 12382]
        }
    },
    "repeatable": {
        "foo": {
            "session_id": "123e4567-e89b-12d3-a456-426655440000",
            "interests": "Trains relativity; Special relativity; General relativity",
            "ts": 1563366166,
            "number": 876362,
            "is_human": true,
            "favourite_vegetables": ["meat", "spam", "spam", "spam", "chocolate"],
            "date": "Wed 17 Jul 2019 02:14:51 PM UTC",
            "ipv6": "2620:0000:0862:0ed1a:0000:0000::0000:0001",
            "greek": "αβγεω"
        },
        "more": [
            "value", "same-boring-value", "same-boring-value", "same-boring-value", "same-boring-value", "same-boring-value"
        ]
    },
    "randoms": {
        "integer": [808710896, 390766634, 723905356, 290738044, 852481758, 572710096],
        "base64": [
            "2tt3JXnOrN+NqOQTlaV4n5r+yG29XRZXvvfvTCEW8IgtEmQkn0lfnRHhOAoeKEOGaFyrwR1M6oYPepVnTzSLYA==",
            "AdVcfJzDE1HYMbsVNHnO3JYR+YBzzEVNiYRA5fS1IbIEONMh17O8DnyQHvYZ7m5qm3F34Cs4PQXvMufWpE73KQ==",
            "Zkt1axzllX35nUKTwfL+qi4Q29RHrdMFfAzgtaMcTIN3m7WxBM4/23YgbpqbcDgyRb71FqzzB4KH/mFpobdgxQ==",
            "rltI3Q29YoydB97sUe/77xzqv9c4kYREBAu28cbFdEtHWGaB4vxcZvfsC+79xaaRONddhdp1KUr+8zrpoGnWIw==",
            "yKdcZoeGHubkZ+3Z3N8p+glUrIH8nicIvPjn4UGFMzEapmtHQa7RTXgnYHgmG/M6GyiJmnihV0OBGeSqv+psKw==",
            "ecSrheqUfCUV5EU8aeUORUK8rSvoF6q2rQu6CJ3YREbuE2+s/xGzhDMOTXP7xdyR7xfJB+oXmFoOqDghyvn2dw=="
        ],
        "hex": [
            "692553009ead3f627c41fa003d0dd90698d6a429430a01964730c22d31a80fa3",
            "2910a547dcce783a7282dd1a20bde98408bebd2a374ec521603ed3fb8556d9f8",
            "6d8a7bdac1340685aa037b82e536d218bf985933224e3191dcb2b68fbae34838",
            "455fe3a53033f8122107a7b6e481ca237acfbe305b9c109c90ef499d04c0805a",
            "699007480eae8f3e7ef3fcf887ba48295de2674b895c9c7e912b3dba3b9dfdd0",
            "13e5c40f68015e0a09ce2889bfd634946a3f5b9ea9c14444fdd5dd01d1959e17"
        ]
    }
}

x-my-results.txt

------------------------------
[tiny] Native:
------------------------------
Length:             80 bytes
Base64 length:      108 bytes
Time (serialize):   520 ms
Time (unserialize): 1021 ms
Time (total):       1541 ms
------------------------------
[tiny] Json:
------------------------------
Length:             45 bytes
Base64 length:      60 bytes
Time (serialize):   423 ms
Time (unserialize): 1179 ms
Time (total):       1602 ms
------------------------------
[tiny] Igbinary:
------------------------------
Length:             44 bytes
Base64 length:      60 bytes
Time (serialize):   657 ms
Time (unserialize): 695 ms
Time (total):       1352 ms
------------------------------
[tiny] MessagePack:
------------------------------
Length:             31 bytes
Base64 length:      44 bytes
Time (serialize):   763 ms
Time (unserialize): 863 ms
Time (total):       1626 ms
------------------------------
[small] Native:
------------------------------
Length:             284 bytes
Base64 length:      380 bytes
Time (serialize):   2296 ms
Time (unserialize): 2022 ms
Time (total):       4318 ms
------------------------------
[small] Json:
------------------------------
Length:             193 bytes
Base64 length:      260 bytes
Time (serialize):   1985 ms
Time (unserialize): 2869 ms
Time (total):       4854 ms
------------------------------
[small] Igbinary:
------------------------------
Length:             176 bytes
Base64 length:      236 bytes
Time (serialize):   1136 ms
Time (unserialize): 1440 ms
Time (total):       2576 ms
------------------------------
[small] MessagePack:
------------------------------
Length:             149 bytes
Base64 length:      200 bytes
Time (serialize):   1212 ms
Time (unserialize): 1926 ms
Time (total):       3138 ms
------------------------------
[medium] Native:
------------------------------
Length:             744 bytes
Base64 length:      992 bytes
Time (serialize):   2978 ms
Time (unserialize): 3637 ms
Time (total):       6615 ms
------------------------------
[medium] Json:
------------------------------
Length:             582 bytes
Base64 length:      776 bytes
Time (serialize):   2954 ms
Time (unserialize): 6485 ms
Time (total):       9439 ms
------------------------------
[medium] Igbinary:
------------------------------
Length:             501 bytes
Base64 length:      668 bytes
Time (serialize):   2568 ms
Time (unserialize): 2792 ms
Time (total):       5360 ms
------------------------------
[medium] MessagePack:
------------------------------
Length:             439 bytes
Base64 length:      588 bytes
Time (serialize):   1851 ms
Time (unserialize): 3732 ms
Time (total):       5583 ms
------------------------------
[big] Native:
------------------------------
Length:             2301 bytes
Base64 length:      3068 bytes
Time (serialize):   3426 ms
Time (unserialize): 5685 ms
Time (total):       9111 ms
------------------------------
[big] Json:
------------------------------
Length:             2056 bytes
Base64 length:      2744 bytes
Time (serialize):   5062 ms
Time (unserialize): 12358 ms
Time (total):       17420 ms
------------------------------
[big] Igbinary:
------------------------------
Length:             1912 bytes
Base64 length:      2552 bytes
Time (serialize):   5972 ms
Time (unserialize): 4371 ms
Time (total):       10343 ms
------------------------------
[big] MessagePack:
------------------------------
Length:             1817 bytes
Base64 length:      2424 bytes
Time (serialize):   3195 ms
Time (unserialize): 5879 ms
Time (total):       9074 ms
------------------------------
[repeatable] Native:
------------------------------
Length:             660 bytes
Base64 length:      880 bytes
Time (serialize):   1567 ms
Time (unserialize): 2663 ms
Time (total):       4230 ms
------------------------------
[repeatable] Json:
------------------------------
Length:             496 bytes
Base64 length:      664 bytes
Time (serialize):   1571 ms
Time (unserialize): 4432 ms
Time (total):       6003 ms
------------------------------
[repeatable] Igbinary:
------------------------------
Length:             388 bytes
Base64 length:      520 bytes
Time (serialize):   2830 ms
Time (unserialize): 1861 ms
Time (total):       4691 ms
------------------------------
[repeatable] MessagePack:
------------------------------
Length:             410 bytes
Base64 length:      548 bytes
Time (serialize):   1361 ms
Time (unserialize): 2808 ms
Time (total):       4169 ms
------------------------------
[randoms] Native:
------------------------------
Length:             1213 bytes
Base64 length:      1620 bytes
Time (serialize):   1492 ms
Time (unserialize): 2351 ms
Time (total):       3843 ms
------------------------------
[randoms] Json:
------------------------------
Length:             1045 bytes
Base64 length:      1396 bytes
Time (serialize):   2525 ms
Time (unserialize): 5017 ms
Time (total):       7542 ms
------------------------------
[randoms] Igbinary:
------------------------------
Length:             1036 bytes
Base64 length:      1384 bytes
Time (serialize):   3834 ms
Time (unserialize): 1521 ms
Time (total):       5355 ms
------------------------------
[randoms] MessagePack:
------------------------------
Length:             989 bytes
Base64 length:      1320 bytes
Time (serialize):   1350 ms
Time (unserialize): 2030 ms
Time (total):       3380 ms