Benchmark 2025: Kotlin vs Competitors — Unexpected Results

Benchmark 2025: Kotlin vs competitors — who is faster and more efficient?

At the beginning of 2025, a team of developers published the results of a large-scale benchmark comparing key programming languages: Kotlin (JVM and Native), Java, Go, Rust, and Swift. Testing was conducted on real-world tasks: JSON parsing, mathematical computations, array operations, and network requests. We analyzed the results and highlighted the main findings.

Testing Methodology

All tests were run on identical hardware with an AMD Ryzen 9 processor and 32 GB of RAM. Three parameters were measured:

• Execution time (in milliseconds);
• Peak memory consumption (in MB);
• Multithreaded operation speed (speedup relative to 1 thread).

Results: Kotlin on JVM vs Kotlin Native

The first discovery: Kotlin Native (compiled to native code via LLVM) showed 15-20% higher computation speed compared to Kotlin/JVM. However, memory consumption in the Native version was 10% higher due to the lack of JIT optimizations. For web services and microservices, Kotlin/JVM remains the preferred choice due to lower startup overhead.

Kotlin vs Java

Java 21 (with virtual threads) and Kotlin/JVM showed almost identical results in computation speed — a difference of less than 3%. However, Kotlin won in convenience: code is 40% shorter, and coroutines (kotlinx.coroutines) handle 5000 parallel requests with the same memory consumption as Java with 1000 threads. Conclusion: Kotlin is Java, but with better ergonomics.

Kotlin vs Go

Go is traditionally strong in multithreading. The benchmark showed that Go outperforms Kotlin by 10-12% in tasks with a large number of fine-grained locks (channels, mutexes). However, Kotlin Native catches up to Go when it comes to pure computations without I/O. For high-load network services, Go remains king, but Kotlin is closing the gap.

Kotlin vs Rust

Rust is the absolute leader in performance: it is 25-30% faster than Kotlin in CPU-intensive tasks and consumes 50% less memory. However, the complexity of development in Rust (lifetime management, borrow checker) makes it a niche tool. Kotlin offers 80% of Rust's performance with 2-3 times faster development.

Kotlin vs Swift

Swift (Apple) and Kotlin Native are direct competitors for mobile development. In the benchmark, Kotlin Native outperformed Swift by 5-8% in compilation speed and by 12% in execution speed. However, Swift showed better memory management (ARC vs manual reference counting in Kotlin Native). For cross-platform projects, Kotlin Multiplatform Mobile (KMM) is a more mature solution.

Final Recommendations

• For web services and Android: choose Kotlin/JVM — a balance of speed and convenience.
• For native desktop applications: Kotlin Native — a worthy alternative to Rust with a lower entry barrier.
• For high-load systems: Go or Rust, but Kot