Java Logger Benchmark

JMH Benchmark for different synchronous Java Logger implementations.

Idea of this benchmark is to put all loggers in the same conditions and measure how they all handle the most common scenarios. Compare their implementation in such scenarios, some loggers have more flexible configurations, different APIs, some have more features, different implementations.

At the end it's your choice, do you want flexibility some loggers provide and what are trade-offs of each implementation.

Loggers

Benchmark features these loggers:

• io.goodforgod:slf4j-simple-logger:0.13.0
• org.slf4j:slf4j-simple:1.7.36
• ch.qos.logback:logback-classic:1.2.11
• org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-core:2.17.2
• System.Logger (Java 17)

Benchmark

Benchmark consists of different common logging scenarios developers typically use in their applications, by the name of the test you can understand what this situation try to emulate, here is full list of tests:

• messageAndStacktrace
• messageWithoutArguments
• messageOneArgumentInTheEnd
• messageOneArgumentInTheMiddle
• messageOneArgumentInTheStart
• messageTwoArgumentInTheEnd
• messageTwoArgumentInTheMiddle
• messageTwoArgumentInTheStart
• messageThreeArgumentInTheEnd
• messageThreeArgumentInTheMiddle
• messageThreeArgumentInTheStart

Here are corresponding examples of resulted log messages (excluding messageAndStacktrace due to big stacktrace):

2022-03-22T15:33:48.723 [INFO] io.goodforgod.benchmark.LoggerBenchmark - Message is printed for this logger without arguments
2022-03-22T15:33:48.723 [INFO] io.goodforgod.benchmark.LoggerBenchmark - Message is printed for this logger and with the argument: FirstArgument
2022-03-22T15:33:48.723 [INFO] io.goodforgod.benchmark.LoggerBenchmark - Message is printed for FirstArgument argument for this logger
2022-03-22T15:33:48.723 [INFO] io.goodforgod.benchmark.LoggerBenchmark - FirstArgument argument and message is printed for this logger
2022-03-22T15:33:48.723 [INFO] io.goodforgod.benchmark.LoggerBenchmark - Message is printed for this logger and with arguments FirstArgument and SecondArgument
2022-03-22T15:33:48.723 [INFO] io.goodforgod.benchmark.LoggerBenchmark - Message is printed for FirstArgument and SecondArgument argument for this logger
2022-03-22T15:33:48.723 [INFO] io.goodforgod.benchmark.LoggerBenchmark - FirstArgument and SecondArgument arguments and message is printed for this logger
2022-03-22T15:33:48.723 [INFO] io.goodforgod.benchmark.LoggerBenchmark - Message is printed for this logger and with arguments FirstArgument and SecondArgument and ThirdArgument
2022-03-22T15:33:48.723 [INFO] io.goodforgod.benchmark.LoggerBenchmark - Message is printed for FirstArgument and SecondArgument and ThirdArgument argument for this logger
2022-03-22T15:33:48.723 [INFO] io.goodforgod.benchmark.LoggerBenchmark - FirstArgument and SecondArgument and ThirdArgument argument and message is printed for this logger

If you want to look at benchmark details, you can check it here.

Layout

All loggers participants are configured to the same layout, so the all participants will be in equal conditions.

Pseudo layout for all loggers:

{date} [{level}] {logger} - {message}{separator}{throwable with stacktrace}

Description of layout:

• date - uses formatter yyyy-MM-dd'T'HH:mm:ss.SSS
• level - logging level
• logger - logger full class name
• message - logging message
• separator - new line to separate logging messages
• stacktrace - exception stacktrace

Configuration

All loggers use synchronous output, without any async appending mechanism.

All loggers are configured to output to STDERR.

Benchmark emulates real world usage of loggers, same way logger will be used in real running application. To achieve this, benchmark uses real IO output for loggers, but to mitigate IO of the specific machine and console output, all loggers output is redirected to /dev/null. This is done to benchmark how loggers are working in real environment including IO interactions and avoid benchmarking how machine prints data to STDOUT where benchmark is running at.

Loggers have different implementations and such huge performance gaps (as seen by results) occur mostly due to some loggers accessing IO more frequently than others. So measuring IO interactions is indented and critical to receive real world insights.

Setups

JMH precaution:

REMEMBER: The numbers below are just data. To gain reusable insights, you need to follow up on
why the numbers are the way they are. Use profilers (see -prof, -lprof), design factorial
experiments, perform baseline and negative tests that provide experimental control, make sure
the benchmarking environment is safe on JVM/OS/HW level, ask for reviews from the domain experts.
Do not assume the numbers tell you what you want them to tell.

Setup 1

This benchmark results are based on run inside GitHub CI and have forwarded stderr to /dev/null.

Benchmark setup configuration:

• OS: Ubuntu (Github CI)
• Processor: Unknown
• Java: JDK 17.0.2, OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM, 17.0.2+8-LTS
• Execution: java -jar benchmark-name.jar 2>/dev/null

Raw Results

Benchmark	Warmup	Runs	Units	goodforgod-simple	logback	log4j	slf4j-simple	java-system
messageAndStacktrace	2	6	ops/s	118216±813	115822±428	104783±501	13338±223	40445±203
messageWithoutArguments	2	6	ops/s	499217±1199	473321±5493	417106±6782	175836±1835	43540±467
messageOneArgumentInTheEnd	2	6	ops/s	458897±4559	443582±2258	400907±5836	169457±3192	40692±811
messageOneArgumentInTheMiddle	2	6	ops/s	473144±13985	451131±15834	422485±5795	173946±1803	40464±552
messageOneArgumentInTheStart	2	6	ops/s	460671±4028	432312±2706	406973±6916	173542±2095	41138±587
messageTwoArgumentInTheEnd	2	6	ops/s	452458±6389	444213±3966	397294±7014	164550±3379	40661±531
messageTwoArgumentInTheMiddle	2	6	ops/s	432949±5454	442847±5500	390417±3958	168683±1862	41380±403
messageTwoArgumentInTheStart	2	6	ops/s	448363±4246	440998±4881	392745±10002	167334±2699	39528±231
messageThreeArgumentInTheEnd	2	6	ops/s	423541±3972	426526±5837	396242±8698	169260±1842	40128±464
messageThreeArgumentInTheMiddle	2	6	ops/s	430087±2801	409115±3378	392355±5064	167569±9936	40184±244
messageThreeArgumentInTheStart	2	6	ops/s	425695±2946	422243±7029	373625±6822	168490±848	39986±586

You can validate results yourself.

Processed Results

If we take goodforgod-simple-logger as baseline and compute other loggers performance based on numbers above:

Benchmark	goodforgod-simple	logback	log4j	slf4j-simple	java-system
messageAndStacktrace	100	98.0	88.6	11.3	34.2
messageWithoutArguments	100	94.8	83.6	35.2	8.7
messageOneArgumentInTheEnd	100	96.7	87.4	36.9	8.9
messageOneArgumentInTheMiddle	100	95.3	89.3	36.8	8.6
messageOneArgumentInTheStart	100	93.8	88.3	37.7	8.9
messageTwoArgumentInTheEnd	100	98.2	87.8	36.4	9.0
messageTwoArgumentInTheMiddle	100	102.3	90.2	39.0	9.6
messageTwoArgumentInTheStart	100	98.4	87.6	37.3	8.8
messageThreeArgumentInTheEnd	100	100.7	93.6	40.0	9.5
messageThreeArgumentInTheMiddle	100	95.1	91.2	39.0	9.3
messageThreeArgumentInTheStart	100	99.2	87.8	39.6	9.4

If we shrink results even more and compute average for all messages with arguments as single result then:

Benchmark	goodforgod-simple	logback	log4j	slf4j-simple	java-system
message and stacktrace	100	98.0	88.6	11.3	34.2
message with arguments	100	97.5	88.7	37.8	9.1

Setup 2

This benchmark have forwarded stderr to NUL (/dev/null analog in windows)

Benchmark setup configuration:

• OS: Windows 10
• Processor: AMD Ryzen 2600X
• Java: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 17+35-2724, mixed mode, sharing)
• Execution: java -jar benchmark-name.jar 2>NUL

Raw Results

Benchmark	Warmup	Runs	Units	goodforgod-simple	logback	log4j	slf4j-simple	java-system
messageAndStacktrace	2	6	ops/s	58718±669	54617±240	43765±605	2684±142	22721±262
messageWithoutArguments	2	6	ops/s	120257±34208	101818±5985	89485±12457	32231±4528	31956±747
messageOneArgumentInTheEnd	2	6	ops/s	116935±32015	93380±13191	87549±1835	43576±4416	29963±355
messageOneArgumentInTheMiddle	2	6	ops/s	137995±36420	82164±3273	90059±17408	40252±9626	30299±167
messageOneArgumentInTheStart	2	6	ops/s	100351±19414	88131±5613	92676±18736	41611±9423	30424±353
messageTwoArgumentInTheEnd	2	6	ops/s	95318±4567	85102±3035	87795±7094	44082±4324	29248±548
messageTwoArgumentInTheMiddle	2	6	ops/s	101764±13604	86166±987	96163±28330	41920±7623	30086±642
messageTwoArgumentInTheStart	2	6	ops/s	97099±14191	91736±10191	85855±4260	48236±8364	29137±518
messageThreeArgumentInTheEnd	2	6	ops/s	99141±11514	91344±8744	89784±14493	46913±3136	29543±371
messageThreeArgumentInTheMiddle	2	6	ops/s	96524±10997	90234±1231	89083±11264	38981±3724	30155±409
messageThreeArgumentInTheStart	2	6	ops/s	125277±10888	83704±1428	86095±2454	40526±13953	29521±311

Processed Results

If we take goodforgod-simple-logger as baseline and compute other loggers performance based on numbers above:

Benchmark	goodforgod-simple	logback	log4j	slf4j-simple	java-system
messageAndStacktrace	100	93.0	74.5	4.6	38.7
messageWithoutArguments	100	84.7	74.4	26.8	26.6
messageOneArgumentInTheEnd	100	79.9	74.9	37.3	25.6
messageOneArgumentInTheMiddle	100	59.5	65.3	29.2	22.0
messageOneArgumentInTheStart	100	87.8	92.4	41.5	30.3
messageTwoArgumentInTheEnd	100	89.3	92.1	46.2	30.7
messageTwoArgumentInTheMiddle	100	84.7	94.5	41.2	29.6
messageTwoArgumentInTheStart	100	94.5	88.4	49.7	30.0
messageThreeArgumentInTheEnd	100	92.1	90.6	47.3	29.8
messageThreeArgumentInTheMiddle	100	93.5	92.3	40.4	31.2
messageThreeArgumentInTheStart	100	66.8	68.7	32.3	23.6

If we shrink results even more and compute average for all messages with arguments as single result then:

Benchmark	goodforgod-simple	logback	log4j	slf4j-simple	java-system
message and stacktrace	100	93.0	74.5	4.6	38.7
message with arguments	100	83.3	83.3	39.2	27.9

Setup 3

This benchmark have forwarded stderr to NUL (/dev/null analog in windows)

Benchmark setup configuration:

• OS: Windows 10
• Processor: Intel i5-6200U
• Java: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 17.0.1+12-39, mixed mode, sharing)
• Execution: java -jar benchmark-name.jar 2>NUL

Raw Results

Benchmark	Warmup	Runs	Units	goodforgod-simple	logback	log4j	slf4j-simple	java-system
messageAndStacktrace	2	6	ops/s	44741±1227	30574±551	28409±718	2074±166	15384±161
messageWithoutArguments	2	6	ops/s	77648±2357	72632±2107	70858±4008	33142±4502	20126±5878
messageOneArgumentInTheEnd	2	6	ops/s	75533±4976	70459±1576	67934±3651	32307±12165	20420±693
messageOneArgumentInTheMiddle	2	6	ops/s	75453±8568	71517±3054	65894±6387	31073±6345	20141±585
messageOneArgumentInTheStart	2	6	ops/s	73486±15079	66942±2062	66961±1409	31229±7186	20163±276
messageTwoArgumentInTheEnd	2	6	ops/s	75008±1818	66768±4096	65697±1048	32632±448	20421±265
messageTwoArgumentInTheMiddle	2	6	ops/s	75396±1473	69392±7265	68996±4110	30265±3249	20178±344
messageTwoArgumentInTheStart	2	6	ops/s	75785±2851	68737±4562	67683±1720	34428±996	20206±239
messageThreeArgumentInTheEnd	2	6	ops/s	75579±4230	66103±2858	66542±2149	30621±5432	20232±371
messageThreeArgumentInTheMiddle	2	6	ops/s	74463±1725	69847±1797	66406±1474	30986±4792	20311±333
messageThreeArgumentInTheStart	2	6	ops/s	75444±1727	68149±3567	66786±1621	30203±4660	20280±315

Processed Results

If we take goodforgod-simple-logger as baseline and compute other loggers performance based on numbers above:

Benchmark	goodforgod-simple	logback	log4j	slf4j-simple	java-system
messageAndStacktrace	100	68.3	63.5	4.6	34.4
messageWithoutArguments	100	93.5	91.3	42.7	25.9
messageOneArgumentInTheEnd	100	93.3	89.9	42.8	27.0
messageOneArgumentInTheMiddle	100	94.8	87.3	41.2	26.7
messageOneArgumentInTheStart	100	91.1	91.1	42.5	27.4
messageTwoArgumentInTheEnd	100	89.0	87.6	43.5	27.2
messageTwoArgumentInTheMiddle	100	92.0	91.5	40.1	26.8
messageTwoArgumentInTheStart	100	90.7	89.3	45.4	26.7
messageThreeArgumentInTheEnd	100	87.5	88.0	40.5	26.8
messageThreeArgumentInTheMiddle	100	93.8	89.2	41.6	27.3
messageThreeArgumentInTheStart	100	90.3	88.5	40.0	26.9

If we shrink results even more and compute average for all messages with arguments as single result then:

Benchmark	goodforgod-simple	logback	log4j	slf4j-simple	java-system
message and stacktrace	100	68.3	63.5	4.6	34.4
message with arguments	100	91.6	89.4	42.0	26.9

Run

In case you want to try benchmark yourself, then you should compile and package all benchmarks first:

./gradlew shadowJar

Then you can run each of them in their proper directory, for example to run goodforgod-simple-logger benchmark:

java -jar goodforgod-simple-logger/build/libs/*all.jar

If you want to suppress logger output to measure raw performance, you should redirect STRERR that logger produce to /dev/null.

java -jar goodforgod-simple-logger/build/libs/*all.jar 2>/dev/null

Configuration

You can configure the number of warmup and iterations with command line arguments, the first argument corresponds to warmups and second is for iterations:

Example below will run 1 warmup and 2 iteration:

java -jar goodforgod-simple-logger/build/libs/*all.jar 1 2