Base64 Encoding Performance: JDK vs Apache Commons

Cover image by mohamed_hassan (with minor change) from Pixabay

Recently I stumbled upon some old code that used Base64 from Apache Commons. So I decided to compare its performance to java.util.Base64.

It’s not a new topic whatsoever (links at the end), so let’s just jump to benchmark results.

Benchmarks

Performance for encoding 10K characters for different JDKs. java.util.Base64 is a clear winner performing almost 10x faster.

Encoding/Decoding, all JDKs

Performance for different data sizes (from 1 byte to 10K bytes) for openjdk-17. As you could see in the previous chart, openjdk-8 performs worse, but still java.util.Base64 is clearly better in all cases.

Encoding/Decoding, all lengths, openjdk-17

Conclusion

It’s clearly a time to replace old usages of Apache Commons for base64 encoding. Unless you are on JDK7 or lower, then it’s time to upgrade this part first ;-) (as java.util.Base64 was introduced in JDK8)

Read More

• Base64 encoding and decoding performance: a big good article from 2014 with multiple libraries comparison. Site doesn’t exist anymore, so link to web archive.
• A Fast and Correct Base 64 Codec: AWS’s take on base64 (spoiler, their implementation is more “correct”).
• Follow up on Base64 Codec Performance: AWS’s performance benchmark (no source code and clear results, though).
• Java Base64 Encoding and Decoding: basic tutorial.

Play with charts here. Source code is on GitHub.