---
title: Benchmarks
description: "Performance comparison: Grove vs raw SQL, Bun, and GORM"
---

Grove is designed for near-raw performance. These benchmarks compare Grove
against raw `database/sql`, Bun, and GORM using SQLite in-memory databases.

## Running Benchmarks

```bash
# Run all benchmarks
make bench

# Generate markdown report
make bench-report

# Update README.md and docs with latest results
make bench-update
```

## Results

{/* BENCH:START */}
> Benchmarks generated on 2026-02-22 with go1.25.7 on darwin/arm64. Each benchmark ran 5 times; values are averages.

### Insert

| Library | ns/op | B/op | allocs/op | vs Raw SQL |
|---------|------:|-----:|----------:|-----------:|
| Raw SQL | 4,015 | 880 | 20 | baseline |
| Grove | 4,381 | 1,283 | 28 | +9.1% |
| Bun | 8,459 | 5,470 | 27 | +110.7% |
| GORM | 10,265 | 4,954 | 66 | +155.7% |

### SelectOne

| Library | ns/op | B/op | allocs/op | vs Raw SQL |
|---------|------:|-----:|----------:|-----------:|
| Raw SQL | 4,747 | 1,096 | 39 | baseline |
| Grove | 5,575 | 1,458 | 34 | +17.4% |
| Bun | 6,695 | 5,944 | 43 | +41.0% |
| GORM | 8,070 | 4,383 | 81 | +70.0% |

### SelectMulti

| Library | ns/op | B/op | allocs/op | vs Raw SQL |
|---------|------:|-----:|----------:|-----------:|
| Raw SQL | 58,079 | 20,984 | 388 | baseline |
| Grove | 45,686 | 23,413 | 584 | -21.3% |
| Bun | 67,184 | 23,192 | 395 | +15.7% |
| GORM | 83,217 | 28,570 | 765 | +43.3% |

### Update

| Library | ns/op | B/op | allocs/op | vs Raw SQL |
|---------|------:|-----:|----------:|-----------:|
| Raw SQL | 2,821 | 520 | 13 | baseline |
| Grove | 3,617 | 1,010 | 21 | +28.2% |
| Bun | 4,074 | 5,205 | 19 | +44.4% |
| GORM | 5,468 | 4,020 | 49 | +93.8% |

### Delete

| Library | ns/op | B/op | allocs/op | vs Raw SQL |
|---------|------:|-----:|----------:|-----------:|
| Raw SQL | 3,479 | 232 | 8 | baseline |
| Grove | 5,083 | 553 | 13 | +46.1% |
| Bun | 5,147 | 4,880 | 12 | +47.9% |
| GORM | 6,660 | 2,856 | 36 | +91.4% |

### BulkInsert100

| Library | ns/op | B/op | allocs/op | vs Raw SQL |
|---------|------:|-----:|----------:|-----------:|
| Raw SQL | 151,006 | 60,141 | 1524 | baseline |
| Grove | 105,572 | 42,111 | 1421 | -30.1% |
| Bun | 143,532 | 30,389 | 224 | -4.9% |
| GORM | 187,914 | 93,706 | 1251 | +24.4% |

### BulkInsert1000

| Library | ns/op | B/op | allocs/op | vs Raw SQL |
|---------|------:|-----:|----------:|-----------:|
| Raw SQL | 1,401,957 | 605,384 | 16513 | baseline |
| Grove | 967,190 | 409,753 | 14021 | -31.0% |
| Bun | 1,359,612 | 408,694 | 2033 | -3.0% |
| GORM | 1,782,186 | 894,166 | 12051 | +27.1% |

### BuildSelect

| Variant | ns/op | B/op | allocs/op |
|---------|------:|-----:|----------:|
| Grove | 453 | 864 | 11 |
| Bun | 825 | 1,744 | 17 |

### BuildInsert

| Variant | ns/op | B/op | allocs/op |
|---------|------:|-----:|----------:|
| Grove | 842 | 930 | 19 |
| Bun | 1,012 | 1,425 | 17 |

### BuildUpdate

| Variant | ns/op | B/op | allocs/op |
|---------|------:|-----:|----------:|
| Grove | 380 | 736 | 11 |
| Bun | 597 | 1,184 | 14 |

### SchemaCache

| Variant | ns/op | B/op | allocs/op |
|---------|------:|-----:|----------:|
| CacheHit | 11 | 0 | 0 |
| ColdStart | 3,123 | 3,728 | 75 |

### TagResolution

| Variant | ns/op | B/op | allocs/op |
|---------|------:|-----:|----------:|
| GroveTags | 3,101 | 3,728 | 75 |
| BunFallback | 3,398 | 3,736 | 74 |

{/* BENCH:END */}

## Methodology

- **Database:** SQLite in-memory (`:memory:`) -- isolates ORM overhead from network/disk
- **Runs:** 5 iterations per benchmark (`-count=5`) for statistical stability
- **Model:** `User` struct with 6 fields (ID, Name, Email, Age, Active, CreatedAt)
- **Metrics:** ns/op, B/op (bytes allocated), allocs/op (heap allocations)
- **Overhead:** Computed as `(ORM - RawSQL) / RawSQL * 100%`

## What's Measured

| Category | Description |
|----------|-------------|
| Insert | Single row INSERT |
| SelectOne | SELECT single row by PK |
| SelectMulti | SELECT 50 rows with WHERE + LIMIT |
| Update | UPDATE 2 columns by PK |
| Delete | DELETE single row by PK |
| BulkInsert100 | INSERT 100 rows in one operation |
| BulkInsert1000 | INSERT 1000 rows in one operation |
| BuildSelect | SQL generation only (no I/O) |
| BuildInsert | SQL generation only (no I/O) |
| BuildUpdate | SQL generation only (no I/O) |
| SchemaCache | Schema registry cache hit vs cold start |
| TagResolution | Grove tags vs bun tag fallback resolution |