This project compares the performance of JavaScript, TurboModules, and NitroModules in a React Native app by benchmarking a realistic workflow involving I/O, compression and JSON parsing. The goal is to demonstrate the performance benefits of moving heavy operations tasks into shared native C++ code used by TurboModules and NitroModules.
Note
This project currently supports only Android builds
TurboModules are part of React Native's native modules system. NitroModules (from Margelo) are an alternative implementation focused on performance; see the NitroModules documentation for details.
Benchmarked operations
- Get data size (bytes): read .zstd -> decompress -> return size
- Get JSON array size: read .zstd -> decompress -> parse json -> return array size
- Get concatenated string from JSON: read .zstd -> decompress -> parse json -> return concatenated string values
- Get concatenated string from JSON (zero-copy Nitro): Same as (3) but using the zero-copy BufferArray in the Nitro implementation to avoid extra allocations and copies.
- Native Modules dramatically outperform pure JavaScript: TurboModules and NitroModules run roughly 30–60× faster for these workloads.
- TurboModules and NitroModules show similar performance overall, as the heavy lifting is done in the shared C++ code.
- Nitro's zero-copy strategy (reusing buffers) provides an additional ~8–40% improvement on large payloads or when many allocations occur.
- Device CPU affects absolute latency but not the relative ordering of approaches.
| Operation | TurboModules | NitroModules | JavaScript |
|---|---|---|---|
| Get data size (bytes) | 0.36 ms (46.2x vs JS) | 0.27 ms (62.2x vs JS) | 16.62 ms |
| Get JSON array size | 0.50 ms (57.2x vs JS) | 0.54 ms (53.7x vs JS) | 28.86 ms |
| Get concat string from json | 0.55 ms (59.6x vs JS) | 0.57 ms (57.7x vs JS) | 32.82 ms |
| Get concat string from json (zero-copy Nitro) | 0.55 ms (59.6x vs JS) | 0.65 ms (50.4x vs JS) | 32.82 ms |
| Operation | TurboModules | NitroModules | JavaScript |
|---|---|---|---|
| Get data size (bytes) | 4.01 ms (28.8x vs JS) | 3.37 ms (34.2x vs JS) | 115.56 ms |
| Get JSON array size | 5.70 ms (62.1x vs JS) | 6.50 ms (54.5x vs JS) | 353.95 ms |
| Get concat string from json | 7.08 ms (50.0x vs JS) | 6.73 ms (52.6x vs JS) | 354.23 ms |
| Get concat string from json (zero-copy Nitro) | 7.08 ms (50.0x vs JS) | 6.11 ms (58.0x vs JS) | 354.23 ms |
| Operation | TurboModules | NitroModules | JavaScript |
|---|---|---|---|
| Get data size (bytes) | 0.62 ms (34.4x vs JS) | 0.58 ms (36.4x vs JS) | 21.19 ms |
| Get JSON array size | 0.96 ms (61.6x vs JS) | 0.97 ms (60.7x vs JS) | 58.94 ms |
| Get concat string from json | 1.03 ms (57.6x vs JS) | 1.05 ms (56.8x vs JS) | 59.52 ms |
| Get concat string from json (zero-copy Nitro) | 1.03 ms (57.6x vs JS) | 1.02 ms (58.2x vs JS) | 59.52 ms |
| Operation | TurboModules | NitroModules | JavaScript |
|---|---|---|---|
| Get data size (bytes) | 6.05 ms (31.5x vs JS) | 6.06 ms (31.5x vs JS) | 190.69 ms |
| Get JSON array size | 9.80 ms (60.1x vs JS) | 9.57 ms (61.5x vs JS) | 588.45 ms |
| Get concat string from json | 12.25 ms (48.6x vs JS) | 12.51 ms (47.6x vs JS) | 594.98 ms |
| Get concat string from json (zero-copy Nitro) | 12.25 ms (48.6x vs JS) | 10.61 ms (56.1x vs JS) | 594.98 ms |