Experiment Overview
In this lab benchmark, we isolated computational performance within Cloudflare V8 Workers. We compared an idiomatic TypeScript implementation against a Rust WASM compilation target executing identical mathematical tasks:
- Test A: 100,000 iterations of HMAC-SHA256 signature verification.
- Test B: Parsing, transforming, and filtering a 15MB nested JSON document.
Benchmark Results
| Workload | TypeScript (V8 JIT) | Rust (WASM Target) | Delta / Speedup |
|---|---|---|---|
| HMAC-SHA256 (100k) | 482 ms | 117 ms | 4.12x faster (WASM) |
| Argon2 Password Hashing | 1,240 ms | 290 ms | 4.27x faster (WASM) |
| JSON Parse & Filter (15MB) | 34 ms | 41 ms | 1.20x faster (TS) |
| Memory Footprint | 12.4 MB | 1.8 MB | 6.8x lower memory (WASM) |
graph TD
A[Input Data Payload] --> B{Workload Type?}
B -->|Heavy Math / Cryptography| C[Rust WebAssembly Engine<br/>~117ms]
B -->|DOM / JSON / String I/O| D[V8 JavaScript Engine<br/>~34ms]Lab Conclusion & Recommendations
- Use WebAssembly (Rust/C++) for: image manipulation, vector search math, cryptography, signature verification, and compression.
- Use Native JavaScript for: simple request routing, HTTP header mutations, and light JSON manipulation to avoid WASM linear memory marshalling overhead.