28,969 stars · MIT and Apache-2.0 · v2.0.0 (7 Oct 2026) · Track this in Scout
Runs a command many times and reports how long it really takes.
▶Repo detailsthe review · specs · pros & cons · install
What it is
hyperfine is a command-line benchmarking tool written in Rust. It handles warm-up runs, statistical outliers, a progress display, and export to JSON, CSV, Markdown and other formats.
What it is good for. Anyone who has said "that feels slower now" and had nothing to point at. It settles an argument about two commands, two settings or two versions of a program in about a minute, with a number and a margin instead of an impression.
- Dual MIT and Apache-2.0, both files present and read. It is packaged for Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Alpine, Arch, openSUSE, Void, macOS, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Windows and conda.
- It handles the parts people get wrong by hand: warm-up runs, shell startup overhead, and a warning when results are too scattered to trust.
- Eight years old and still moving. Version 2.0.0 landed on 7 October 2026, the day before this edition.
- The README installs the wrong version. Its "for the latest version" instructions for Ubuntu hardcode
hyperfine_1.20.0_amd64.deb, while the current release is 2.0.0, and the 1.x command line is not the 2.x one. - Version 2.0.0 is a breaking release and was one day old when this was written. Commands now run without an intermediate shell by default,
--time-unit,--sort,--referenceand--reference-nameare gone, and the JSON export moved to a new shape, so anything readingresults[i].meanmust be updated. - The Apache licence file is the unfilled template and names no copyright holder, while the MIT file names one and stops at 2022. No memory, disk or processor figure is published, and the Ubuntu package link is 64-bit Intel only.
- google/benchmark
The same statistics-first timing, as a C++ library compiled into a program rather than a tool that times whole commands.
Track this in Scout - bheisler/criterion.rs
Statistics-driven benchmarking of Rust functions inside a project's own test harness.
Track this in Scout - Gabriella439/bench
The closest match in shape, timing arbitrary commands with statistics; a much smaller Haskell program, last code 2 September 2025.
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brew install hyperfine # macOS sudo apt install hyperfine # Debian or Ubuntu, usually an older version cargo install --locked hyperfine # needs Rust 1.76 or newer
