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🚀 Is C Really Faster Than C++? Let’s Settle This Once and For All 🧪

  • Writer: alex d
    alex d
  • May 25
  • 1 min read

or decades, developers have debated the performance differences between C and C++. You've probably heard it all before:

“C is faster because it has no abstractions.”“C++ has too much overhead.”“Zero-cost abstractions aren't really zero-cost.”

So we decided to stop speculating and run a benchmark.


🔬 The Setup

We benchmarked three versions of the same function:

  1. A plain C implementation

  2. A C++ version using minimal abstraction

  3. A second C++ version using more modern features

All versions do the same work — but written in their own “idiomatic” style.

Curious about how the numbers shake out?


🎥 Watch the Full Breakdown

If you’d like to see the thought process, code walkthrough, and analysis — we’ve put it all in a short, to-the-point video:

We go through:

  • What we measured and why

  • The exact differences between the C and C++ versions

  • How compiler optimizations factor in

  • And of course... the final results


🤔 So… Is C Always Faster?

Spoiler: it’s not as simple as you think.Modern C++ compilers are very good at optimization — sometimes good enough to surprise even veteran C developers.

But we’ll let the data speak for itself.







 
 

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