Erlang versus Ruby fastest performance Always look at the source code. If the fastest programs are hand-written vector instructions, does the host language matter? You might be more interested in the less optimised programs — more seconds, less gz source code. fannkuch-redux source secs mem gz cpu secs Erlang 74.60 37,452 1038 292.72 Ruby #2 169.71 29,140 1455 656.90 Ruby 1,466.53 24,936 384 1,466.47 n-body source secs mem gz cpu secs Erlang #3 105.24 36,704 1399 105.29 Ruby #3 190.96 25,644 1163 190.95 Ruby #2 218.13 25,684 1137 218.04 spectral-norm source secs mem gz cpu secs Erlang #2 11.72 44,660 747 46.08 Erlang 62.36 48,128 507 62.43 Ruby #4 134.68 27,356 326 134.67 Ruby 136.75 26,644 292 136.69 Ruby #5 57.56 28,488 758 210.10 mandelbrot source secs mem gz cpu secs Erlang #4 49.04 67,316 806 195.16 Erlang #3 49.80 68,004 792 198.32 Erlang #2 51.19 763,060 613 202.88 Erlang 53.73 1,645,744 534 208.74 Ruby #5 155.55 93,112 970 619.59 Ruby #4 747.10 145,736 857 746.96 Ruby #2 255.19 95,912 880 1,015.91 Ruby #3 1,526.22 25,276 307 1,526.08 Ruby #6 Failed Ruby #7 Failed pidigits source secs mem gz cpu secs Ruby #5 1.64 894,828 488 1.64 Ruby #2 4.08 4,777,808 660 4.08 Erlang #3 6.96 53,880 562 8.04 Erlang 7.79 70,480 559 8.54 Erlang #2 7.77 56,444 512 8.81 Ruby 17.24 167,116 518 17.24 regex-redux source secs mem gz cpu secs Ruby #3 12.56 217,132 724 24.73 Ruby #2 24.86 242,680 437 24.84 Ruby #9 29.71 217,156 321 29.71 Erlang #6 22.15 4,805,940 1048 42.24 fasta source secs mem gz cpu secs Erlang #2 19.67 36,724 1164 21.11 Ruby #6 26.18 124,704 1069 26.18 Ruby #3 46.23 124,612 1002 46.23 Erlang 46.95 36,732 1039 64.91 Ruby #2 105.47 223,092 743 105.46 Ruby #5 112.99 27,152 995 112.98 Ruby #4 113.43 269,460 860 113.28 k-nucleotide source secs mem gz cpu secs Erlang #3 76.09 844,732 937 213.42 Erlang 80.84 6,288,336 936 217.90 Ruby #2 249.91 202,672 420 249.53 Ruby #3 285.77 209,580 540 285.36 Ruby #7 289.86 397,756 785 287.45 Ruby 83.82 174,084 576 291.63 reverse-complement source secs mem gz cpu secs Ruby #4 5.60 2,506,468 601 11.05 Ruby #5 11.77 1,615,676 295 11.77 Ruby #3 8.25 4,445,520 482 15.86 Ruby #2 23.00 1,003,740 264 23.00 Ruby 17.18 5,610,896 514 33.33 Erlang 24.66 3,150,476 1302 73.93 Erlang #4 107.81 2,009,304 1171 144.92 Erlang #3 165.14 6,530,100 630 167.54 binary-trees source secs mem gz cpu secs Erlang 10.60 445,148 420 10.76 Erlang #2 4.61 459,720 478 13.63 Ruby #4 46.86 569,364 364 46.85 Ruby #2 48.74 569,392 378 48.73 Ruby 48.74 569,348 376 48.74 Ruby #3 50.83 402,724 400 50.80 Ruby #5 18.36 565,588 1008 52.32 Erlang Erlang/OTP 25 [erts-13.1.4] [source] [64-bit] [smp:4:4] [ds:4:4:10] [async-threads:1] [jit] Ruby ruby 3.2.0 (2022-12-25 revision a528908271) +YJIT [x86_64-linux] all Erlang programs & measurements all Ruby programs & measurements