Lua versus Java fastest programs Always look at the source code. These are only the fastest programs. Look at the other programs. They may seem more-like a fair comparison to you. binary-trees source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lua 101.95 890,168 664 374.32 90% 93% 93% 91% Java 8.28 948,040 835 28.20 80% 84% 87% 90% n-body source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lua 292.55 1,224 1305 309.18 60% 22% 2% 21% Java 21.85 34,112 1489 22.16 1% 0% 0% 100% k-nucleotide source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lua 166.12 596,444 613 176.43 3% 79% 21% 4% Java 9.14 403,576 1812 29.10 87% 72% 74% 86% mandelbrot source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lua 128.80 21,684 623 447.54 85% 90% 88% 85% Java 6.84 76,008 796 26.90 99% 98% 98% 98% fasta source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lua 42.29 2,736 1061 58.72 6% 11% 24% 97% Java 2.22 43,096 2473 6.10 67% 83% 45% 80% reverse-complement source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lua 72.92 2,164,164 752 77.21 2% 4% 4% 96% Java 3.27 714,144 2183 7.54 47% 60% 66% 58% spectral-norm source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lua 162.63 2,636 329 172.22 36% 1% 4% 65% Java 4.15 36,428 950 16.26 98% 100% 98% 97% fannkuch-redux source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lua 833.78 1,152 462 893.00 14% 67% 21% 5% Java 16.12 33,168 1282 63.71 100% 98% 99% 98% regex-redux source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lua Failed Java 10.27 635,500 740 29.42 74% 81% 55% 76% pidigits source secs mem gz busy cpu load Lua Failed Java 1.83 34,848 764 1.95 99% 1% 4% 2% Lua Lua 5.4.0 Copyright (C) 1994-2020 Lua.org, PUC-Rio Java openjdk 14 2020-03-17 OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 14+36-1461) OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 14+36-1461, mixed mode, sharing) all Lua programs & measurements all Java programs & measurements