Life & fun · alternatives · 2026

Bebop is a binary serialization format designed for efficient data encoding and decoding. It uses schemas to define data structure and works with multiple programming languages. The format prioritizes performance and… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Bebop – An Efficient, Schema-Based Binary Serialization Format launched in 2020; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

1. 1
   Extremely simple, fast, efficient, cross-platform serialization format▲14

   🎷No ceremony, just code. Blazing fast, typesafe binary serialization. - 6over3/bebop

   2020 · github.com · its alternatives →

2. 2
   bef – a tool that encodes/decodes interleaved erasure coded streams▲59

   Block Erasure Format - An extensible, fast, and usable file utility to encode and decode interleaved erasure coded streams of data. - gbletr42/bef

   2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

3. 3AF
   Apache Fory Rust – 10-20x faster serialization than JSON/Protobuf▲67

   Serialization framework with some interesting numbers: 10-20x faster on nested objects than json/protobuf. Technical approach: compile-time codegen (no reflection), compact binary protocol with meta-packing, little-endian layout optimized for modern CPUs. Unique features that other fast serializers don't have: - Cross-language without IDL files (Rust ↔ Python/Java/Go) - Trait object serialization (Box) - Automatic circular reference handling - Schema evolution without coordination Happy to discuss design trade-offs. Benchmarks:…

   Oct 2025 · fory.apache.org · its alternatives →

4. 4
   T2b – A wicked-powerful text macro language for building binary files▲117

   A wicked-powerful text macro language for building binary files. - thosakwe/t2b

   2018 · github.com · its alternatives →

5. 5
   bloop▲334

   Code-search engine for developers

   2021 · its alternatives →

6. 6
   beoble▲71

   Pluggable modular Web3 social layer

   2022 · beoble.io · its alternatives →

7. 7
   Base24 binary-to-text encoding for humans▲116

   Programmer chronicles.

   2020 · kuon.ch · its alternatives →

8. 8
   Jaws – a JavaScript to WASM ahead-of-time compiler▲290

   I've open sourced a JavaScript to WASM compiler. It's an experimental tool, but given the semantics I already implemented, I'm fairly certain I am able to eventually cover 100% of JavaScript spec. Any ideas, questions or critique welcomed! If you are interested in WASM, especially with new proposals like WASM GC or exception handling, it might be a good source of seeing these features in action - the project has a few thousand lines of hand written WAT so far.

   2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

9. 9
   Codemap – Codebase Visualizer for JavaScript, TypeScript, and Python▲84

   Codemap visualizes any codebase as a graph for software engineers to quickly understand the code architecture. Supports Typescript, Python, Java, PHP, Ruby, Go (Golang), and Terraform.

   2020 · codemap.app · its alternatives →

10. 10
    ZeroDB▲119

    An open-source, end-to-end encrypted database protocol

    2015 · zerodb.io · its alternatives →

11. 11JA
    JSON as Fast as Binary▲12

    2015 · hperadin.github.io · its alternatives →

12. 12
    Textdb.dev – simple data sharing for fun projects▲200

    2020 · textdb.dev · its alternatives →

13. 13KA
    Kim – A Python serialization and marshaling framework▲136

    2017 · kim.readthedocs.io · its alternatives →

14. 14
    A proof-of-concept FoundationDB based network block device backend▲192

    A totally proof-of-concept FoundationDB based network block device backend - dividuum/fdb-nbd

    2018 · github.com · its alternatives →

15. 15BA
    BerylDB – a small key-value database▲57

    2021 · docs.beryl.dev · its alternatives →

16. 16
    A hash array-mapped trie implementation in C▲171

    Long-simmering side project that is finally ready to see the light. HAMTs are a cool persistent data structure and implementing one has been a lot of fun. Beyond the code, there is likely some value in the extensive and largely complete implementation docs; basic benchmarks are linked in the README, too. Kind of aiming to be "the libavl for HAMTs". That is obviously a high and aspirational bar but a distinct possibility if it stirs up a little interest and/or contribution. Anyways, it's time for this to go out, collect feedback and maybe even some use outside of toy projects. Let me…

    2023 · github.com · its alternatives →

17. 17
    (bits) of a Libc, Optimized for Wasm▲78

    I make a no-CGO Go SQLite driver, by compiling the amalgamation to Wasm, then loading the result with wazero (a CGO-free Wasm runtime). To compile SQLite, I use wasi-sdk, which uses wasi-libc, which is based on musl. It's been said that musl is slow(er than glibc), which is true, to a point. musl uses SWAR on a size_t to implement various functions in string.h. This is fine, except size_t is just 32-bit on Wasm. I found that implementing a few of those functions with Wasm SIMD128 can make them go around 4x faster. Other functions don't even use SWAR; redoing those can make them 16x faster.…

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

18. 18
    Gojay – Performant JSON encoder/decoder for Golang▲153

    high performance JSON encoder/decoder with stream API for Golang - GitHub - francoispqt/gojay: high performance JSON encoder/decoder with stream API for Golang

    2018 · github.com · its alternatives →

19. 19
    Hexi – Modern header-only network binary serialisation for C++▲118

    Over the last few years, I've needed an easy way to quickly serialise and deserialise various network protocols safely and efficiently. Most of the libraries that existed at the time were either quite heavy, had less than stellar performance, or were an abstraction level above what I was looking for. I decided to put together my own class to do the job, starting with an easy, low-overhead way to move bytes in and out of arbitrary buffers. Along the way, it picked up useful bits and pieces, such as buffer structures and allocators that made the byte shuffling faster, often being able to do it…

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

20. 20
    Bo, the Swiss army knife of data examination and manipulation▲104

    The Swiss army knife of data examination and manipulation - kstenerud/bo

    2018 · github.com · its alternatives →

21. 21
    Bin-graph: Visualize binary files▲57

    This program provides a simple way of visualizing the different regions of a binary file. Written in C, depends only on libpng. Currently (commit 1dd42e3) it is able to generate PNG images that represent various aspects of the binary: - Grayscale: Byte values, 00..FF. - Ascii: Printability of each byte. - Entropy: Of a "block", changed with --block-size. - Histogram: Bar graph of the byte frequencies. - Bigrams: Each point is determined by a pair of bytes. - Dotplot: Measure self-similarity. Image width/height is N^2. In the future, I plan on adding an SDL version that allows the user…

    2024 · github.com · its alternatives →

22. 22
    Code generation tool for quick struct content comparison▲54

    Serialization code generator for QUICK struct content comparison - CovenantSQL/HashStablePack

    2019 · github.com · its alternatives →

23. 23
    Pydb – a lightweight database with Python syntax queries, using ZeroMQ▲130

    A lightweight database with Python syntax queries, using ZeroMQ - asrp/pyzdb

    2017 · github.com · its alternatives →

24. 24
    A fast JSON library for Go▲119

    Fast JSON encoder/decoder compatible with encoding/json for Go - goccy/go-json

    2021 · github.com · its alternatives →

Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →