My Go SQLite driver did poorly on a benchmark, so I fixed it
https://github.com/ncruces/go-sqlite3 was doing poorly on this benchmark that was posted yesterday to HackerNews [1]. With the help of some pprof, I was able to trace it to a serious performance regression introduced two weeks ago, and come up with the fix (happy to field questions, if you're interested in the nitty gritty). It's not the fastest driver around, but it's no longer the slowest: comfortably middle of the pack. It's based on a WASM build of SQLite, and thanks to https://wazero.io doesn't need CGO. [1]:…
My Go SQLite driver did poorly on a benchmark, so I fixed it launched on December 15, 2023 with 234 votes, #171 of 3,780 launches that month and more than 95% of that year's launches. The site was not reachable when checked in September 2026.
In plain words
Go-sqlite3 is a SQLite driver for Go built on WebAssembly that eliminates the need for CGO. After underperforming in recent benchmarks, the developer identified and resolved a performance regression, bringing it to middle-of-the-pack speed. It's designed for Go developers who need SQLite database access without C compiler dependencies.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
In the maker’s words, at launch
https://github.com/ncruces/go-sqlite3 was doing poorly on this benchmark that was posted yesterday to HackerNews [1]. With the help of some pprof, I was able to trace it to a serious performance regression introduced two weeks ago, and come up with the fix (happy to field questions, if you're…
Does a similar job
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(bits) of a Libc, Optimized for Wasm2025 · github.com · ▲78I 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.…
Roast my SQLite encryption at-rest2024 · github.com · ▲99SQLite encryption at-rest is a hot requested feature of both the “default” CGo driver [1] and the transpiled alternative driver [2]. So, this is a feature I wanted to bring to my own Wasm based Go driver/bindings [3]. Open-source SQLite encryption extensions have had a troubled last few years. For whatever reason, in 2020 the (undocumented) feature that made it easy to offer page-level encryption was removed [4]. Some solutions are stuck with SQLite 3.31.1, but Ulrich Telle stepped up with a VFS approach [5]. Still, their solution seemed harder than something I'd want to maintain, as it…
A Wasm to Go TranslatorFeb 2026 · github.com · ▲7I've spent the past couple of weeks building a Wasm-to-Go translator. It supports a subset of Wasm useful enough to translate SQLite into 600k LoC (~20 MiB) of Go code. It already passes all of my Go SQLite driver's tests across the 20 platforms I support. Performance compared to https://wazero.io/ is a bit of a mixed bag: code that frequently crosses the Go-Wasm boundary improves, but code that spends most of its time in "Wasm land" doesn't. There's probably room for improvement (I'd love to hear your ideas), but this is also a testament to how good the wazero AOT compiler…
A new stdlib for Golang focusing on platform native support2023 · github.com · ▲154No gc, No goroutines, Produces small binaries while using the unmodified official go toolchain, and comes with complete Web SDK (generated from w3c/webref). We are building `pcz` to provide a reimagination of Go the language, in an effort to make it suitable for all kinds of programming tasks, and currently you can use it to build efficient web applications in Go using the generated Web SDK (as shown with the live web demo[1]). The journey is just starting, any suggestions? or any critics? [1]: https://primecitizens.github.io/livedemos/10-plat-web/
Godb is a simple Go ORM for PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite and SQL Server2016 · github.com · ▲205A Go SQL query builder and struct mapper. Contribute to samonzeweb/godb development by creating an account on GitHub.
Gogosseract, a Go Lib for CGo-Free Tesseract OCR via Wazero2023 · github.com · ▲120Tesseract is one of the largest Open Source OCR (Optical Character Recognition) projects. There is already a Go library for using Tesseract from Go with CGo, called Gosseract. However if you are interested in OCR from Go without C complicating building and cross-compiling, there aren't any other options. Wazero is a Go WASM runtime that doesn't have any CGo dependencies. With Emscripten Tesseract has been compiled to WASM and ran within Wazero. Gogosseract provides a simple API on top of this. This project has been an interesting delve into the world of WASM.
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