Purpose

This research directory explores Zig as a modern systems programming language, examining its unique features, performance characteristics, web framework options, and practical use cases. The focus includes comparisons with established languages (C, Rust, Go) and analysis of whether Zig can replace frameworks like Express.js for web development.

Contents

  • zig-overview-and-web-frameworks.md - Comprehensive overview of Zig’s language features (simplicity, comptime, cross-compilation), web framework comparison (Zap, httpz, Jetzig, Tokamak), performance benchmarks, and decision framework for when to use Zig

Key Findings

Language Characteristics

  • Zig emphasizes radical simplicity and explicitness - No implicit memory allocations, hidden function calls, exceptions, type casting, operator overloading, or macros. Behavior is completely predictable (“what you see is what you get”).

  • Compile-time execution (comptime) is a unique feature enabling generic programming, code generation, configuration validation, and type introspection without traditional template systems.

  • Seamless cross-compilation allows building executables for any supported platform from any platform with a single toolchain (e.g., build for macOS ARM64 from Linux).

  • Manual memory management with explicit allocators provides full control over allocation strategy, easy memory tracking, no garbage collection pauses, and the ability to choose allocators per use case (arena, fixed buffer, etc.).

  • Error handling as data - Errors are values in error unions that cannot be ignored and have zero cost when no error occurs, unlike exception-based approaches.

  • C interoperability without FFI - Zig can directly import C headers and call C functions with zero overhead, enabling gradual migration of C codebases.

Performance Insights

  • Zig web frameworks are 4-14x faster than Express.js - httpz achieves 123,225 req/s and Zap achieves 118,040 req/s on Apple M1 Pro, compared to Express’s 10-30K req/s.

  • Zig vs Go: Zig dominates compute-intensive tasks (1.7-10.7x faster in nbody, mandelbrot, fasta benchmarks) but uses 71% less memory. Go excels at arbitrary-precision arithmetic.

  • Zig vs Rust: Rust slightly faster in multi-threaded workloads (1.2-1.6x), but Zig has lower memory footprint and simpler syntax. Rust’s Actix web framework (400K req/s) outperforms Zig frameworks.

  • Memory usage - Zig consistently achieves 70% lower memory than Go in typical workloads and comparable to Rust, with deterministic latency (no GC pauses).

Web Framework Options

  1. Zap - High-performance wrapper around C’s facil.io (118K req/s, production-proven)
  2. http.zig (httpz) - Pure Zig implementation (123K req/s, low-level control)
  3. Jetzig - Batteries-included framework with file-based routing similar to Next.js
  4. Tokamak - Express-like middleware pattern

Adoption Strategy

  • Use Zig if: Performance is critical (>100K req/s), low resource usage needed, single-binary deployment important, or cross-compilation is essential
  • Don’t use Zig if: Rapid development is priority, mature tooling required, team expertise is JavaScript, or extensive ORM/database libraries needed
  • Hybrid approach recommended - Use Express for orchestration/business logic; use Zig for performance-critical endpoints (image processing, WebSockets, real-time data)

Ecosystem Maturity (2025)

  • Mature: Build system, cross-compilation, C interop, core stdlib
  • Growing: Web frameworks, HTTP clients, JSON/XML parsing, testing
  • Immature: ORMs, database libraries, machine learning, GUI frameworks

Real-World Use Cases

  1. Game engines (performance + manual memory control)
  2. Operating systems (low-level control)
  3. Embedded systems/IoT (small binaries, no GC)
  4. WebAssembly (efficient compilation, smaller binaries)
  5. Command-line tools (fast startup, single binary)
  6. Database systems (performance + memory efficiency)
  7. High-throughput microservices (low-latency, edge computing)

Market Context

  • Developer salary: ~$103K USD/year (Stack Overflow 2024)
  • Job market: Early stage, growing interest in systems programming
  • Best fit: Developers transitioning from C/C++/Rust

Quick Start

Install Zig

Terminal window
# Ubuntu/Debian
wget https://ziglang.org/download/0.11.0/zig-linux-x86_64-0.11.0.tar.xz
tar -xf zig-linux-x86_64-0.11.0.tar.xz
sudo mv zig-linux-x86_64-0.11.0 /usr/local/zig
export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/zig


# Verify
zig version

Create a Simple HTTP Server

Terminal window
mkdir my-zig-api && cd my-zig-api
zig init-exe
# Add httpz dependency to build.zig.zon
# Write server code in src/main.zig
zig build run

Sources

This research relates to:

  • Systems programming language comparisons
  • Web framework performance analysis
  • Performance optimization techniques
  • Language ecosystem maturity assessment

This research provides comprehensive guidance on:

  1. Understanding Zig’s core philosophy - Read the explicitness and comptime sections
  2. Evaluating Zig for web development - See performance comparison and decision framework
  3. Language feature deep-dives - All sections from “Radical Simplicity” through “C Interoperability”
  4. Making adoption decisions - Reference the “Should You Use Zig Instead of Express?” and “Practical Adoption Strategy” sections
  5. Performance optimization - Review benchmark tables and real-world performance insights

Last updated: 2025-11-24 Research period: August 2024 - November 2025 Version: 1.0 (comprehensive initial review)