mimalloc
Compact general-purpose memory allocator from Microsoft, usable as a drop-in malloc replacement.
Recommended for allocation speed close to a bump allocator12, for keeping memory use stable under heavy load3, and as a drop-in swap for musl's default malloc.45 No complaints were raised; it suits Rust services, musl-based production systems and high-performance network code.678
Why people recommend it
Performance · 3
Commenters use it for high performance, matching a bump allocator within 5% in one simulation.
“I found that mimalloc does just as good as bumpalo (within 5%)”
“we swap out the default malloc with mimalloc for high performance because why would you not?”
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“it will fit well for a zero-copy and mem aligned reverse proxy”
Musl malloc replacement · 2
Swapped in for musl's default malloc across entire production Linux distros.
“we swap out the default malloc with mimalloc for high performance because why would you not?”
“We use musl+mimalloc by default for our entire production operating systems”
Stable memory use · 1
One service's memory settled at about 60 MB after requests no matter the load.
“Dip's memory, using mimalloc, stabilizes at ~60 MB post request completion no matter how many requests you throw at it.”
Caveats and dissent
No one in these comments warned against it.
Often compared with
Who recommends it in their own words
Threads where it came up
- noalloc: Tooling and libraries to enforce zero heap allocations in Golang 1 mention
- Four Months of Zig 1 mention
- Don't use musl if you care about performance 1 mention
- Gödel, Escher, Elisp: The Beauty of Macros 1 mention
- RipGrep musl binaries occasionally segfault during very-large searches 1 mention
- Epoll vs. Io_uring in Linux 1 mention
Data: mimalloc.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 6
“I found that mimalloc does just as good as bumpalo (within 5%)”
“Dip's memory, using mimalloc, stabilizes at ~60 MB post request completion no matter how many requests you throw at it.”
“we swap out the default malloc with mimalloc for high performance because why would you not?”
“switch to FVWM or use some tool like mimalloc”
“We use musl+mimalloc by default for our entire production operating systems”
“it will fit well for a zero-copy and mem aligned reverse proxy”