⚠️ This repository is deprecated, but the results will stay around for posterity. I recommend Maxim Eremenko' XcodeBenchmark for comparing compile times on different Apple hardware. See below for more details. ⚠️

Xcode Hardware Performance

These are the results from running Xcode on a non-trivial open source project using various Macs. The goal is to give developers a relative idea of how each computer model compares to one another. Read the specifics and contributing sections for more info.

Xcode 12

Xcode 11

Xcode 10

Xcode 9

Xcode 8

Specifications

For the test, I decided to use an app that I actually work on: eidolon. Unlike most iOS apps, the project is stable and not under active development, so it's a prime candidate for accurate-ish benchmarking.

For "fresh" builds, I cleaned the build folder (⌘⇧K) repeatedly until it worked with no permissions problems. Then I sat and waited for Xcode to index the project. I also made sure the simulator (iPad Air 2) was closed, so these times include booting the simulator and launching the app. Each version of Xcode above should use the latest iOS version that it ships with. Then I hit ⌘R and start a timer, only ending it when the app had fully launched.

"Incremental" builds represent a more common use case: changing one file and recompiling with the simulator already running. I added print("hello!") to application(: didFinishLaunchingWithOptions:) and hit ⌘R, timing the time it took for the app to launch.

I repeated each test a few times and took their average times.

Contributing

It would be super-cool if we could perform the above tests on a variety of machines and consolidate the results here. Below are the instructions to download the code (compatible with Apple Silicon thanks to @pawelurb), and send a pull request adding your own results. I'd super-appreciate it! 🙇

This repository is deprecated, but the results will stay around for posterity. See below for more.

git clone -b apple-silicon-compatibility https://github.com/artsy/eidolon.git
cd eidolon
bundle install
bundle exec fastlane oss

Please note that this project is released with a Contributor Code of Conduct. By participating in this project, you agree to abide by its terms.

Repo Status

This repository was created in 2015 when I worked at Artsy. The main project I worked on at the time (Eidolon) was open source, making it an ideal test case for measuring Xcode compile times of real-world apps. However, I stopped working at Artsy in 2021 and Artsy is no longer maintaining Eidolon for compatibility with the latest versions of Swift, Xcode, CocoaPods, and open source dependencies.

I could continue maintaining the repo for Artsy, since Eidolon remains open source, but honestly, keeping this Xcode benchmarking repo maintained is a lot of work, and a better repository exists.

So at the end of 2021, I'm deprecating this repository. It was a hell of a ride. I'm grateful to Artsy for the opportunity to leverage their code for the good of the iOS developer community. And I'm most grateful to dozens of contributors who made this a valuable resource. Thank you, everyone.

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.