This project benchmark Nlog and Serilog in a simple batch project in .Net6.

My goal is to find the best option for my program and also to provide you with an example for your own performance testing with Serilog/Nlog or others.

I use BenchmarkDotNet.

3 series of tests is used, sync and async. More later. - Serilog -Nlog -Nlog version 5.0 cr1

For a total of 6 tests.

The Benchmark.csproj is the project where the benchmark tests is configure and run.

In the class BenchmarkCases.cs you can find the configuration of all tests. Each run all log file are deleted with the Cleanup() method and all test is run by the attribute [Benchmark()].

 [GlobalCleanup]
    public void Cleanup()
    {
        Directory.Delete(PATH, true);
    }

    [Benchmark(Baseline = true)]
    public void Nlog_DefaultExecution()
    {
        NlogProvider.Program.Main(new string[] { NB_EXECUTION, False, PATH });
    }

    [Benchmark()]
    public void Nlog_Async()
    {
        NlogProvider.Program.Main(new string[] { NB_EXECUTION, True, PATH });
    }

    [Benchmark()]
    public void Serilog_DefaultExecution()
    {
        SerilogProvider.Program.Main(new string[] { NB_EXECUTION, False, PATH });
    }

    [Benchmark()]
    public void Serilog_Async()
    {
        SerilogProvider.Program.Main(new string[] { NB_EXECUTION, True, PATH });
    }

You need to run the Benchmark.csproj in Release mode and to start, go to debug/Start without debugging or Ctrl+F5. A Console will start de benchmark. it will take a few minutes.

Logger Is the batch exemple. It ILogger to write information log with Microsoft.Extensions.Logging

    using (_logger.BeginScope("DoSomethingElse"))
    {
        for (int i = 0; i < nbExecution; i++)
        {
            using (_logger.BeginScope("loop : {i}", i))
            {
                _logger.LogInformation("Begin loop : {i}", i);

                Thread.Sleep(100);

                _logger.LogInformation("End loop : {i}", i);
            }
        }

        _logger.LogInformation("End DoSomethingElse");
    }

This project uses NLog provider to log into a file the log of Logger project.

 .ConfigureLogging((context, logging) =>
    {
        logging.ClearProviders();
        logging.SetMinimumLevel(Microsoft.Extensions.Logging.LogLevel.Debug);
        SetupLogger(Path.Combine(path, "Nlog.log"));
    })
    .UseNLog();

This project uses Serilog provider to log into a file the log of Logger project.

host.UseSerilog((context, logger) =>
{
    logger.Enrich.FromLogContext();
    logger.WriteTo.File(fileName,
        outputTemplate: GetOutputTemplate()
        );
});

BenchmarkDotNet=v0.13.1, OS=Windows 10.0.22000
Intel Core i7-8700K CPU 3.70GHz (Coffee Lake), 1 CPU, 12 logical and 6 physical cores
.NET SDK=6.0.101
  [Host]     : .NET 6.0.1 (6.0.121.56705), X64 RyuJIT
  DefaultJob : .NET 6.0.1 (6.0.121.56705), X64 RyuJIT

Result Folder : NlogSerilogDotnetBenchmark\Benchmark\bin\Release\net6.0\BenchmarkDotNet.Artifacts\results

Because the execution time was long, I reduced the loop to 10 instead of 50. The results is very different !

With manual testing that speaks to me a bit more, don't you?

In manual tests, Nlog 5.0 and Serilog Async look great on each try. Nlog Async is not too bad to.

With benchmark the rank is different, Serilog with default setting seem the best but in elapsed time (manual test) he is not.

I hope this example will help you in your process of finding the one that is best for your project.

Thanks

jakdaniel