.NET Matrix

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Evidence-based feature and performance comparisons for .NET libraries.

Dependency Injection

Rating

A gold, silver and bronze star for the first three places of every benchmark overview.

#	Library	🥇	🥈	🥉	Won
1	Pure.DI	3			gold in Advanced, gold in Basic, gold in Prepare
2	Grace		2		silver in Advanced, silver in Basic
3	MvvmCross		1		silver in Prepare
4	DryIoc			1	bronze in Prepare
5	Singularity			1	bronze in Basic
6	Stashbox			1	bronze in Advanced

Benchmark overview

Performance and allocated memory are shown together. Lower values are better.

Libraries

	Autofac 9.3.1 A flexible inversion of control container for building extensible .NET applications.
	Castle Windsor 6.0.0 The Castle Project container, with bound lifestyles and Castle DynamicProxy interception.
	Catel 6.2.0 An MVVM application framework whose service locator and type factory perform constructor injection.
	DryIoc 5.4.3 A fast, small and feature-rich container with expression-compiled resolution and rich reuse options.
	Faster.Ioc 5.0.0 A minimalistic container focused on the shortest possible resolve path.
	Grace 7.2.1 A container with a fluent registration model, per-object-graph lifestyles and decorator support.
	Lamar 16.0.0 The successor to StructureMap, built around runtime code generation.
	LightInject 7.1.0 A lightweight container with an ultra-small API surface and its own interception package.
	Maestro 3.6.6 A small container with a fluent configuration API and pluggable activation interceptors.
	Managed Extensibility Framework 2 10.0.10 The lightweight Managed Extensibility Framework composition engine shipped as System.Composition.
	Microsoft Extensions Dependency Injection 10.0.10 The built-in .NET dependency injection container and its service collection abstractions.
	MvvmCross 10.1.2 A cross-platform MVVM framework with its own inversion of control provider.
	Ninject 3.3.6 A container built around fluent bindings, contextual conditions and pluggable extensions.
	Pure.DI 2.5.2 A compile-time dependency injection framework that generates strongly typed compositions.
	Simple Injector 5.6.0 A fast, opinionated dependency injection library that promotes explicit configuration and maintainable application design.
	Singularity 0.18.0 An expression-tree based container that validates the whole object graph when the container is built.
	Spring.NET 3.0.3 The Spring.NET application framework and its XML or code configured object factory.
	Stashbox 5.20.0 A fast container with per-request lifetimes, conditional registrations and child containers.
	StructureMap 4.7.1 A mature container with a fluent registry DSL, nested containers and decorators.
	Unity 5.11.10 The Unity container, offering per-resolve lifetimes and hierarchical child containers.
	Visual Studio MEF 17.13.41 The Visual Studio composition engine, a fast attribute-driven MEF implementation.
	ZenIoc 1.0.1 A tiny container with compiled registrations, named resolution and nested containers.

Benchmark scenarios

01 · Singleton

Registers three singleton services and resolves each of them repeatedly. Every resolve of the same service must return the same instance.

02 · Transient

Registers three transient services and resolves each of them repeatedly. Every resolve must create a new instance, never reusing an earlier one.

03 · PerResolve

Resolves an object graph that asks for the same dependency twice. Both requests inside one resolution share an instance, while the next resolution gets a new one.

04 · Scoped

Resolves scoped services inside explicit scopes. One instance per scope, different instances across scopes, and scope-owned disposables are disposed when the scope ends.

05 · Combined

Resolves three roots that mix singleton and transient dependencies. The singleton is shared across every root while each transient dependency is distinct.

06 · Complex

Registers and resolves three multi-level object graphs, checking that every nested dependency has the expected implementation type and lifetime.

07 · Property

Resolves three roots that carry writable service properties. The container, or its intended property-injection extension, must assign them during activation.

08 · Generics

Registers one open generic service mapping and resolves roots closed over int, float and object. Registering every closed type separately does not count.

09 · IEnumerable

Injects a sequence of five plugin implementations and requires it to be genuinely lazy: nothing is created until enumeration, and every enumeration yields new transients.

10 · Array

Resolves three roots that materialise their injected sequence of five plugins into an array while the root is being activated.

11 · Conditional

Gives each of three consumers a different implementation of one contract, chosen through the metadata, key, predicate or consumer-context mechanism of the library.

12 · Child Container

Creates a real nested child container that inherits the registrations of its parent and can add or override them without changing the parent.

13 · Interception With Proxy

Resolves a service through the interception or activation extension point of the library. The result must be a proxy whose interceptor proceeds to the real target.

14 · Prepare And Register

Measures creating the container and registering the whole prescribed graph, without resolving anything from it.

15 · Prepare And Register And Simple Resolve

Measures the same setup as Prepare And Register, followed by a single resolve of one singleton root.