@httpx/md5

1.2Kb MD5 synchronous hash function very fast on small strings (<4Kb). Automatically uses the native crypto module on node, bun for the best performance.

Install

npm install @httpx/md5
yarn add @httpx/md5
pnpm add @httpx/md5

Features

• 🖖  RFC1321 / NodeJs compatible md5 hashes with unicode support.
• 🚀  Fast hash for small strings (2x-5x faster than md5).
• ✨  Use native crypto module on nodejs and bun (ultra fast).
• 📐  Lightweight for browsers usage (~1.2Kb)
• 🛡️  Tested on node 20-25, bun, browser, cloudflare workers and runtime/edge.

Documentation

import { md5 } from "@httpx/md5";

const hash = md5("Hello: 🌍🚀✨🦄");

// Hexadecimal RFC1321 / NodeJs string
// '8f11a08695d43b4f737a9706dffbf208'

Considerations

MD5 is a non-cryptographic hash function that produces a 128-bit (16-byte) value. More modern hash function exists nowadays and should be preferred (xxhash, rapidhash...). However, I (the author) had a requirement to use it in many runtimes (edge, cloudflare, node and the browser) to compute hashes for millions of relatively small strings. This library is aimed at this use case. Please check alternatives if it doesn't fit your scenario.

Comparison with other libraries

spark-md5 implementation, but relies on some deprecated APIs (such as unescape).

Their performance is equivalent, that said on node, bun and edge runtimes, the native crypto will transparently be used thanks to a more modern packaging, which generally gives a speed boost.

npm:md5 is the most popular library (still 2x-5x slower than this one) and also much bigger.

hash-wasm is asynchronous and uses WebAssembly which defeats a bit the performance for small strings. Working with edge, cloudflare workers, bun and runtime/edge is not always easy to set up.

Benchmarks

NodeJs

 RUN  v4.0.18 /home/sebastien/github/httpx/packages/md5


 ✓ bench/compare-md5-unicode.bench.ts > @httpx/md5 compared 6536ms
     name                                             hz      min      max     mean      p75      p99     p995     p999      rme  samples
   · httpx/md5     - 690 chars x 10000 - nodejs  13.9609  61.0814   108.85  71.6287  72.4407   108.85   108.85   108.85  ±21.77%        7
   · httpx/md5     - 690 chars x 10000 - purejs   3.4657   286.75   290.33   288.54   290.33   290.33   290.33   290.33   ±7.90%        2
   · npm:md5       - 690 chars x 10000            1.8376   544.20   544.20   544.20   544.20   544.20   544.20   544.20   ±0.00%        1
   · npm:spark-md5 - 690 chars x 10000            4.6467   194.97   228.99   215.21   228.99   228.99   228.99   228.99  ±20.67%        3
   · npm:hash-wasm - 690 chars x 10000           13.9578  59.0143  95.9703  71.6447  89.4958  95.9703  95.9703  95.9703  ±19.26%        7

 ✓ bench/compare-md5-ascii.bench.ts > @httpx/md5 compared 5264ms
     name                                                   hz      min      max     mean      p75      p99     p995     p999      rme  samples
   · httpx/md5     - 690 ascii chars x 10000 - nodejs  22.7386  32.0795  93.1540  43.9781  43.5266  93.1540  93.1540  93.1540  ±21.07%       13
   · httpx/md5     - 690 ascii chars x 10000 - purejs  11.4324  68.9253   119.06  87.4708   105.11   119.06   119.06   119.06  ±24.10%        6
   · npm:md5       - 690 ascii chars x 10000            2.4663   384.96   425.99   405.47   425.99   425.99   425.99   425.99  ±64.31%        2
   · npm:spark-md5 - 690 ascii chars x 10000           13.2383  70.0139  81.0351  75.5386  78.3253  81.0351  81.0351  81.0351   ±4.71%        7
   · npm:hash-wasm - 690 ascii chars x 10000           24.2918  36.8053  47.8226  41.1661  41.3947  47.8226  47.8226  47.8226   ±5.53%       13

 BENCH  Summary

  npm:hash-wasm - 690 ascii chars x 10000 - bench/compare-md5-ascii.bench.ts > @httpx/md5 compared
    1.07x faster than httpx/md5     - 690 ascii chars x 10000 - nodejs
    1.83x faster than npm:spark-md5 - 690 ascii chars x 10000
    2.12x faster than httpx/md5     - 690 ascii chars x 10000 - purejs
    9.85x faster than npm:md5       - 690 ascii chars x 10000

  httpx/md5     - 690 chars x 10000 - nodejs - bench/compare-md5-unicode.bench.ts > @httpx/md5 compared
    1.00x faster than npm:hash-wasm - 690 chars x 10000
    3.00x faster than npm:spark-md5 - 690 chars x 10000
    4.03x faster than httpx/md5     - 690 chars x 10000 - purejs
    7.60x faster than npm:md5       - 690 chars x 10000

Bun

 RUN  v4.0.18 /home/sebastien/github/httpx/packages/md5


 ✓ bench/compare-md5-unicode.bench.ts > @httpx/md5 compared 7523ms
     name                                             hz      min      max     mean      p75      p99     p995     p999      rme  samples
   · httpx/md5     - 690 chars x 10000 - bun     22.6683  32.8214  72.7840  44.1144  47.0905  72.7840  72.7840  72.7840  ±18.98%       12
   · httpx/md5     - 690 chars x 10000 - purejs   1.2949   772.27   772.27   772.27   772.27   772.27   772.27   772.27   ±0.00%        1
   · npm:md5       - 690 chars x 10000            3.2587   305.90   307.84   306.87   307.84   307.84   307.84   307.84   ±4.02%        2
   · npm:spark-md5 - 690 chars x 10000            3.2897   300.34   307.61   303.97   307.61   307.61   307.61   307.61  ±15.20%        2
   ↓ npm:hash-wasm - 690 chars x 10000 [skipped]

 ✓ bench/compare-md5-ascii.bench.ts > @httpx/md5 compared 4513ms
     name                                                   hz      min      max     mean      p75      p99     p995     p999      rme  samples
   · httpx/md5     - 690 ascii chars x 10000 - bun     34.9181  23.5001  46.0412  28.6385  31.0043  46.0412  46.0412  46.0412  ±10.91%       18
   · httpx/md5     - 690 ascii chars x 10000 - purejs  12.1064  74.5882  92.9629  82.6011  84.5637  92.9629  92.9629  92.9629   ±6.28%        7
   · npm:md5       - 690 ascii chars x 10000            4.4479   220.70   233.06   224.83   233.06   233.06   233.06   233.06   ±7.88%        3
   · npm:spark-md5 - 690 ascii chars x 10000            6.5922   145.00   155.93   151.69   154.83   155.93   155.93   155.93   ±5.17%        4
   ↓ npm:hash-wasm - 690 ascii chars x 10000 [skipped]

 BENCH  Summary

  httpx/md5     - 690 ascii chars x 10000 - bun - bench/compare-md5-ascii.bench.ts > @httpx/md5 compared
    2.88x faster than httpx/md5     - 690 ascii chars x 10000 - purejs
    5.30x faster than npm:spark-md5 - 690 ascii chars x 10000
    7.85x faster than npm:md5       - 690 ascii chars x 10000

  httpx/md5     - 690 chars x 10000 - bun - bench/compare-md5-unicode.bench.ts > @httpx/md5 compared
    6.89x faster than npm:spark-md5 - 690 chars x 10000
    6.96x faster than npm:md5       - 690 chars x 10000
    17.51x faster than httpx/md5     - 690 chars x 10000 - purejs

Bundle size

Bundle size is tracked by a size-limit configuration

| Scenario (esm) | Size (brotli) | | --------------------------------- | ------------: | | import { md5 } from '@httpx/md5 | ~ 1200B |

Compatibility

| Level | CI | Description | | ------------ | --- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | Node | ✅ | CI for 20.x, 22.x, 24.x & 25.x. | | Browser | ✅ | Tested with latest chrome (vitest/playwright) | | Browserslist | ✅ | defaults, > 0.26%, last 2 versions, Firefox ESR, not dead | | Bun | ✅ | Tested with latest (at time of writing >= 1.3.3) | | Edge | ✅ | Ensured on CI with @vercel/edge-runtime. | | Cloudflare | ✅ | Ensured with @cloudflare/vitest-pool-workers (see wrangler.toml | | Typescript | ✅ | TS 5.0 + / are-the-type-wrong checks on CI. | | ES2022 | ✅ | Dist files checked with es-check | | Performance | ✅ | Monitored with codspeed.io |

Credits

• The spark-md5 on which most functions have been ported from.
• Joseph Myers for the underlying approach.

Contributors

Contributions are welcome. Have a look to the CONTRIBUTING document.

Sponsors

Sponsorship or a coffee highly appreciated.

Special thanks to

License

MIT © Sébastien Vanvelthem and contributors.