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Just-In-Time (JIT) vs. Ahead-of-Time (AOT) Compilation in .NET 9

October 18, 2024 Dipankar Haldar 27 people viewed this post

JIT vs. AOT Compilation in .NET 9

.NET applications can be compiled using Just-In-Time (JIT) compilation or Ahead-Of-Time (AOT) compilation. Each approach has its own strengths and trade-offs.


JIT Compilation in .NET

🔹 Just-In-Time (JIT) compilation compiles Intermediate Language (IL) to native code at runtime.
🔹 Optimizes for the executing CPU, but introduces initial startup overhead.


AOT Compilation in .NET

Starting from .NET 7, Native AOT compiles applications directly to native machine code before execution.
✅ Eliminates JIT overhead, leading to faster startup times and smaller memory footprints.


Performance Comparison

🔥 Feature ⚙️ JIT (Default) ⚡ AOT (Native)
🚀 Startup Time Slow (JIT Overhead) Fast (No JIT)
⚡ Execution Speed Optimized at runtime Static optimizations
📉 Memory Usage Higher (JIT metadata) Lower (No JIT data)
🌎 Portability CPU-Specific Precompiled per architecture

When to Use AOT?

Microservices & Cloud-Native Apps – Fast startup is crucial.
Lightweight CLI Tools – No JIT dependencies.
Constrained Devices – Lower memory consumption.

💡 Conclusion:
JIT is great for dynamic optimizations, while AOT is perfect for fast startup and low memory usage. Choose based on your performance needs!