Performance and Resource Utilization

Performance characteristics differ significantly between the tools:

#!/bin/bash
# Performance benchmark script

IMAGE_LIST=(
    "alpine:latest"
    "ubuntu:22.04"
    "node:18"
    "python:3.11"
    "nginx:latest"
)

echo "Performance Benchmark: Trivy vs Snyk"
echo "===================================="

for image in "${IMAGE_LIST[@]}"; do
    echo -e "\nScanning $image..."
    
    # Pull image first to exclude download time
    docker pull $image > /dev/null 2>&1
    
    # Benchmark Trivy
    TRIVY_START=$(date +%s.%N)
    trivy image --quiet $image > /dev/null 2>&1
    TRIVY_END=$(date +%s.%N)
    TRIVY_TIME=$(echo "$TRIVY_END - $TRIVY_START" | bc)
    
    # Benchmark Snyk
    SNYK_START=$(date +%s.%N)
    snyk container test $image > /dev/null 2>&1
    SNYK_END=$(date +%s.%N)
    SNYK_TIME=$(echo "$SNYK_END - $SNYK_START" | bc)
    
    echo "  Trivy: ${TRIVY_TIME}s"
    echo "  Snyk: ${SNYK_TIME}s"
    
    # Memory usage comparison
    echo "  Memory usage:"
    /usr/bin/time -v trivy image --quiet $image 2>&1 | grep "Maximum resident" | sed 's/^/    Trivy: /'
    /usr/bin/time -v snyk container test $image 2>&1 | grep "Maximum resident" | sed 's/^/    Snyk: /'
done

Trivy typically scans faster due to its local database and optimized scanning engine. Initial scans with Trivy require downloading the vulnerability database (approximately 200MB), but subsequent scans use the cached database. Snyk's API-based approach means consistent scan times but dependency on network latency.