I replaced JasperReports with JavaScript – and it's 4 faster

Description and use

ReportWright replaced JasperReports, speeding report generation 4–5× and supporting PDF, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and interactive HTML in a JavaScript environment.

Problem

JasperReports, SSRS, and Crystal Reports require JVM/.NET and paid servers, and do not fit a JavaScript stack.

Outcome

ReportWright is 4–5× faster than JasperReports for grouped reports, 2× faster than QuestPDF for single invoices, and streams a million rows in 53 s with flat memory.

Workflow

• Install ReportWright packages via npm
• Define report schema in JSON
• Provide data sources and datasets
• Render report with render()
• Export PDF with exportPdf()
• Write output to file

Evidence

I benchmarked it on GitHub Actions (4 vCPU) against other engines, checking every output file.

Source

0.91 s vs 3.9 s vs 2.7 s for 10,000 rows

Source

A million rows streams in 53 s with flat memory.

Source