Benchmark Results

Performance comparison of Flutter contact libraries across iOS and Android, tested with ~2,000 contacts on real devices.

The Bottom Line

Metric	V2 vs V1 (iOS)	V2 vs V1 (Android)
Read Speed	1.6–7x faster	2–5x faster
Bulk Create	4x faster	5x faster
Bulk Delete	34x faster	140x faster

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Speed Comparison

iOS Performance (2,000 contacts)

                       Minimal fetch: ID + display name
                       ◀───── faster         slower ─────▶

flutter_contacts v2    █████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░  117 ms
fast_contacts          ██████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░  127 ms
contacts_service_plus  ████████████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░  462 ms
flutter_contacts v1    ███████████████████████████████████  803 ms

Android Performance (2,000 contacts)

                       Minimal fetch: ID + display name
                       ◀───── faster         slower ─────▶

fast_contacts          ██████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░  304 ms
flutter_contacts v2    ██████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░  424 ms
contacts_service_plus  ██████████████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░  668 ms
flutter_contacts v1    ███████████████████████████████████ 1075 ms

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V1 → V2 Upgrade: Speed Gains by Test Case

The new architecture in V2 delivers consistent performance improvements across all use cases:

iOS Speedup

Test Case	V1	V2	Speedup
Minimal (ID + display name)	803 ms	117 ms	6.9x
Phones only	1,181 ms	188 ms	6.3x
Basic info (name, phone, email, org)	1,178 ms	298 ms	4.0x
With thumbnail	1,218 ms	168 ms	7.3x
All info + thumbnail	1,207 ms	750 ms	1.6x
All info + full-res photo	1,218 ms	781 ms	1.6x

Android Speedup

Test Case	V1	V2	Speedup
Minimal (ID + display name)	1,075 ms	424 ms	2.5x
Phones only	2,833 ms	556 ms	5.1x
Basic info (name, phone, email, org)	2,823 ms	731 ms	3.9x
With thumbnail	2,916 ms	554 ms	5.3x
All info + thumbnail	3,051 ms	987 ms	3.1x
All info + full-res photo	4,381 ms	1,864 ms	2.4x

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Bulk Operations

Creating and deleting 100 contacts:

iOS

                       Create 100 contacts (ms)            Delete 100 contacts (ms)
                       ◀── faster     slower ──▶           ◀── faster     slower ──▶

flutter_contacts v2    ██████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░   340     █░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░   101
contacts_service_plus  █████████████████████████  1435     ██████████████████████░░░  3090
flutter_contacts v1    █████████████████████████  1438     █████████████████████████  3454

Android

                       Create 100 contacts (ms)            Delete 100 contacts (ms)
                       ◀── faster     slower ──▶           ◀── faster     slower ──▶

flutter_contacts v2    █████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░   548     █░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░    37
flutter_contacts v1    █████████████████████████  2572     █████████████████████████  5162

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Feature Comparison

Not all contact libraries are created equal. Here's what each one offers:

Feature	V2	V1	fast_contacts	contacts_service_plus
Read contacts	✅	✅	✅	✅
Create/Update/Delete	✅	✅	❌	✅
Bulk operations	✅	✅	❌	✅
Selective field loading	✅	❌	❌	❌
Thumbnail photos	✅	✅	❌	✅
Full-res photos	✅	✅	❌	✅
Contact groups	✅	✅	❌	❌
Accounts	✅	✅	❌	❌
Change notifications	✅	✅	❌	❌
vCard import/export	✅	✅	❌	❌
Sorted results	✅	✅	❌	✅
Contact filtering	✅	✅	❌	❌
SIM contacts	✅	❌	❌	❌
Blocked numbers	✅	❌	❌	❌
Profile (owner)	✅	❌	❌	❌
Ringtones	✅	❌	❌	❌
iOS & Android	✅	✅	✅	✅
macOS	✅	❌	❌	❌

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Choosing a Library

V2 is the recommended choice for most apps — it's fast, feature-complete, and actively maintained.

fast_contacts is a lightweight read-only alternative. Use it only if you need nothing beyond displaying names and phone numbers (no photos, no sorting, no write operations).

contacts_service_plus is a fork of the abandoned contacts_service. V2 is faster (21% on iOS, 59% on Android), has more features, and is actively maintained.

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Benchmark Methodology

Test Environment

• iOS: iPhone 7, ~2,000 contacts
• Android: Pixel 6, ~2,000 contacts
• Runs: 5 iterations per test case, results averaged

Libraries Tested

• flutter_contacts v2.x (latest)
• flutter_contacts v1.1.9+2 (previous major version)
• fast_contacts v3.1.3
• contacts_service_plus v1.0.6

Test Cases

1. Minimal — ID and display name only
2. Phones — ID, display name, phone numbers
3. Basic Info — Name, phone, email, organization
4. Thumbnail — Minimal + thumbnail photo
5. Basic + Thumbnail — Basic info + thumbnail
6. Basic + Full-Res — Basic info + full resolution photo
7. All + Thumbnail — All properties + thumbnail
8. All + Full-Res — All properties + full resolution photo
9. Bulk CRUD — Create and delete 100 contacts

Raw Data

For detailed analysis, see:

• results/analysis_ios.ipynb — Full iOS benchmark analysis
• results/analysis_android.ipynb — Full Android benchmark analysis
• results/benchmark_ios.csv — Raw iOS data
• results/benchmark_android.csv — Raw Android data

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Summary

V2 is the clear winner for Flutter contact management:

vs V1	vs contacts_service_plus	vs fast_contacts
3x faster reads	Always faster	Comparable speed
5x faster creates	More features	Far more features
100x faster deletes	Active maintenance	Full CRUD support

Upgrade to V2 today for the best performance and the most complete feature set available in any Flutter contacts library.