[jwt] RS256 vs HS256: What's the difference?

There is a difference in performance.

Simply put HS256 is about 1 order of magnitude faster than RS256 for verification but about 2 orders of magnitude faster than RS256 for issuing (signing).

 640,251  91,464.3 ops/s
  86,123  12,303.3 ops/s (RS256 verify)
   7,046   1,006.5 ops/s (RS256 sign)

Don't get hung up on the actual numbers, just think of them with respect of each other.

[Program.cs]

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        foreach (var duration in new[] { 1, 3, 5, 7 })
        {
            var t = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(duration);

            byte[] publicKey, privateKey;

            using (var rsa = new RSACryptoServiceProvider())
            {
                publicKey = rsa.ExportCspBlob(false);
                privateKey = rsa.ExportCspBlob(true);
            }

            byte[] key = new byte[64];

            using (var rng = new RNGCryptoServiceProvider())
            {
                rng.GetBytes(key);
            }

            var s1 = new Stopwatch();
            var n1 = 0;

            using (var hs256 = new HMACSHA256(key))
            {
                while (s1.Elapsed < t)
                {
                    s1.Start();
                    var hash = hs256.ComputeHash(privateKey);
                    s1.Stop();
                    n1++;
                }
            }

            byte[] sign;

            using (var rsa = new RSACryptoServiceProvider())
            {
                rsa.ImportCspBlob(privateKey);

                sign = rsa.SignData(privateKey, "SHA256");
            }

            var s2 = new Stopwatch();
            var n2 = 0;

            using (var rsa = new RSACryptoServiceProvider())
            {
                rsa.ImportCspBlob(publicKey);

                while (s2.Elapsed < t)
                {
                    s2.Start();
                    var success = rsa.VerifyData(privateKey, "SHA256", sign);
                    s2.Stop();
                    n2++;
                }
            }

            var s3 = new Stopwatch();
            var n3 = 0;

            using (var rsa = new RSACryptoServiceProvider())
            {
                rsa.ImportCspBlob(privateKey);

                while (s3.Elapsed < t)
                {
                    s3.Start();
                    rsa.SignData(privateKey, "SHA256");
                    s3.Stop();
                    n3++;
                }
            }

            Console.WriteLine($"{s1.Elapsed.TotalSeconds:0} {n1,7:N0} {n1 / s1.Elapsed.TotalSeconds,9:N1} ops/s");
            Console.WriteLine($"{s2.Elapsed.TotalSeconds:0} {n2,7:N0} {n2 / s2.Elapsed.TotalSeconds,9:N1} ops/s");
            Console.WriteLine($"{s3.Elapsed.TotalSeconds:0} {n3,7:N0} {n3 / s3.Elapsed.TotalSeconds,9:N1} ops/s");

            Console.WriteLine($"RS256 is {(n1 / s1.Elapsed.TotalSeconds) / (n2 / s2.Elapsed.TotalSeconds),9:N1}x slower (verify)");
            Console.WriteLine($"RS256 is {(n1 / s1.Elapsed.TotalSeconds) / (n3 / s3.Elapsed.TotalSeconds),9:N1}x slower (issue)");

            // RS256 is about 7.5x slower, but it can still do over 10K ops per sec.
        }
    }
}