The state of SSL stacks

Willy Tarreau and William Lallemand have posted an extensive white
paper examining the landscape of the available SSL implementations.

OpenSSL 3.0 performs significantly worse than alternative SSL
libraries, forcing organizations to provision more hardware just to
maintain existing throughput. This raises important questions about
performance, energy efficiency, and operational costs.

Examining alternatives—BoringSSL, LibreSSL, WolfSSL, and
AWS-LC—reveals a landscape of trade-offs. Each offers different
approaches to API compatibility, performance optimization, and QUIC
support. For developers navigating the modern SSL ecosystem,
understanding these trade-offs is crucial for optimizing
performance, maintaining compatibility, and future-proofing their
infrastructure.