c_vs_cpp.md

C vs. C++: Which Is Better, Faster, ...?

Neither language is better, neither language is faster. There are good reasons for using both languages:

Reasons To Use C

?inline ✅ relatively low-level language ✅ much simpler language (no classes, templates, ...)
✅ portable to a wide variety of systems

Reasons To Use C++

?inline ✅ lots of helpful abstractions (classes, templates, ...)
✅ feature-rich language (function overloads, constexpr, ...)
✅ extensive standard library

Which Is Faster?

Neither language is inherently faster than the other. In modern compilers, the exact same optimizer is used for both languages. Certain high-level C++ features can make it easy to inadvertently write inefficient code (e.g. innocent looking code performing large copies).

One notable difference between the two languages is their standard libraries' string representation: C strings, while simple, are highly inefficient because they are terminated by a null character, therefore needing to walk the whole string to find out its length.

Conclusion

Both languages can be equally fast, choose the right language for your job, and the language you enjoy working in.