Performance Analysis of Leading Homomorphic Encryption Libraries: A Benchmark Study of SEAL, HElib, OpenFHE, and Lattigo

The rapid growth of digital technology has increased concerns about data security and has led to the development of encryption techniques. Homomorphic Encryption (HE) enables computations on encrypted data without decryption and preserves privacy. This study benchmarks SEAL, HElib, OpenFHE, and Lattigo, four popular HE libraries selected for their GitHub stars and active maintenance. The performance of these libraries is compared across BGV, BFV, and CKKS schemes. Results show HElib excels in addition and subtraction in the BGV scheme (0.021 ms), while SEAL is 200% faster overall (0.04 ms) per operation. OpenFHE performs well in BFV (0.055 ms), and SEAL is fastest in CKKS (0.031 ms) per operation. Lattigo is slower but competitive in BGV (0.059 ms). SEAL also demonstrates the lowest memory usage at approximately 15 MB. Finally, the findings provide insights into selecting the most suitable HE library based on specific application needs.