I built a performance profiling SaaS as a hobby project — inspired by High Performance C++ — and I'd love some feedback from people who actually know profiling

Hi r/cpp,

My name is Sascha Kohler. I'm a hobby programmer — not a professional software engineer — and over the past few months I built something I'm calling **RealBench**: a performance profiling as a service platform for C++, Rust, and Go projects.

# What RealBench does technically

* **C++ core** (`lib/profiler/`): sampling profiler using `perf_event_open` directly — no instrumentation, no code changes. Stack unwinding via `libunwind`, symbol resolution via `libelf` \+ DWARF `debug_info`, C++ demangling via `__cxa_demangle`. Rust gets a separate demangling path. Go uses `--call-graph fp` instead of DWARF because frame-pointer unwinding is what actually works there. Flamegraph SVG generated in C++.
* The C++ library is exposed to Node.js via **N-API bindings** (`node-addon-api`), so the profiling worker runs in Node.js but the heavy lifting stays in C++.
* **Backend**: Hono (TypeScript) + pg-boss job queue (PostgreSQL-native, no Redis) + Cloudflare R2 for flamegraph storage. [Fly.io](http://Fly.io) for hosting. Clerk for secure auth.
* **AI analysis**: Claude takes the hotspot JSON and produces ranked, file-and-line-specific optimization suggestions. Also a reason for counting honest testing users.
* **CI integration**: a GitHub Actions workflow template — upload your binary, get results back

"I remember back those days when using assembly with C. So does this concept of using C++ as the inner workhorse and exposing it to Node.js"

# Where I'm genuinely unsure

That's the main reason for this post.

There are plenty of profiling tools. `perf` is free, Valgrind/Callgrind is free, Tracy is excellent, Orbit exists. I don't know if there's a real market need here. The pitch is "zero setup, CI-native, flamegraph + AI suggestions in one step" — but whether that's enough of an edge over just running `perf` directly, I genuinely can't tell from the inside.

So, guys : I'd love to hear from people who profile C++ code in their day-to-day work. Does the CI integration angle solve a real friction point for you? Is the AI suggestion layer interesting or does it feel like noise? What would actually make you reach for something like this instead of your current toolchain? Or is this just another proof-of-concept, and project number 2456 in my neverending story of proof-of-concepts?

# Try it

* 🌐 **App**: [https://realbench-web.fly.dev](https://realbench-web.fly.dev)
* 💻 **GitHub** (MIT licensed, 'Open core'): [https://github.com/SaschaKohler/realbench](https://github.com/SaschaKohler/realbench)

Completely free during beta. I am living in Austria, so at night I sleep at day I work. When i don't answer immediatly, be patient.

I'll personally respond to everyone who comments. Thanks for reading.

— Sascha

https://redd.it/1swcs94
@r_cpp