use Benchmark qw(:all); use Encode; my $chr = pack "U", 0x20AC; cmpthese(1000000, { 'Encode' => sub{ my $len = length encode_utf8($chr); my $bin = pack("N", $len).encode_utf8($chr); }, 'uBytes' => sub{ use bytes; my $bin = pack("N", length $chr).$chr; }, }); Rate Encode uBytes Encode 204499/s -- -87% uBytes 1524390/s 645% --