diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -977,7 +977,7 @@
 checksum = "39cab71617ae0d63f51a36d69f866391735b51691dbda63cf6f96d042b63efeb"
 dependencies = [
  "libc",
- "windows-sys 0.60.2",
+ "windows-sys 0.61.2",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -1535,9 +1535,11 @@
  "serde_urlencoded",
  "sha2",
  "smol_str",
+ "snmalloc-rs",
  "socket2",
  "tempfile",
  "thiserror 2.0.18",
+ "tikv-jemallocator",
  "tokio",
  "tokio-util",
  "tokio-websockets",
@@ -2349,7 +2351,7 @@
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "7957b9740744892f114936ab4a57b3f487491bbeafaf8083688b16841a4240e5"
 dependencies = [
- "windows-sys 0.60.2",
+ "windows-sys 0.61.2",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -3000,7 +3002,7 @@
  "errno",
  "libc",
  "linux-raw-sys",
- "windows-sys 0.60.2",
+ "windows-sys 0.61.2",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -3419,13 +3421,31 @@
 ]
 
 [[package]]
+name = "snmalloc-rs"
+version = "0.3.8"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "eb317153089fdfa4d8a2eec059d40a5a23c3bde43995ea23b19121c3f621e74a"
+dependencies = [
+ "snmalloc-sys",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "snmalloc-sys"
+version = "0.3.8"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "065fea53d32bb77bc36cca466cb191f2e5216ebfd0ed360b1d64889ee6e559ea"
+dependencies = [
+ "cmake",
+]
+
+[[package]]
 name = "socket2"
 version = "0.6.3"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "3a766e1110788c36f4fa1c2b71b387a7815aa65f88ce0229841826633d93723e"
 dependencies = [
  "libc",
- "windows-sys 0.60.2",
+ "windows-sys 0.61.2",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -3560,7 +3580,7 @@
  "getrandom 0.4.2",
  "once_cell",
  "rustix",
- "windows-sys 0.60.2",
+ "windows-sys 0.61.2",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -3570,7 +3590,7 @@
 checksum = "230a1b821ccbd75b185820a1f1ff7b14d21da1e442e22c0863ea5f08771a8874"
 dependencies = [
  "rustix",
- "windows-sys 0.60.2",
+ "windows-sys 0.61.2",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
@@ -3630,6 +3650,26 @@
 checksum = "f60246a4944f24f6e018aa17cdeffb7818b76356965d03b07d6a9886e8962185"
 dependencies = [
  "cfg-if",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "tikv-jemalloc-sys"
+version = "0.6.1+5.3.0-1-ge13ca993e8ccb9ba9847cc330696e02839f328f7"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "cd8aa5b2ab86a2cefa406d889139c162cbb230092f7d1d7cbc1716405d852a3b"
+dependencies = [
+ "cc",
+ "libc",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "tikv-jemallocator"
+version = "0.6.1"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "0359b4327f954e0567e69fb191cf1436617748813819c94b8cd4a431422d053a"
+dependencies = [
+ "libc",
+ "tikv-jemalloc-sys",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -4,7 +4,10 @@
 edition = "2024"
 
 [features]
-default = ["indexer", "indexer_stream"]
+default = ["indexer", "indexer_stream", "alloc-jemalloc"]
+alloc-mimalloc = ["dep:mimalloc"]
+alloc-jemalloc = ["dep:tikv-jemallocator"]
+alloc-snmalloc = ["dep:snmalloc-rs"]
 __persist_sync_all = []
 backlinks = []
 relay = []
@@ -52,7 +55,9 @@
 chrono = { version = "0.4.43", features = ["serde"] }
 humantime = "2.3.0"
 
-mimalloc = { version = "0.1", features = ["v3"] }
+mimalloc = { version = "0.1", features = ["v3"], optional = true }
+tikv-jemallocator = { version = "0.6", optional = true }
+snmalloc-rs = { version = "0.3", optional = true }
 hex = "0.4"
 scc = "3.6.6"
 data-encoding = "2.10.0"
diff --git a/src/main.rs b/src/main.rs
--- a/src/main.rs
+++ b/src/main.rs
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 use futures::FutureExt;
 use hydrant::config::Config;
 use hydrant::control::{ApiBinds, Hydrant};
-use mimalloc::MiMalloc;
 use std::net::{IpAddr, Ipv4Addr, Ipv6Addr, SocketAddr};
 
 const DEFAULT_API_PORT: u16 = 3000;
@@ -59,8 +58,31 @@
         .ok_or_else(|| miette::miette!("HYDRANT_API_BIND is set but contains no addresses"))
 }
 
+#[cfg(feature = "alloc-mimalloc")]
 #[global_allocator]
-static GLOBAL: MiMalloc = MiMalloc;
+static GLOBAL: mimalloc::MiMalloc = mimalloc::MiMalloc;
+
+#[cfg(feature = "alloc-jemalloc")]
+#[global_allocator]
+static GLOBAL: tikv_jemallocator::Jemalloc = tikv_jemallocator::Jemalloc;
+
+// bake the tuned jemalloc runtime config into the binary. the prefixed tikv build reads
+// the `_rjem_malloc_conf` symbol (plain `malloc_conf` silently no-ops). `percpu_arena`
+// pins one arena per cpu, bounding per-arena dirty-page retention — the dominant rss lever
+// here (~2.4x less resident than the default 4*ncpu arenas); `background_thread` purges
+// asynchronously so `dirty_decay_ms:1000`/`muzzy_decay_ms:0` return pages without sync
+// munmap churn. measured 1.72 GiB steady vs 4.14 for mimalloc. both options are linux-only
+// (they no-op or warn elsewhere), so gate to linux; other targets get vanilla jemalloc.
+// overridable at runtime via _RJEM_MALLOC_CONF.
+#[cfg(all(feature = "alloc-jemalloc", target_os = "linux"))]
+#[allow(non_upper_case_globals)]
+#[unsafe(export_name = "_rjem_malloc_conf")]
+pub static _rjem_malloc_conf: Option<&'static core::ffi::CStr> =
+    Some(c"background_thread:true,percpu_arena:percpu,dirty_decay_ms:1000,muzzy_decay_ms:0");
+
+#[cfg(feature = "alloc-snmalloc")]
+#[global_allocator]
+static GLOBAL: snmalloc_rs::SnMalloc = snmalloc_rs::SnMalloc;
 
 #[tokio::main]
 async fn main() -> miette::Result<()> {