(up to around 44 bits), random is faster, in my tests.
Up to around 44 bits database is faster. The point is that why do you care about the speed in low bit problems? 2^64 and up is more interesting. My mod is based on bitcrack and yes it is scanning bruteforcing all of the solutions. That might be a littlebit stupid, but stupid solutions can still solve problems with enough hashing power. My fork has a random mode. Run with -r --random.