Melee system: colliders, raycast, or other way?

What is the best way to program a melee system? Using colliders, raycast or determine hit from distance and direction, or other way?

I'm making an RPG with melee system, the main character will have a sword. The sword should be interact with physics based objects and enemies too. In case of enemies, I just want to decrease their health. If it reaches 0, the enemy is dead. Collision system sounds precise for me. But what about performance? I don't think, the maximum number of enemies will be over 8-10 per scene.

What about the other systems' advantages / disadvantages? What should I use?