REST and gRPC

REST vs. gRPC

REST (Representational State Transfer) and gRPC are two different approaches to creating APIs for building distributed systems. Here are some key differences between REST and gRPC:

1. Protocol: REST uses HTTP as its underlying protocol, while gRPC uses the Protocol Buffers protocol. HTTP is a text-based protocol that is easy to use and widely supported, while Protocol Buffers is a binary protocol that is designed for efficient serialization and deserialization of structured data.

2. Architecture: REST is an architectural style that emphasizes the use of resources and the HTTP verbs to perform operations on those resources. It is a stateless architecture that can be easily scaled and distributed. On the other hand, gRPC is a modern, high-performance, and open-source RPC (Remote Procedure Call) framework that enables communication between services using a range of programming languages.

3. Payloads: REST typically uses JSON or XML as its payload format, while gRPC uses Protocol Buffers for payload serialization. Protocol Buffers are more efficient than JSON or XML, making gRPC more performant for high-volume, low-latency use cases.

4. APIs: REST APIs are typically designed to be human-readable and easy to use, while gRPC APIs are designed to be machine-readable and optimized for performance.

In summary, REST and gRPC have different design goals and are suitable for different use cases. REST is more suited for building APIs that are easy to use and consume over HTTP, while gRPC is more suited for building high-performance, low-latency APIs that require efficient serialization and deserialization of structured data.