gRPC, a high-performance RPC framework developed by Google, uses Protocol Buffers (protobuf) as its interface definition language. It enables defining services and message types in .proto files, which are simple and language-neutral. gRPC supports multiple programming languages, making it versatile.
Unlike REST, which uses HTTP/1.1 and JSON for data transfer, gRPC employs HTTP/2 and protobuf, resulting in faster, more efficient communication. HTTP/2 allows multiplexing, reducing latency significantly. Protobuf is smaller and quicker than JSON due to binary format and schema-based serialization.
While REST is stateless, enabling scalability, gRPC can maintain the client-server connection, allowing bi-directional streaming. However, this makes load balancing complex in gRPC compared to REST’s simplicity with HTTP-based tools.
In terms of API methods, REST has standard CRUD operations via HTTP verbs, while gRPC offers four kinds: Unary, Server streaming, Client streaming, and Bi-directional streaming. This flexibility gives gRPC an edge over REST in real-time applications.
