Comparing REST and gRPC

REST and gRPC are two powerful approaches to building APIs, each with its unique strengths and suitable use cases. Understanding the differences between them can help you make an informed decision based on your specific requirements. We will compare them across several dimensions including performance, ease of use, compatibility, and streaming support. Figure 8.1 shows typical request and response structures for both REST and gRPC. REST endpoints are easier to test and are generally preferred for public APIs, whereas gRPC APIs are preferred for inter-service communications and have a binary format.

Figure 8.1: REST and gRPC APIs

While both gRPC and REST APIs excel at building efficient communication protocols for services, a key difference lies in their browser compatibility. gRPC, designed for machine-to-machine communication, is not directly supported by web browsers due to limitations in browser APIs. This makes REST APIs the...