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GRPC VS. REST

The Postman Team
November 20, 2023· 5 mins

An API is a set of rules and protocols that enable different software components
to interact and exchange data. APIs are essential components of all modern
applications, and our daily lives would be drastically different without them.

There are many different architectural styles for building APIs, and each one
has its own benefits, trade-offs, and ideal use cases. Two of these
architectural styles are REST and gRPC. REST defines a set of guidelines for
building applications that rely on simplicity, statelessness, and resource-based
communication. gRPC, on the other hand, is a high-performance Remote Procedure
Call (RPC) framework that utilizes Protocol Buffers and HTTP/2 to enable
efficient communication in distributed systems.

REST is the most popular style for building APIs today, but gRPC has seen a
surge in adoption due to its support for bidirectional streaming, strong data
typing, and language agnostic code generation. But when should you choose one
over the other? We’ll answer that question—and more—in this article.


WHAT IS REST?

REST, which stands for Representational State Transfer, is the most popular
architectural style for building APIs. In a RESTful architecture, resources are
identified by URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers), and operations are performed
on those resources using a standard set of HTTP methods. Resources are
represented in JSON or XML, which is transferred between the client and server
in the HTTP request and response bodies.


WHAT IS GRPC?

gRPC is an open source, high-performance framework that facilitates efficient
communication in distributed systems. gRPC is an implementation of the RPC
(Remote Procedure Call) protocol, which enables services to call functions on
other machines as if they were local software methods.

gRPC was developed by Google in 2015, and it includes several features that
enhance the way remote procedure calls are made. For instance, its use of
Protocol Buffers (Protobuf) supports strongly typed service contracts, data
serialization, and code generation in a variety of programming languages. It
also uses HTTP/2 as its transport protocol, which facilitates bi-directional
streaming and reduces latency.


KEY SIMILARITIES: GRPC VS REST

Before we explain the differences between gRPC and REST, let’s first take a look
at some of their similarities:

 * A client/server architecture: Both gRPC and REST follow the client-server
   architecture, in which clients send requests and servers respond by returning
   data or performing actions.
 * Use of HTTP: gRPC and REST both use HTTP as their underlying transport
   protocol. However, REST uses HTTP/1.1, while gRPC uses HTTP/2.
 * Support for many programming languages: gRPC and REST are both language
   agnostic, which means that clients and servers can be implemented in a
   variety of programming languages.
 * Statelessness: Both gRPC and REST are designed to be stateless, which means
   that every request contains all of the information the server needs to
   process it. The server therefore does not have to retain any session state.


KEY DIFFERENCES: GRPC VS REST

Although gRPC and REST have several foundational similarities, they differ
widely in their architectural design, guiding principles, and implementation
details. Their main differences are:


DATA FORMAT

One of the primary differences between gRPC and REST is the data format each one
uses. REST typically uses plain-text data formats, such as JSON and XML. These
formats are easy to work with and debug, but they are less efficient to
transport and parse. gRPC, on the other hand, uses Protobuf to encode data in a
binary format. Data that is encoded in a binary form is more space-efficient and
faster to serialize and deserialize than text-based formats like JSON or XML,
but it is not human-readable.


DATA VALIDATION

REST and gRPC take different approaches to data validation. With gRPC,
developers define a service and message types with Protobuf. This process
involves specifying the format and constraints of the data, such as its required
fields, supported values, and data types. This definition then serves as the API
contract between the client and server, and every message that is transmitted is
automatically validated against this contract. REST services, in contrast, must
perform an extra validation step on JSON data, which increases processing time.


COMMUNICATION PATTERN

gRPC and REST follow different communication patterns. REST relies on a unary
request/response cycle, in which a client sends a single request and then waits
for a single response from the server. gRPC, in contrast, facilitates unary
communication, as well as server streaming (in which a client sends a request
and the server sends multiple responses), client streaming (in which the client
sends multiple requests and the server returns a single response), and
bidirectional streaming (in which both the client and the server can send
multiple messages to one another). gRPC is able to support these streaming
patterns because it uses HTTP/2 as its transport protocol, which supports
multiplexing.


DESIGN PATTERN

gRPC APIs define callable functions on the server, which the client can then
invoke as if it were calling internal functions. This approach is known as
service-oriented design. REST APIs, in contrast, have a resource-oriented
design, in which clients use a standard set of HTTP methods to access resources
through dedicated API endpoints.


CODE GENERATION

gRPC’s use of Protobuf supports code generation in multiple programming
languages. Developers begin by defining the service, its methods, and data
structures in .proto files, which are then processed by Protobuf’s compiler.
This process involves generating client and server code in various programming
languages. For clients, the generated code typically includes method stubs that
correspond to the RPC methods that are defined in the .proto file. These stubs
handle serializing data, making the gRPC call over the network, and
deserializing the response. For servers, the generated code provides a base
class that developers can implement to define the service’s behavior.

Although REST APIs can be developed in a wide range of programming languages,
REST does not provide native support for code generation.


WHEN TO USE GRPC VS. REST

As discussed, gRPC and REST have several distinguishing features that make them
well-suited for different use cases.

REST is the most commonly used API architecture today. It’s easier to work with
and learn than gRPC, has a robust developer ecosystem, and is compatible with
most programming languages and platforms. REST is therefore the ideal choice if
you need to create a public API, as developers at other organizations will be
able to easily integrate it into their own applications.

gRPC, on the other hand, was designed to support highly efficient,
language-agnostic communication in distributed systems. It is therefore better
suited than REST for microservice-based architectures, in which individual
services may be developed in different programming languages and may face
varying workloads. Additionally, gRPC’s use of Protobuf for binary data
serialization makes it the better choice for applications that demand low
latency and high throughput, while its support for different streaming patterns
make it ideal for real-time chat and video applications.

+36
Tags: gRPC REST Tutorials

The Postman Team

 * 
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 * 

Today, more than 25 million developers use the Postman API Platform. Postman
simplifies each step of the API lifecycle and streamlines collaboration so you
can create better APIs—faster. View all posts by The Postman Team.

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