Choosing Between HTTP/REST and gRPC: Which Protocol Suits Your Project Best?

In the rapidly evolving landscape of modern web applications and microservices architecture, selecting the most suitable protocol for seamless data exchange between various components of a system has become a critical decision. In this comprehensive article, we'll dive deep into two of the most popular protocols: HTTP/REST and gRPC. Moreover, we'll provide concrete implementations for CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations on a User entity, illustrating the practical aspects of each protocol.

HTTP/REST: Familiarity and Universality

HTTP/REST (Representational State Transfer) has remained the cornerstone of data exchange in web applications for years. Its key advantages encompass user-friendliness, ease of comprehension, and widespread adoption. RESTful APIs make judicious use of standard HTTP methods such as GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE to interact with resources, offering a versatile and highly scalable way to facilitate communication between clients and servers.

Imagine a User service that leverages RESTful endpoints for the complete spectrum of CRUD operations on user data. This straightforward approach aligns seamlessly with the well-established HTTP verbs, ensuring that developers can readily grasp the API's functionality. Thus, when simplicity and broad compatibility are paramount, HTTP/REST emerges as the optimal choice.

gRPC: Efficiency and Performance

Conversely, gRPC emerges as a contemporary protocol that relies on Protocol Buffers, ensuring unparalleled efficiency and performance in data interchange. By employing a binary data format, gRPC significantly reduces the size of transmitted data, consequently expediting the interaction process between clients and servers. The protocol's asynchronous nature and robust support for streams make it an ideal candidate for constructing responsive and distributed systems.

For the identical User service scenario, gRPC introduces a more streamlined approach. It mandates the definition of service methods and message types within a .proto file. This design choice facilitates binary serialization and the efficient transportation of data, rendering gRPC particularly advantageous for systems demanding exceptional performance and minimal latency.

Concrete Implementations: Putting Theory into Practice

Let's delve into practical implementations for CRUD operations on the User entity using both protocols:

HTTP/REST:

gRPC:

Context-Dependent Choice

It is important to note that the HTTP/REST (json) interaction is native to the frontend, meaning there is no other choice for client-server interaction.

Therefore, let's focus on backend interactions. The choice of protocol depends on the specific context and requirements of your project. If the main criteria are universality and ease of use, HTTP/REST becomes an excellent candidate.

However, in scenarios where maximum performance is of paramount importance and the goal is to create highly efficient distributed systems, gRPC provides a more suitable solution.

It's also worth emphasizing that HTTP/REST is an API built around resources and CRUD operations on them (HTTP verbs), whereas gRPC is a format built around methods:

• rpc CreateOrUpdateUser(User)

– Combines Creation (POST /api/users) and Update (PATCH /api/users/{userId})

since these operations essentially achieve the same outcome.

• rpc ReadUsers(UserIds)

– Retrieves all users (GET /api/users/) or based on a list of userIds (GET /api/users/{userId}).

? rpc DeleteUser(Int32Value) and rpc BlockUser(Int32Value) correspond to their descriptions in the REST API.

In other words, if we opt for gRPC, we are essentially transferring the method names into our API and performing a Remote Procedure Call when these methods are invoked.

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