gRPC vs Rest

Whilst REST and gRPC are somewhat similar, there are some fundamental differences in how they work that you should be aware of.

1. gRPC utilizes HTTP/2 whereas REST utilizes HTTP 1.1
2. gRPC utilizes the protocol buffer data format as opposed to the standard JSON data format that is typically used within REST APIs. This provides us with strong schema and backward compatibility.
3. With gRPC you can utilize HTTP/2 capabilities such as server-side streaming, client-side streaming or even bidirectional-streaming should you wish.

See also

• Protocol buffers
• Why use gRPC?
• Challenges with gRPC
• gRPC Introduction