Berkeley Sockets vs gRPC

Developers should learn Berkeley Sockets when building networked applications that require low-level control over network communication, such as custom servers, clients, or real-time systems meets developers should learn grpc when building microservices architectures, real-time applications, or systems requiring low-latency, high-throughput communication, such as in cloud-native environments or iot platforms. Here's our take.

Berkeley Sockets

Nice Pick

Developers should learn Berkeley Sockets when building networked applications that require low-level control over network communication, such as custom servers, clients, or real-time systems

Pros

• It is essential for understanding fundamental networking concepts like TCP/IP, UDP, and socket states, and is widely used in embedded systems, game development, and legacy codebases
• Related to: tcp-ip, udp

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

gRPC

Developers should learn gRPC when building microservices architectures, real-time applications, or systems requiring low-latency, high-throughput communication, such as in cloud-native environments or IoT platforms

Pros

• It is particularly useful for polyglot systems where services are written in different languages, as it provides language-agnostic contracts via protobuf
• Related to: protocol-buffers, http-2

Cons

• Specific tradeoffs depend on your use case

The Verdict

These tools serve different purposes. Berkeley Sockets is a concept while gRPC is a framework. We picked Berkeley Sockets based on overall popularity, but your choice depends on what you're building.

The Bottom Line

Berkeley Sockets wins

Based on overall popularity. Berkeley Sockets is more widely used, but gRPC excels in its own space.