HTTP APIs vs gRPC

Developers should learn HTTP APIs because they are fundamental for building interoperable web and mobile applications, enabling integration with third-party services, cloud platforms, and internal 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.

HTTP APIs

Nice Pick

Developers should learn HTTP APIs because they are fundamental for building interoperable web and mobile applications, enabling integration with third-party services, cloud platforms, and internal systems

Pros

• Use cases include creating RESTful or GraphQL APIs for web apps, developing mobile backends, implementing microservices, and automating workflows through API calls
• Related to: rest-api, graphql

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. HTTP APIs is a concept while gRPC is a framework. We picked HTTP APIs based on overall popularity, but your choice depends on what you're building.

The Bottom Line

HTTP APIs wins

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