RESTful APIs vs gRPC

Developers should learn RESTful APIs when building web services, mobile backends, or microservices that require standardized, platform-independent communication over HTTP 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.

RESTful APIs

Nice Pick

Developers should learn RESTful APIs when building web services, mobile backends, or microservices that require standardized, platform-independent communication over HTTP

Pros

• They are essential for creating public-facing APIs, integrating third-party services, or developing single-page applications (SPAs) that interact with servers, as they simplify client-server interactions and improve scalability
• Related to: http-methods, json

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

The Bottom Line

RESTful APIs wins

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