Sockets vs gRPC

Developers should learn sockets when building networked applications that require real-time data transfer, such as chat systems, multiplayer games, or IoT device communication, as they provide low-level control over network interactions 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.

Sockets

Nice Pick

Developers should learn sockets when building networked applications that require real-time data transfer, such as chat systems, multiplayer games, or IoT device communication, as they provide low-level control over network interactions

Pros

• They are essential for implementing custom protocols or when high performance and flexibility are needed beyond what higher-level libraries offer
• Related to: tcp-ip, network-programming

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

The Bottom Line

Sockets wins

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