gRPC

gRPC is a high-performance RPC framework that commonly uses HTTP/2 + Protocol Buffers.

It’s most often used for service-to-service communication inside a company (microservices).

Where gRPC Is Used

• Internal microservice-to-microservice communication
• Low-latency APIs with strongly typed contracts

Industry Examples (Companies)

• Google: created gRPC and uses it extensively internally
• Uber: widely uses gRPC for internal services

Pros / Cons

Pros:

• Fast (binary protocol + HTTP/2)
• Strong typing and code generation
• Supports streaming (client streaming, server streaming, bi-directional)

Cons:

• Browser support is more complex than plain REST
• Debugging by hand is harder than JSON APIs

Tiny Example (Proto)

syntax = "proto3";

service Users {
  rpc GetUser (GetUserRequest) returns (User);
}

message GetUserRequest {
  int32 id = 1;
}

message User {
  int32 id = 1;
  string name = 2;
}

References

• gRPC