gRPC: 10x Faster Than REST, But Developers Shun It for Needing Protobuf Schemas and HTTP/2—Because JSON's Messy Charm Wins Every Time

gRPC, a high-performance communication framework developed by Google, offers speeds up to 10 times faster than REST, yet its adoption remains limited. The framework utilizes HTTP/2 and Protocol Buffers to achieve efficiency, providing features such as authentication, load balancing, and bidirectional streaming. Despite its advantages, gRPC's popularity is hindered by its requirement for external libraries, limited language support, and dependence on HTTP/2, which may not be universally supported. As of 2026, gRPC supports languages including C#, Java, and Python, but its use can be complex, sacrificing readability for performance. The framework is best suited for internal communication between services, where its features can be fully leveraged. With around 20% of the web still using HTTP/1.1, gRPC's potential is significant, particularly in industries where high-performance communication is crucial. Its efficiency and scalability make it an attractive option for companies seeking to optimize their communication frameworks, despite the need for specialized tooling and expertise.