What the study found
The study found that gRPC was the fastest option for large-scale read operations, while GraphQL and Thrift were faster when operations moved small amounts of data.
Why the authors say this matters
The authors present this comparison as a performance study of web programming interfaces and suggest that the findings can help distinguish how GraphQL, gRPC, and Thrift behave under different data sizes.
What the researchers tested
The researchers built three applications, each using one of the three technologies: GraphQL, gRPC, and Thrift. They tested the applications with JMeter, a tool for load testing, and measured execution time and the amount of data returned during operations on a relational database.
What worked and what didn't
gRPC showed the shortest execution time for large-scale read operations. GraphQL and Thrift performed faster for operations that transported small volumes of data.
What to keep in mind
The abstract does not describe additional limitations, beyond the comparison being based on three developed applications, JMeter testing, and relational-database operations.
Key points
- The study compared GraphQL, gRPC, and Thrift.
- gRPC was fastest for large-scale read operations.
- GraphQL and Thrift were faster for operations with small data volumes.
- The applications were tested with JMeter.
- Execution time and returned data volume were measured on a relational database.
Disclosure
- Research title:
- gRPC was fastest for large read operations in comparison test
- Authors:
- Piotr Rożek, Mariusz Dzieńkowski
- Institutions:
- Lublin University of Technology, Lublin University of Technology
- Publication date:
- 2026-03-30
- OpenAlex record:
- View
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