Ask HN: JSON-schema or protobuf?

1 pointssourabh8610y ago2 comments

We have been using JSON for our REST APIs and JSON-schema (json-schema.org) to define the data format. We have java and .net generators to create POJO and POCO classes from JSON-schema. Recently, I got to know about Protocol Buffers from Google and was wondering what are the benefits of it over JSON. A simple Google search did not give any satisfactory answer. Hoping to get some insight from people who have used both, better if moved from one to another.

2 comments

2 comments · 2 top-level

PaulHoule10y ago

The main benefit of protobufs is performance. It definitely is CPU intensive to write and consume JSON documents.

From a software engineering perspective they seem pretty similar to me, particularly in that NEITHER has support for a fixed decimal format which is essential for doing money calculations and getting the right answers.

msoad10y ago

Swagger uses json schema. If you want to get free documentation it makes sense to use json schema and quickly put together a swagger description of your api to get free docs for your api. You will also get a lot of good tooling around your api

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