What is gRPC and when should I use it?

Answer

gRPC is a high-performance remote procedure call framework that uses Protocol Buffers for compact binary serialization and HTTP/2 for transport, including multiplexed streams. It supports unary calls plus client, server, and bidirectional streaming, and generates strongly typed client and server stubs from a `.proto` contract. gRPC excels for low-latency, high-throughput service-to-service communication inside a network. It is less suited to direct browser use, where REST or GraphQL over JSON is usually easier, though gRPC-Web bridges some of that gap.