Grpc vs Json Performance Test on .NET Core 2.0

Benchmarked with BenchmarkDotNet library.

Versions

GRPC library version: 1.4.1

ASP.NET Core version: 2.0, Newtonsoft.Json: 10.0.3

Servers

GRPC: Benchmarked against GRPC server.

Json: Benchmarked against ASP.NET Core 2.0 (Kestrel + MVC framework).

Clients

GRPC: .NET Core 2.0 console app.

Json: .NET Core 2.0 console app.

Json request size

Encoding: UTF8

Formatting: not indented

SmallRequest: 26 chars -> 26 bytes

HugeRequest: 4,828 characters -> 4,828 bytes

GRPC Result

BenchmarkDotNet=v0.10.9, OS=Windows 10 Threshold 2 (10.0.10586)
Processor=Intel Core i7-5500U CPU 2.40GHz (Broadwell), ProcessorCount=4
Frequency=2338332 Hz, Resolution=427.6553 ns, Timer=TSC
.NET Core SDK=2.0.0
  [Host]     : .NET Core 2.0.0 (Framework 4.6.00001.0), 64bit RyuJIT
  DefaultJob : .NET Core 2.0.0 (Framework 4.6.00001.0), 64bit RyuJIT

Method	Mean	Error	StdDev
SendSmallRequestToServer	138.7 us	2.349 us	2.082 us
SendHugeRequestToServer	277.9 us	5.124 us	5.483 us

Json Result

BenchmarkDotNet=v0.10.9, OS=Windows 10 Threshold 2 (10.0.10586)
Processor=Intel Core i7-5500U CPU 2.40GHz (Broadwell), ProcessorCount=4
Frequency=2338332 Hz, Resolution=427.6553 ns, Timer=TSC
.NET Core SDK=2.0.0
  [Host]     : .NET Core 2.0.0 (Framework 4.6.00001.0), 64bit RyuJIT
  DefaultJob : .NET Core 2.0.0 (Framework 4.6.00001.0), 64bit RyuJIT

Method	Mean	Error	StdDev	Median
SendSmallRequestToServer	613.5 us	20.30 us	56.26 us	590.5 us
SendHugeRequestToServer	964.1 us	20.12 us	39.71 us	950.1 us

Diagrams

The smaller the better. Y scale is nanosec

The smaller the better. Y scale is nanosec

How to run the tests

Open 2 separate command window and run the servers.

cd "Grpc.Json.PerformanceTest\JsonServer"
dotnet run -c Release

cd "Grpc.Json.PerformanceTest\GrpcServer"
dotnet run -c Release

And then the testrunners:

cd "Grpc.Json.PerformanceTest\JsonClient"
dotnet run -c Release

cd "Grpc.Json.PerformanceTest\GrpcClient"
dotnet run -c Release