A performance comparison of web programming interfaces: GraphQL, gRPC and Thrift

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Published: Mar 30, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.35784/jcsi.8383
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2026

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DOI

https://doi.org/10.35784/jcsi.8383

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)

  • Industry, Innovation, Technology and Infrastructure

Authors

Piotr Rożek

s95548@pollub.edu.pl

Department of Computer Science, Lublin University of Technology, Poland
https://orcid.org/0009-0005-8897-4399
Mariusz Dzieńkowski

m.dzienkowski@pollub.pl

Department of Computer Science, Lublin University of Technology, Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1932-297X

Abstract


This article presents a comparative performance comparison of three technologies commonly used to implement web programming interfaces: GraphQL, gRPC and Thrift. For the purposes of this study, three applications were developed, each utilizing one of the selected technologies. The applications were tested using JMeter. The execution time and data volume returned during operations performed on a relational database were measured. The results showed that gRPC was the fastest choice for the shortest execution time for large-scale read operations, while GraphQL and Thrift were faster for operations transporting small volumes of data.


Keywords:

communication protocols, API, performance testing, JMeter

References

Article Details

Rożek, P., & Dzieńkowski, M. (2026). A performance comparison of web programming interfaces: GraphQL, gRPC and Thrift. Journal of Computer Sciences Institute, 38, 26–31. https://doi.org/10.35784/jcsi.8383