REST, GraphQL, tRPC, or gRPC?

REST

An architectural style that uses a stateless, client-server, cacheable communications protocol. REST is often used in web services development.

Pros:

• Easy to understand and build

Cons:

• Tightly coupled to the client
• Over-fetching and under-fetching of data

GraphQL

A query language for APIs and a runtime for executing those queries by using a type system you define for your data.

Pros:

• Client can request only the data they need
• Strongly typed schema

Cons:

• Hard to get right, often need a SME on the team

tRPC

A TypeScript-first framework for building scalable, type-safe APIs with TypeScript.

Pros:

• Type-safe APIs if you are using TypeScript in both the client and server
• Thrives in a monorepo setup
• Runs on top of HTTP/2
• Out-of-the-box optimizations and features
• Lightweight compared to GraphQL

Cons:

• Does not fix the over-fetching and under-fetching problem

gRPC

A high-performance, open-source universal RPC framework.

Pros:

• Good for multi-language, inter-service communication
• Runs on top of HTTP/2
• Really fast and optimized
• Supports streaming

Cons:

• Not as mature as REST or GraphQL
• Does not work with JSON, uses Protocol Buffers, a binary serialization format