Comparison between Protocol Buffer & JSON

Sample project to compare Protocol Buffer versus JSON.

• Protocol Buffer
• JSON

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Configure environment variable

To run the project you need to install the GNU Make, protobuffer compiler and go code generator.

• Protobuffer compiler
• Go code generator
  • go install google.golang.org/protobuf/cmd/protoc-gen-go
• GNU Make
  • The way to install will depend on your system environment
• Docker
• Docker Compose
• Redis Client
  • You can install any Redis Client for your system to login and show all saved values

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Commands

• make help

  • Show all make commands

• make compile-protoc-win

  • For that, you need to have $PROTOC name as an environment variable to protoc
  • Generates go code from proto file to Windows

• make compile-protoc-macos

  • Generates go code from proto file to MacOS

• make run-proto

  • Run Protocol Buffer project and insert data on cache

• make run-json

  • Run JSON project and insert data on cache

• make docker-build-up

  • Build and start all containers

• make docker-up

  • Start all containers

• make docker-down

  • Stop all containers

• make docker-ps

  • Show all containers running

• make proto-bench

  • Run all benchmark tests to protocol buffer format

• make json-bench

  • Run all benchmark tests to json format

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Results

Presenting the results of running benchmark tests to compare Marshal and Unmarshal using Protocol Buffer and JSON, as well as Redis memory usage with 10,000 inserted items

Tips:

• Each test ran for 10 seconds
• The first column is the number of iterations run, this is a fairly light process, so it completes quickly, and many iterations can be run
• ns/op column - this is the average time each function call takes to complete

JSON

# Redis
used_memory: 2965888

PROTOCOL BUFFER

Marshal: ≅26% more performative

Unmarshal: ≅85% more performative

# Redis (≅25% less memory used)
used_memory: 2225616