JSON vs Binary Formats

Discussions criticize JSON's performance and size inefficiency compared to binary serialization formats like Protobuf, Flatbuffers, and MsgPack, recommending alternatives for high-performance use cases while noting JSON's readability advantages.

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e.g CPU JSON ByteString AST JS JSONP wikipedia.org JavaScript github.com json serialization binary protobuf format faster cpu time memory library gzip

Sample Comments

klysm • Jun 14, 2024 • View on HN

In what context is json slower than protobuf?

gbalduzzi • May 27, 2025 • View on HN

JSON is just terrible size-wise, it can't efficiently store binary data

ironfootnz • Oct 11, 2019 • View on HN

Just a typed JSON and with that faster serialization? Not to mention where is the compression comparison?

fidotron • May 6, 2025 • View on HN

You are talking a lot about performance but using JSON everywhere. You would be much better off using protobuf or flatbuffers for this.

peq • Jul 29, 2016 • View on HN

I think the only reason to use json over the binary format is readability, so why care about this?

5e92cb50239222b • Dec 26, 2021 • View on HN

JSON is not a simple format. I don't feel confident enough to recommend anything in particular, but I believe one of the well-designed binary formats would be a much better choice.I'll just leave this here.https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28826600https://seriot.ch/pr

jsheard • Jun 4, 2024 • View on HN

I'd rather see less JSON and more binary serialization in the world, rather than bending over backwards to make JSON faster...

londons_explore • Feb 14, 2020 • View on HN

If speed matters, perhaps you shouldn't be using JSON in the first place...

zzo38computer • May 28, 2024 • View on HN

I think that using JSON is rather inefficient and restrictive compared with using a binary format.

the_duke • Jul 29, 2016 • View on HN

Why would you use JSON in a high performance context anyway?