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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Keywords

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?