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Tell me more: Which gRPC implementation is best for .NET/C# development?

gRPC supports several development languages and platforms. There are two gRPC implementations that integrate with .NET/C# development languages and communicate with the gRPC wire protocol. They are commonly referred to by their NuGet package names: Grpc.Core and grpc-dotnet.

gRPC implementations chart

 

  • Grpc.Core
    • This is the original gRPC C# implementation released in 2016.
    • It is based on the C core native library (there was no usable C# HTTP/2 library in 2016).
    • Supported platforms are:
      • .NET Core on Linux, Windows and Mac OS X.
      • .NET Framework 4.5+ (Windows).
      • Mono 4+ on Linux, Windows and Mac OS X.
    • This implementation should not be used for new development projects. gRPC announced in May 2021 their intention to phase out this implementation.
  • grpc-dotnet
    • This implementation is the recommended gRPC implementation for .NET/C#.
    • It was released in September 2019 and uses the HTTP/2 protocol implementation added in .NET Core 3 and ASP.NET Core 3. It is not based on the gRPC C core native library.
    • There are two NuGet packages, depending if the application is calling gRPC services (i.e. the gRPC client) or the application is hosting the gRPC services (i.e. the gRPC Server):
      • Grpc.Net.Client package
        • Supports gRPC calls over HTTP/2 on .NET Core 3 and .NET 5 or later.
        • .NET Framework has limited support for gRPC over HTTP/2. It is possible using the WinHttpHandler component, which is only available in newer version of .NET Framework.
      • Grpc.AspNetCore package
        • gRPC services are hosted within the ASP.NET Core framework (requiring .NET Core 3.x or later).
        • All built-in ASP.NET Core servers are supported. (i.e. Kestrel, TestServer, IIS, HTTP.sys). There is some support for Azure services.
        • gRPC on ASP.NET Core integrates with standard ASP.NET Core features like logging, dependency injection (DI), authentication, and authorization.

gRPC uses the HTTP/2 protocol. There can be situations where HTTP/2 is not supported, either by the application or the network infrastructure. There is a gRPC-Web NuGet package that can be used by browser applications and in networks without complete support for HTTP/2. gRPC-Web incorporates a modified gRPC protocol and wire-format that is compatible with HTTP/1.1. As a result, gRPC-Web does not support gRPC features client streaming and bidirectional streaming (because HTTP/1.1 only supports one-way communications). The initial support is with JavaScript, and there are plans to support language-specific web frameworks.

In May 2021, gRPC announced grpc-dotnet is the recommended gRPC implementation for .NET/C#.

  • Core has entered maintenance mode. No new features or enhancements will be added. Important bug and security issues will continue to be addressed.
  • As of May 2023 (previously May 2022), Grpc.Core will no longer officially be supported. Core NuGet packages will remain available, but no more fixes will be provided (including security fixes).
  • Migrating from Grpc.Core to grpc-dotnet should be minimal since both implementations share the same API for invoking and handling RPCs. The way gRPC channels and servers are configured are different.

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