Avro
Hacker ApprovedRanked 8 of 9 serialization formats by recommenders
Recommended as a compact, schema-based alternative to XML and JSON for RPC and stored data. Critics note data needs a copy step before use and enforcement needs extra tooling.
Recommended as a compact, schema-based alternative to XML and JSON for RPC and stored data. Critics note data needs a copy step before use and enforcement needs extra tooling.
12 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 83%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Schema-based alternative to XML and JSON
“the better tech isn't usually XML but rather things like Avro or Protobuf”
Comment from 6 Nov 2025 in “Removing XSLT for a more secure browser” “Think JSON with JSON-schema, or Protobuf, or Apache Avro or many others”
Comment from 1 Nov 2025 on Hacker News Compact RPC and wire format
“gRPC and Avro will give you RPC with 5% of the wire bloat that XML does.”
Comment from 24 Jan 2026 in “The Lost Art of XML” “many RPCs like zeromsg/nng, gRPC, Avro, Thrift, etc work just fine”
Comment from 16 Nov 2025 in “TCP, the workhorse of the internet” Suggested for schema-tagged payloads
“Wouldn't Avro or Parquet be solid choices for something like this”
Comment from 31 Aug 2026 in “Agent memory as a file format” “tag each payload with a schema id (see Avro)”
Comment from 8 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Skir – A schema language I built after 15 years of Protobuf friction” Recommended as a starting point
“As another user suggested, Avro is something to look into.”
Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “Why I stopped using JSON for my APIs” “You could have a look at Avro”
Comment from 1 Dec 2025 in “Why I stopped using JSON for my APIs”
Other serialization formats people recommend
The four most recommended other serialization formats, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Protocol Buffers (protobuf) | 77 | 66 | 54% | 10 | 10 yrs3 owners | — |
| Serde | 22 | 16 | 58% | 10 | — | — |
| Cap'n Proto | 20 | 5 | 80% | 7 | — | Approved |
| Protobuf | 19 | 25 | 43% | 8 | — | — |
| AvroThis page | 10 | 2 | 83% | 5 | — | Approved |
What people said
11 of the 12 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Wouldn't Avro or Parquet be solid choices for something like this”
“tag each payload with a schema id (see Avro)”
“gRPC and Avro will give you RPC with 5% of the wire bloat that XML does.”
“needs a copy/deserialization step before it can be used in application logic”
“which was painful with Avro without tooling for enforcement”
“eg with avro its quite nice”
“As another user suggested, Avro is something to look into.”
“You could have a look at Avro”
“many RPCs like zeromsg/nng, gRPC, Avro, Thrift, etc work just fine”
“the better tech isn't usually XML but rather things like Avro or Protobuf”
“Think JSON with JSON-schema, or Protobuf, or Apache Avro or many others”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.