The SSL requirement of gRPC isn't necessarily making it easy to integrate. The HTTP/2 protocol requires ALPN support, which is a fairly new handshake protocol only supported by recent implementations.

As a result, we've tried hard to provide a smooth experience to our users when compiling and distributing gRPC, but this may come at performance costs due to this. More specifically, we will sometime build the SSL library by disabling assembly code (by setting the OPENSSL_NO_ASM option), which can impact performance by an order of magnitude when processing encrypted streams.

gRPC C++: Building from Source

Build system	Condition	Platform	Uses assembly optimizations
Makefile	with OpenSSL 1.0.2 development files	all	:heavy_check_mark:
Makefile	all other cases	all	:x:
Bazel		Linux	:heavy_check_mark:
Bazel		MacOS	:heavy_check_mark:
Bazel		Windows	:x:
CMake	boringssl from submodule (default)	Linux or MacOS	:heavy_check_mark:
CMake	boringssl from submodule (default), generator=Ninja	Windows	:heavy_check_mark:
CMake	boringssl from submodule (default), generator=Visual Studio	Windows	:x:
CMake	pre-installed OpenSSL 1.0.2+ (`gRPC_SSL_PROVIDER=package`)	all	:heavy_check_mark:

Other Languages: Binary/Source Packages

In addition, we are shipping packages for language implementations. These packages are source packages, but also have pre-built binaries being distributed. Building packages from source may give a different result in some cases.

Language	From source	Platform	Uses assembly optimizations
C#	n/a	Linux, 64bit	:heavy_check_mark:
C#	n/a	Linux, 32bit	:x:
C#	n/a	MacOS	:heavy_check_mark:
C#	n/a	Windows	:heavy_check_mark:
Node.JS	n/a	Linux	:heavy_check_mark:
Node.JS	n/a	MacOS	:heavy_check_mark:
Node.JS	n/a	Windows	:x:
Electron	n/a	all	:heavy_check_mark:
ObjC	Yes	iOS	:x:
PHP	Yes	all	Same as the `Makefile` case from above
PHP	No	all	:x:
Python	n/a	Linux, 64bit	:heavy_check_mark:
Python	n/a	Linux, 32bit	:x:
Python	n/a	MacOS, 64bit	:heavy_check_mark:
Python	n/a	MacOS, 32bit	:x:
Python	n/a	Windows	:x:
Ruby	No	all	:x: