Best Format for Realtime Event Streams

JSONL is a practical default for line-delimited streaming events.

Recommended Default

JSONL (Data)

JSONL supports append-friendly pipelines and incremental processing.

Files available: 4

application/octet-stream

Open Samples Open Hub Manifest

Alternatives

NDJSON (Data)

Files: 4

Use NDJSON when your tooling expects strict newline-delimited JSON records.

Samples Hub

JSON (Document)

Files: 4

Use JSON for batched payload exchange rather than stream append paths.

Samples Hub

Related Comparisons

JSON vs JSONL

Pick between document-style JSON and line-delimited JSONL streams.

Open Comparison

Explore Related Pages

Format FAQs

JSON FAQ JSONL FAQ NDJSON FAQ

Comparisons

CSV vs JSON JSON vs JSONL Protocol Buffers vs JSON GraphQL Schema vs JSON Access Log vs JSON Log

Best Format Guides

Best Data Format for APIs Best Log Format for Observability

Use-Case Recommendations

Best Format for API Response Payloads Best Format for Spreadsheet Data Export Best Format for Analytics Event Ingestion Best Format for Server Access Log Pipelines Best Format for SIEM-Friendly Operational Logs

How to Convert

How to Convert ACCESSLOG to JSON How to Convert CSV to JSON How to Convert GRAPHQL to JSON How to Convert JSON to ACCESSLOG How to Convert JSON to CSV How to Convert JSON to GRAPHQL How to Convert JSON to JSONL How to Convert JSON to PROTO