What Are the Differences Between API Access and Direct Database Connection?

You can compare the two connection methods from the perspectives of security and performance.

Security

**Table 1** Security comparison
Dimension	API Access	Direct Database Access
Communication encryption	HTTPS and TLS encryption are provided.	SSL must be manually configured.
Identity authentication	AK/SK or token authentication is supported, which is more flexible.	Database account password authorization is used. The permission granularity is coarse (for example, schema or table level).
Access control	The IP address, frequency, and blacklist can be restricted at the API gateway layer.	Whitelist is used for managing database networks (such as VPCs and security groups).
SQL injection prevention	Parameter-based APIs can naturally prevent SQL injection.	Code is used to prevent SQL injection.
Audit and logging	API calling logs (request sources and parameters) are recorded in a centralized manner.	There are database logs (SQL statements and source IP addresses).

API access is more secure especially when your database is exposed to external systems. Direct connection to your database requires additional security configurations.

Performance

**Table 2** Performance comparison
Dimension	API Access	Direct Database Access
Network overhead	Additional HTTP protocol headers are required, and the serialization and deserialization costs are high.	Efficient binary protocols (such as libpq) are used.
Latency	Higher delay (To access a database, the API gateway and application server need to be accessed first).	Lower latency (direct communication with a database)
Throughput	The throughput is limited by the API server performance.	The high-performance database engine is directly used to deploy high throughput.
Long connection reuse	Short connections are usually used, because connections need to be frequently established.	Using connection pools helps to alleviate connection management overhead.
Complex queries	Complex SQL statements cannot be directly transmitted.	Native SQL is supported, and the optimizer can maximize the database performance.

Direct database connection is more efficient, especially in complex query or high-throughput scenarios. API access is suitable for lightweight, high-frequency simple requests.

Scenarios

The two methods are suitable for different scenarios.

Direct database connection is better for operations on a large amount of data. The security is not high. You need to provide the database name, account, and password.
API access is an ideal choice for low-frequency access and fixed operations. It features high security, requires a service layer, and supports field control.

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