EasyP API Service vs Buf BSR

This page compares remote code generation: running protobuf plugins on a server instead of on every developer machine. The Buf Schema Registry (BSR) is a broader product — a schema registry with remote plugins, generated SDKs and more. For the dependency-management side (modules versus Git), see EasyP vs Buf.

In one paragraph

The BSR is a hosted product: remote plugins work the moment you run buf generate, plugins run in Buf's sandbox, and generated code can be consumed as ordinary packages from npm, Go, Maven, PyPI and others. It is the better choice unless you need to run generation inside your own network without an Enterprise contract. The EasyP API Service is software you operate yourself: free Community tier, source available, your .proto files never leave your infrastructure — and in exchange you run PostgreSQL, storage and monitoring, and accept that plugins are not sandboxed.

Summary table

Where the BSR is stronger

• Nothing to operate. Remote plugins on buf.build need no server, database, storage, certificates, alerts or upgrades. With EasyP all of that is your work, and the quality of the service is the quality of your operations.
• Plugins run in a sandbox. Buf states that remote plugins run under the sandbox's filesystem and network constraints ². The EasyP service runs plugins as ordinary processes; isolating the host is left to you (see Security). For a registry shared by teams that do not fully trust each other, this is a significant difference.
• Generated SDKs. Consumers can go get, npm install or pip install generated code for a schema without running any generator ⁵. EasyP has no equivalent.
• One product for schemas and generation. Modules, dependencies, documentation, Studio (a browser client for live APIs), the Reflection API and push-time policy checks (Enterprise) live alongside remote plugins ¹¹. EasyP's generation service knows nothing about schemas.
• Identity and access. Organisations with Member/Writer/Admin/Owner roles, per-resource roles, bot users, SSO and SCIM on private instances ⁷. EasyP has static tokens, and any write token can change any plugin.
• Client authentication works end to end. buf registry login or BUF_TOKEN authenticates buf generate ¹². The easyp CLI cannot send a token or a client certificate, so a private EasyP service must rely on network-level access control.
• Catalogue maintenance. bufbuild/plugins is updated continuously (commits on 22 September 2026 at the time of writing) ³ and every published version is ready to use. EasyP's catalogue is a set of recipes: each deployment builds and registers the versions it wants.
• Availability and scale. A SaaS with published uptime SLAs on paid plans ⁹. The EasyP service runs as one replica per cache and scales vertically only.
• Semantics of "latest". An unpinned BSR plugin resolves to the latest version ². EasyP's latest is the version that sorts last as a string (v1.36.9 before v1.36.10) — pin versions.

Where the EasyP API Service is stronger

• Self-hosting without a sales contract. The Community tier is free, needs no licence key and has no per-type billing. Self-hosting the BSR is an Enterprise offering ⁹.
• Source is available. You can read, audit and patch the service; the client API and Go SDK are Apache-2.0.
• Data stays in your network by default. Generation requests go only to your service. With the public BSR they go to Buf's service; the BSR keeps them in your network only on an on-prem deployment ¹⁰.
• Any plugin, including internal ones, on any tier. Registering your own plugin does not require a paid plan. Plugins that the BSR does not support — those that read files or use the network ⁴ — also run, which is a consequence of having no sandbox rather than a feature to rely on.
• No vendor rate limits. The public BSR limits unauthenticated generation to 10 requests per hour per IP and authenticated to 960 per hour per user, with at most 20 plugins per request ⁶. A self-hosted service has only the limits you configure — and only the capacity you provision.
• Architecture of the host. The service image is published for amd64 and arm64. Buf's custom-plugin executor is linux/amd64 ⁴.
• Operator-facing observability ships with it. Prometheus metrics, an alert rule set and a runbook per alert. The BSR on-prem has its own observability documentation ¹⁰; on SaaS this is Buf's concern, not yours.

Both have an MCP endpoint, with different scope: EasyP's lists plugins (read-only); Buf's exposes the BSR Registry API, including writes ¹¹.

Compatibility

• buf generate with remote: talks to a BSR instance. The EasyP service does not implement the BSR API, so buf cannot use it as a remote.
• easyp generate with remote: speaks EasyP's easyp.generator.v1 API. remote: buf.build/... in easyp.yaml does not reach Buf's remote plugins.
• Both run standard protoc plugins over CodeGeneratorRequest, so the same plugin version produces the same output on either; the plugin names are largely the same (protocolbuffers/go, grpc/go, connectrpc/go, …).

Moving between them is a configuration change on the client, described in Migrating from BSR.

Performance

No benchmark comparing the two has been published by either project, and none is claimed here. What can be said structurally: the EasyP service adds one network round trip per plugin and, on a cache miss, one archive download; latency to the BSR depends on your distance to Buf's service. Measure with your own schemas.

Cost of ownership

The BSR is priced per protobuf type per month ⁹; the public BSR's Community plan is free, and remote plugins and generated SDKs are available on every plan ¹³. The EasyP Community tier is free, and Enterprise is a licence — but the real cost is operating it: a PostgreSQL database, S3-compatible storage, a pod or VM sized for your plugins (the chart defaults to 4 CPU and 4 GiB), monitoring, upgrades and the security isolation described in Security. For a small team on the public BSR's free plan, that operational cost is almost certainly higher than what Buf charges.

When to choose the BSR

• You want remote generation without running anything.
• You also want a schema registry, generated SDKs through package managers, Studio or push-time policy checks.
• You need SSO, SCIM, organisations and roles.
• Plugin users are not all mutually trusted, and you cannot isolate a generation host yourself.
• The free or Teams plan covers your schema size and the public rate limits are acceptable.

When to choose the EasyP API Service

• Generation must run inside your network and you do not want (or cannot buy) a BSR Enterprise on-prem deployment.
• You already operate PostgreSQL, object storage and Prometheus.
• You need private or unusual plugins without a paid plan, or on arm64 hosts.
• You use the easyp CLI and Git-based dependencies and do not need a schema registry.
• The people who can register plugins trust each other, and you can isolate the service host.

Sources

All accessed 23 September 2026.

1. Pricing — https://buf.build/pricing ; Billing FAQ — https://buf.build/docs/subscription/faq/
2. Remote plugins — https://buf.build/docs/bsr/remote-plugins/ ; usage — https://buf.build/docs/bsr/remote-plugins/usage/
3. bufbuild/plugins — https://github.com/bufbuild/plugins (counted from the repository tree: directories plugins/<owner>/<name>/<version>/ with a buf.plugin.yaml)
4. Custom plugins — https://buf.build/docs/bsr/remote-plugins/custom-plugins/
5. Generated SDKs — https://buf.build/docs/bsr/generated-sdks/
6. Rate limits — https://buf.build/docs/bsr/rate-limits/
7. Roles — https://buf.build/docs/bsr/admin/roles/ ; authentication (bot users) — https://buf.build/docs/bsr/authentication/ ; SSO/SCIM on Pro — https://buf.build/pricing
8. Audit logs — https://buf.build/docs/bsr/admin/instance/audit-logs/
9. Pricing — https://buf.build/pricing
10. On-prem architecture — https://buf.build/docs/bsr/admin/on-prem/architecture/ ; installation — https://buf.build/docs/bsr/admin/on-prem/installation/
11. Studio — https://buf.build/docs/bsr/studio/ ; Reflection API — https://buf.build/docs/bsr/reflection/ ; policies — https://buf.build/docs/bsr/checks/policies/ ; MCP server — https://buf.build/docs/bsr/apis/mcp/
12. Authentication — https://buf.build/docs/bsr/authentication/
13. Billing FAQ — https://buf.build/docs/subscription/faq/