yaml-vs-json-config
2026-01-13
title: YAML vs JSON: Choosing Configuration Formats date: 2026-01-13 summary: A comparison of YAML and JSON for configuration files in modern DevOps. tags: [YAML, JSON, DevOps, Config]
The Battle of Formats
In the world of DevOps and cloud-native development, two formats dominate configuration files: JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) and YAML (YAML Ain't Markup Language).
JSON: The Strict Standard
- Pros:
- Strict syntax means fewer parsing errors.
- Native to JavaScript and web APIs.
- Faster parsing speed.
- Cons:
- No comments supported (standard JSON).
- Lots of braces and quotes make it harder to read for humans.
YAML: The Human-Friendly Choice
- Pros:
- Clean, indentation-based syntax.
- Supports comments (
#). - More features like anchors and aliases for DRY config.
- Cons:
- Indentation errors can be subtle and catastrophic.
- Parsing is slower and more complex.
When to Use Which?
- Use JSON for: APIs, machine-to-machine communication, and when data integrity is paramount.
- Use YAML for: CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI), Kubernetes manifests, and human-edited configuration files.
Check out our JSON to YAML Converter to switch between them easily.
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