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.