Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) – is a connection-oriented communications protocol that is used to ensure reliable transmission of packets between computing devices in a network.
User Datagram Protocol (UDP) – is a connection-less communications protocol that is used especially for time-sensitive and low latency transmissions across the network.
Here’s a table of comparison:
| Parameter | TCP | UDP |
| Protocol | connection-oriented | connection-less |
| Header Size | 20 bytes | Static header 8 bytes |
| Checksum | Compulsory | Optional |
| Overhead | Heavy as it needs 3 packets to setup a socket connection | Lightweight as no connections and message ordering tracking |
| Speed | Slower speed due to re-transmission and reordering | Faster as integrity is checked at the arrival time (via checksum) |
| Reliability | Guaranteed messages will be delivered in order and no errors | No guarantee that messages will be delivered in order and no errors |
| Connection | Connection is made before application messages are exchanged | Connection is not made before application messages are exchanged |
| Acknowledgment | Use handshake protocol (SYN,SYN-ACK,ACK) | No handshake |
| Data Segments | Rearranged in required order | Independent thus no inherent order specification |
| Flow Control | Has congestion control mechanism | No flow control |
| Error Checking | Performs error checking and resends erroneous packets | Performs basic error checking and discards erroneous packets (no error recovery attempt) |
| Use | Priority for more reliability and less speed | Priority for more speed and less reliability |
| Security | SSL/TLS | DTLS |
| Multicast Support | No | Yes |
| Broadcast Support | No | Yes |
| Performance | Jitter and Throughput is Good | Jitter is Best and Througput is Worst |
| Examples | FTP,SMTP,HTTP,TELNET | DNS,DHCP,RTP,TFTP,SNMP |
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