GraphQL vs graphql-yoga

Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

GraphQL

33K
27.1K
+ 1
310
graphql-yoga

88
143
+ 1
3
Add tool

GraphQL vs graphql-yoga: What are the differences?

Introduction

GraphQL and graphql-yoga are both technologies used to build APIs, but they have some key differences that set them apart.

  1. Programming Language Support: GraphQL is a query language and runtime that can be used with a variety of programming languages such as JavaScript, Ruby, Python, and more. On the other hand, graphql-yoga is a fully-featured GraphQL server library specifically built for Node.js, making it ideal for server-side JavaScript applications.

  2. Server Configuration: GraphQL provides a specification for querying and manipulating data, but it doesn't provide a server implementation out of the box. graphql-yoga, on the other hand, is a fully-featured GraphQL server that is easy to set up and configure. It comes with built-in support for features such as subscriptions, playground, and middleware.

  3. Middleware Support: graphql-yoga provides middleware functionality that allows developers to modify or intercept requests and responses before they reach the resolver. This makes it easy to add authentication, caching, or any other custom logic to the GraphQL server. GraphQL itself does not provide built-in middleware support and requires external libraries to achieve similar functionality.

  4. Subscription Support: graphql-yoga has built-in support for subscriptions, which allow clients to receive real-time updates from the server. Subscriptions are a powerful feature that GraphQL does not natively support. While there are external libraries that can add subscription support to a GraphQL server, graphql-yoga makes it easier to implement and manage subscriptions out of the box.

  5. Error Handling: GraphQL provides a standard approach to handling errors by including an "errors" field in the response payload. However, graphql-yoga takes error handling a step further by providing customizable error formatting and advanced error handling features. With graphql-yoga, developers have more control over how errors are returned to the client and can add additional metadata or debugging information if needed.

  6. Development Workflow: GraphQL can be used with a variety of development tools and frameworks, which allows developers to choose the best tooling for their specific needs. graphql-yoga, being a fully-featured GraphQL server library, provides a streamlined development workflow by including many essential features out of the box. This can save development time and effort compared to setting up a GraphQL server from scratch using GraphQL alone.

In Summary, graphql-yoga is a specialized GraphQL server library that provides additional features and streamlined development workflow compared to GraphQL itself. It offers built-in support for server configuration, middleware, subscriptions, error handling, and is specifically designed for Node.js applications.

Get Advice from developers at your company using StackShare Enterprise. Sign up for StackShare Enterprise.
Learn More
Pros of GraphQL
Pros of graphql-yoga
  • 75
    Schemas defined by the requests made by the user
  • 63
    Will replace RESTful interfaces
  • 62
    The future of API's
  • 49
    The future of databases
  • 13
    Self-documenting
  • 12
    Get many resources in a single request
  • 6
    Query Language
  • 6
    Ask for what you need, get exactly that
  • 3
    Fetch different resources in one request
  • 3
    Type system
  • 3
    Evolve your API without versions
  • 2
    Ease of client creation
  • 2
    GraphiQL
  • 2
    Easy setup
  • 1
    "Open" document
  • 1
    Fast prototyping
  • 1
    Supports subscription
  • 1
    Standard
  • 1
    Good for apps that query at build time. (SSR/Gatsby)
  • 1
    1. Describe your data
  • 1
    Better versioning
  • 1
    Backed by Facebook
  • 1
    Easy to learn
  • 3
    Easy to setup. No boilerplate code

Sign up to add or upvote prosMake informed product decisions

Cons of GraphQL
Cons of graphql-yoga
  • 4
    Hard to migrate from GraphQL to another technology
  • 4
    More code to type.
  • 2
    Takes longer to build compared to schemaless.
  • 1
    No support for caching
  • 1
    All the pros sound like NFT pitches
  • 1
    No support for streaming
  • 1
    Works just like any other API at runtime
  • 1
    N+1 fetch problem
  • 1
    No built in security
    Be the first to leave a con

    Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions

    What is GraphQL?

    GraphQL is a data query language and runtime designed and used at Facebook to request and deliver data to mobile and web apps since 2012.

    What is graphql-yoga?

    Easiest way to run a GraphQL server: Sensible defaults & includes everything you need with minimal setup.;Includes Subscriptions: Built-in support for GraphQL subscriptions using WebSockets.;Compatible: Works with all GraphQL clients (Apollo, Relay...) and fits seamless in your GraphQL workflow.

    Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

    What companies use GraphQL?
    What companies use graphql-yoga?
    See which teams inside your own company are using GraphQL or graphql-yoga.
    Sign up for StackShare EnterpriseLearn More

    Sign up to get full access to all the companiesMake informed product decisions

    What tools integrate with GraphQL?
    What tools integrate with graphql-yoga?

    Sign up to get full access to all the tool integrationsMake informed product decisions

    Blog Posts

    GitHubDockerReact+17
    40
    36164
    GitHubPythonNode.js+47
    54
    72280
    What are some alternatives to GraphQL and graphql-yoga?
    gRPC
    gRPC is a modern open source high performance RPC framework that can run in any environment. It can efficiently connect services in and across data centers with pluggable support for load balancing, tracing, health checking...
    Falcor
    Falcor lets you represent all your remote data sources as a single domain model via a virtual JSON graph. You code the same way no matter where the data is, whether in memory on the client or over the network on the server.
    React
    Lots of people use React as the V in MVC. Since React makes no assumptions about the rest of your technology stack, it's easy to try it out on a small feature in an existing project.
    graphql.js
    Lightest GraphQL client with intelligent features. You can download graphql.js directly, or you can use Bower or NPM.
    MongoDB
    MongoDB stores data in JSON-like documents that can vary in structure, offering a dynamic, flexible schema. MongoDB was also designed for high availability and scalability, with built-in replication and auto-sharding.
    See all alternatives