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  1. Stackups
  2. Application & Data
  3. Microframeworks
  4. Microframeworks
  5. GraphQL vs Slim

GraphQL vs Slim

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Slim
Slim
Stacks273
Followers391
Votes152
GitHub Stars12.2K
Forks2.0K
GraphQL
GraphQL
Stacks34.9K
Followers28.1K
Votes309

GraphQL vs Slim: What are the differences?

Introduction

GraphQL and Slim are both popular tools used in web development, each with its unique features and advantages. Understanding the key differences between the two can help developers choose the right tool for their project.

  1. Query Language vs. Microframework: The primary difference between GraphQL and Slim is their purpose and functionality. GraphQL is a query language that allows clients to request only the data they need from the server, providing a more efficient way to retrieve information. On the other hand, Slim is a microframework used for developing web applications and APIs quickly and with minimal setup.

  2. Type System vs. Routing: Another key difference lies in their focus on different aspects of web development. GraphQL comes with a robust type system that allows developers to define the shape of their data and the relationships between them, ensuring a clear structure for data handling. In contrast, Slim is more focused on routing HTTP requests to corresponding controller actions, simplifying the process of handling incoming requests and generating responses.

  3. Data Fetching Approach: GraphQL excels in providing a flexible data fetching approach where clients can request exactly what they need, reducing over-fetching and under-fetching of data. In contrast, Slim follows a more traditional request-response paradigm, where endpoints are defined to handle specific data requests, making it easier for developers to structure their APIs based on endpoints.

  4. Performance and Scalability: When it comes to performance and scalability, GraphQL offers a more optimized approach by reducing the number of API calls and minimizing data transfer between the client and server. On the other hand, Slim provides a lightweight framework that is well-suited for small to medium-sized projects but may require additional optimization for scaling to larger applications.

  5. Community and Ecosystem: The support and community around GraphQL are vast and active, with a wide range of tools, libraries, and resources available for developers to leverage. Slim, while also having a dedicated community, may have a narrower focus due to its specific use case as a microframework, which can impact the availability of resources compared to GraphQL.

  6. Learning Curve and Adoption: GraphQL introduces a unique approach to data fetching and manipulation, which may have a steeper learning curve for developers new to the technology. Slim, on the other hand, follows familiar MVC patterns and common PHP practices, making it easier for developers to adopt and integrate into their existing projects without significant learning overhead.

In Summary, understanding the key differences between GraphQL and Slim, such as their data fetching approach, purpose, and community support, can help developers make informed decisions when choosing a tool for their web development projects.

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Advice on Slim, GraphQL

Raj
Raj

Oct 10, 2020

Review

It purely depends on your app needs. Does it need to be scalable, do you have lots of features, OR it is a simple project with very simple needs - many of those parameters clarify which technologies will fit.

If you are looking for a quick solution, that reduces lot of development time, take a look at postgraphile (https://www.graphile.org/postgraphile/). You have to just define the schema and you get the entire graph-ql apis built for you and you can just focus on your frontend.

On frontend, React is good, but also need to remember that it is popular because it introduced one way data writes and in-built virtual dom + diffing to determine which dom to modify. Though personally I liked it, am recently more inclined to Svelte because its lightweightedness and absence of virtual dom and its simplicity compared to the huge ecosystem that React has surrounded itself with.

In all situations, frameworks keep changing over time. What is best today is not considered even good few years from now. What is important is to have the logic in a separate, clean manner void of too many framework related dependencies - that way you can switch one framework with another very easily.

3.77k views3.77k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Slim
Slim
GraphQL
GraphQL

Slim is easy to use for both beginners and professionals. Slim favors cleanliness over terseness and common cases over edge cases. Its interface is simple, intuitive, and extensively documented — both online and in the code itself.

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.

-
Hierarchical;Product-centric;Client-specified queries;Backwards Compatible;Structured, Arbitrary Code;Application-Layer Protocol;Strongly-typed;Introspective
Statistics
GitHub Stars
12.2K
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Forks
2.0K
GitHub Forks
-
Stacks
273
Stacks
34.9K
Followers
391
Followers
28.1K
Votes
152
Votes
309
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 33
    Microframework
  • 27
    API
  • 22
    Open source
  • 21
    Php
  • 11
    Fast
Pros
  • 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
  • 12
    Self-documenting
Cons
  • 4
    More code to type.
  • 4
    Hard to migrate from GraphQL to another technology
  • 2
    Takes longer to build compared to schemaless.
  • 1
    N+1 fetch problem
  • 1
    No support for streaming
Integrations
PHP
PHP
No integrations available

What are some alternatives to Slim, GraphQL?

ExpressJS

ExpressJS

Express is a minimal and flexible node.js web application framework, providing a robust set of features for building single and multi-page, and hybrid web applications.

Django REST framework

Django REST framework

It is a powerful and flexible toolkit that makes it easy to build Web APIs.

Sails.js

Sails.js

Sails is designed to mimic the MVC pattern of frameworks like Ruby on Rails, but with support for the requirements of modern apps: data-driven APIs with scalable, service-oriented architecture.

Sinatra

Sinatra

Sinatra is a DSL for quickly creating web applications in Ruby with minimal effort.

Lumen

Lumen

Laravel Lumen is a stunningly fast PHP micro-framework for building web applications with expressive, elegant syntax. We believe development must be an enjoyable, creative experience to be truly fulfilling. Lumen attempts to take the pain out of development by easing common tasks used in the majority of web projects, such as routing, database abstraction, queueing, and caching.

Fastify

Fastify

Fastify is a web framework highly focused on speed and low overhead. It is inspired from Hapi and Express and as far as we know, it is one of the fastest web frameworks in town. Use Fastify can increase your throughput up to 100%.

Falcon

Falcon

Falcon is a minimalist WSGI library for building speedy web APIs and app backends. We like to think of Falcon as the Dieter Rams of web frameworks.

hapi

hapi

hapi is a simple to use configuration-centric framework with built-in support for input validation, caching, authentication, and other essential facilities for building web applications and services.

TypeORM

TypeORM

It supports both Active Record and Data Mapper patterns, unlike all other JavaScript ORMs currently in existence, which means you can write high quality, loosely coupled, scalable, maintainable applications the most productive way.

FeathersJS

FeathersJS

Feathers is a real-time, micro-service web framework for NodeJS that gives you control over your data via RESTful resources, sockets and flexible plug-ins.

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