Abstract: In this whitepaper, we provide a comprehensive comparison of REST and GraphQL, two popular approaches to API design. We discuss their key features, advantages, and disadvantages, with a focus on how they impact the development and maintenance of web applications. This analysis will help readers gain a deeper understanding of the trade-offs between REST and GraphQL and inform their choice of API design for their specific use cases.

1. Introduction 1.1. Representational State Transfer (REST) REST is an architectural style for designing networked applications. It was introduced by Roy Fielding in his 2000 doctoral dissertation and has since become the standard approach to designing web APIs. RESTful APIs follow a set of constraints that include statelessness, cacheability, and a client-server architecture. 1.2. GraphQL GraphQL is a query language and runtime for APIs, developed by Facebook in 2012 and open-sourced in 2015. It provides a more efficient, flexible, and robust alternative to traditional REST APIs, allowing clients to request only the data they need and nothing more.
2. Advantages of REST 2.1. Simplicity RESTful APIs are simple to design and understand, as they follow a straightforward architectural style based on standard HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) and URIs. 2.2. Scalability Due to their stateless nature, RESTful APIs are highly scalable, making them suitable for large-scale applications and distributed systems. 2.3. Cacheability RESTful APIs support caching at multiple levels (client, server, and intermediary), which can improve performance and reduce server load.
3. Advantages of GraphQL 3.1. Flexibility GraphQL allows clients to request precisely the data they need, reducing the amount of data sent over the network and decreasing latency. 3.2. Strong Typing GraphQL schemas are strongly typed, which can help catch errors at compile time and improve the reliability of the API. 3.3. Introspection GraphQL's introspection feature enables clients to query the schema itself, making it easier for developers to work with the API and enabling tooling for features like auto-completion and validation.
4. Disadvantages of REST 4.1. Over-fetching and Under-fetching RESTful APIs often return more data than the client needs (over-fetching) or require multiple requests to retrieve related data (under-fetching), which can lead to increased latency and network usage. 4.2. Versioning Maintaining backward compatibility in RESTful APIs can be challenging, as changes to the API often require versioning, which can complicate client implementation and maintenance.
5. Disadvantages of GraphQL 5.1. Complexity GraphQL introduces additional complexity compared to REST, with its custom query language, schema definition, and resolver functions. This can result in a steeper learning curve for developers. 5.2. Performance Concerns While GraphQL can reduce the amount of data transferred over the network, it may also introduce performance bottlenecks, especially for large queries that require processing and aggregating data from multiple sources.
6. Conclusion Both REST and GraphQL have their advantages and disadvantages, and the choice between them depends on the specific needs of a project. REST is well-suited for simple and scalable applications, while GraphQL offers increased flexibility, strong typing, and introspection at the cost of added complexity.

If you read other sites you will see that developers (us) should carefully consider the trade-offs between REST and GraphQL when designing APIs, and to be honest we see that both will help different users of our API so we did the only sensible choice: We support both and you can decide what makes the best sense at your end or use both.