REST vs GraphQL – Which API to Choose for Your Web App
REST vs GraphQL – Full Guide
The choice between REST and GraphQL for your app’s API depends on your team, clients (web, mobile, external partners), and whether the problems GraphQL solves are real for you.
What is REST?
REST uses HTTP methods and URLs for resources. E.g. GET /users returns a user list, GET /users/1 one user, POST /users creates. The response is usually JSON with a fixed or documented structure. The standard is widely adopted, with many tools for documentation (OpenAPI/Swagger), testing, and HTTP-level caching.
What is GraphQL?
With GraphQL the client sends a query describing exactly which fields it wants. The server has one (or a few) endpoints and a schema describing types and fields. The client can ask only for id, name, and email for a user, without pulling a full object with dozens of fields. It fits when you have many different screens and clients with different needs.
Overfetching and underfetching
With REST one endpoint often returns the “full” resource. If your screen only needs name and photo, you still get the whole profile – that’s overfetching. Conversely, to get user and their orders you might make several requests (underfetching) or have a dedicated endpoint for that combination – which increases the number of endpoints.
With GraphQL one query can include user and their orders with exactly the fields you choose. Overfetching is reduced and the number of requests can be lower. In return the server must optimize resolvers (e.g. avoid N+1 queries to the DB).
Complexity and team
REST is more familiar to most developers and operations are easy to describe and test. GraphQL requires writing a schema, resolvers, and often more care for performance (DataLoader, caching). For small teams and standard CRUD apps REST is often more practical.
When to choose REST
- Your team and partners are used to REST.
- The app is relatively simple – resources, CRUD, not many different “views” on the same data.
- You want straightforward HTTP-level caching (CDN, browser).
- OpenAPI docs and generated clients are enough.
When to consider GraphQL
- Many clients (web, iOS, Android, partners) with different data needs.
- Complex screens that combine data from many resources – one GraphQL query instead of several REST calls.
- You want the client to control the response shape to reduce payload size and request count.
Conclusion
REST remains an excellent choice for many projects – simple, predictable, rich ecosystem. GraphQL is worth it when variety of clients and data requirements make a query language genuinely more convenient. You can also offer both – REST for simple operations, GraphQL for complex queries.
Want API architecture advice? Contact us.