REST or GraphQL? Choose wisely or waste resources

REST and GraphQL are two ways to make frontend and backend communicate.
Both work, but they’re not always interchangeable.

Let’s explore when one is better than the other — no jargon.

🔁 REST: simple and readable

REST follows the idea of “one resource = one URL”.

✅ Best for:

• simple applications
• automatic caching
• readable code

⚡ GraphQL: flexible and powerful

GraphQL has only one endpoint: /graphql.
You send a query and get exactly what you ask for.

✅ Best for:

• complex UIs
• mobile apps with fragmented data
• avoiding multiple round trips

🔍 GraphQL query example

With GraphQL, you can fetch very specific data with one request.

🆚 REST

To get a user and their posts with REST, you’d need two calls:

1. GET /users/1 → user info
2. GET /users/1/posts → user’s posts

⚡ GraphQL

Just one request:

{
  user(id: 1) {
    name
    email
    posts {
      title
      publishedAt
    }
  }
}

📥 Expected response:

{
  "data": {
    "user": {
      "name": "Mario Rossi",
      "email": "mario@example.com",
      "posts": [
        { "title": "Hello GraphQL", "publishedAt": "2024-10-01" },
        { "title": "REST vs GraphQL", "publishedAt": "2024-11-15" }
      ]
    }
  }
}

➡️ One query gives you the user and their posts, with only the fields you need.

🎯 Practical example

✅ REST

An order management system:

• /orders
• /orders/123
• /orders/123/items

Clear, stable, cache-friendly.

✅ GraphQL

A mobile app showing profile + feed + comments?
All in one query, no overfetch.

📎 Related to previous topics

As we saw in the TCP vs UDP post: more control often means less speed.
Here too, REST is predictable and robust, while GraphQL is lightweight and flexible.

❓ Interactive Quiz

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