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Discussion on: REST API OR GraphQL

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Dobes Vandermeer

There are specific times where Graphql is much better than REST like APIs. By default I would stick with REST style APIs unless you have a specific reason to use GraphQL. GraphQL is better for Facebook, but for most apps it's adding a lot of complexity. I remember a long time ago being really excited about ORMs like hibernate and how simple they made database access. Nowadays I'm also appreciating the simplicity of using SQL when writing non CRUD database operations (bulk ops and reports, for example). The ORM hides complexity, but also obscures performance issues. GraphQL is like that. It moves complexity around, and this could be the right move for you, but I think most of the time you might as well safe yourself the code bloat.