If you build modern applications, choosing the right supporting software tools is critical to your success. When it comes to efficient data querying and integration, GraphQL offers transformative capabilities over REST. And the GraphQL ecosystem provides battle-tested solutions to leverage its strengths.
This guide explores 22 of the top GraphQL software tools for taking application development to the next level. You’ll uncover complementary solutions for building, accessing and optimizing your GraphQL backend.
Why Care About GraphQL Anyway?
Introduced publicly by Facebook engineering in 2015, GraphQL provides an alternative to REST for developing flexible, high-performance APIs. It offers a declarative data fetching approach to eliminate issues like over and under fetching associated with REST.
With GraphQL, the client specifies precisely what data it needs via queries instead of relying on rigid, predefined endpoints. The GraphQL server then returns exactly that information in a predictable structure. This data querying model enables faster iteration while minimizing requests and payload size.
Additional GraphQL distinguishing features including:
✔️ A strong type system for preventing errors
✔️ Built-in documentation of API capabilities
✔️ Runtime introspection for understanding schema structure
✔️ Client-driven design promoting iterative development
These characteristics solve many headaches for both API consumers and publishers. And they’re driving incredible GraphQL growth, especially among tech companies.
GraphQL is now used by major players like Facebook, GitHub, The New York Times, Twitter, Yelp and Credit Karma to name a few. Adoption is predicted to expand even faster moving forward according to industry surveys.
So for engineering teams building sophisticated apps, learning GraphQL is a smart investment of time given its efficiency gains over REST alternatives.
But realizing GraphQL’s full benefits depends heavily on making smart tooling choices across the development lifecycle.
Top GraphQL Server Solutions
GraphQL servers provide the foundational data layer that client applications query for information. They connect to backend systems like databases and third-party APIs while handling tasks like:
✔️ Schema definition
✔️ Request validation
✔️ Resolving queries
✔️ Caching
✔️ Error handling
Here we explore leading open source and commercial GraphQL server solutions to consider.
1. Apollo Server: The GraphQL Server Standard
As the most popular open source GraphQL server, Apollo Server works seamlessly with any data source, frontend library or third-party API. It handles validation, caching, error handling and more out of the box so developers can focus on building app logic.
Apollo Server supports defining GraphQL schemas using Schema Definition Language (SDL) or resolvers. It auto-generates comprehensive API documentation from schemas to simplify initial exploration. Additional key features include:
Schema stitching – Combine multiple GraphQL APIs into one unified gateway
Data federation – Distribute a single schema across different microservices
Integrations – Connect and query databases like MongoDB, REST APIs, gRPC services
Monitoring – Apollo Server plugins add tracing, metrics and logging
Optimized performance – Caching, compression and more for production needs
For these reasons, Apollo Server is the standard GraphQL server used by most companies with GraphQL implementations. It delivers maximal flexibility no matter your tech stack while balancing ease of use.
Example usage:
npm install apollo-server graphql
const {ApolloServer} = require(‘apollo-server‘);
const typeDefs = gql`
type Query {
books: [Book!]
}
type Book {
title: String
author: String
}
`
const resolvers = {
Query: {
books: () => books,
},
};
const server = new ApolloServer({
typeDefs,
resolvers,
});
server.listen().then(() => {
console.log(`Server ready at http://localhost:4000`);
});2. GraphQL Yoga: Modular GraphQL Server
GraphQL Yoga simplifies setting up a GraphQL server in Node.js based on TypeScript and Express. As a batteries-included but modular framework, it eliminates boilerplate code while providing ready hooks for customization.
Out-of-the-box capabilities include:
❕ Schema building helpers
❕ Typescript typings
❕ Validation and monitoring middleware
❕ Error handling
❕ CORS, compression and other production niceties
By default, Yoga serves the GraphiQL interface for querying schemas. It requires fewer lines of code than alternatives to get a functional server running. But developers can plug in data resolvers, custom servers like Apollo, authentication and more to their taste.
For lean Node GraphQL APIs without extensive configuration, GraphQL Yoga reduces headaches.
Sample GraphQL Yoga server:
npm install graphql-yoga
import { GraphQLServer } from ‘graphql-yoga‘
const typeDefs = `
type Query {
hello(name: String): String!
}`
const resolvers = {
Query: {
hello: (parent, { name }, ctx, info) => {
return `Hello ${name || ‘World‘}!`
},
},
}
const server = new GraphQLServer({ typeDefs, resolvers })
server.start(() => console.log(‘Server is running on localhost:4000‘))3. GraphQL .NET – GraphQL for .NET Developers
In the .NET ecosystem, GraphQL .NET stands above the competition for building GraphQL servers. The project delivers production-ready capabilities for fulfilling GraphQL queries in C#, F# and .NET Core backends.
Features include:
✔️ Strongly-typed schema building
✔️ Fine-grained authorization
✔️ Integration with EF Core, AutoMapper, MongoDB and more
✔️ Subscriptions over SignalR
✔️ Action filters for custom logic
For teams already using .NET for applications, GraphQL .NET enables easily adding a GraphQL layer on top of existing business logic and data access. Microsoft itself uses GraphQL .NET within key developer tools like the Azure Static Web Apps portal.
Sample query execution in GraphQL .NET:
public class Query
{
[UseProjection]
[UseFiltering]
[UseSorting]
public IQueryable<Author> GetAuthors([Service] MyDatabaseContext context) =>
context.Authors;
}This snippet retrieves authors leveraging built-in filtering, projection and sorting capabilities requiring no manual code.
Among over 50 GraphQL .NET schema options, highlights include:
Relay – For Relay-compliant GraphQL APIs
Entity Framework – Auto-generating schemas from Entity Framework models
MongoDB – Integrate with MongoDB databases
Apollo Federation – Build federated GraphQL services
Other Notable Servers
Besides the most popular solutions highlighted above, developers can pick from multiple GraphQL server technologies like:
- Prisma – Auto-generated and type-safe ORM for Node.js & TypeScript
- Hasura – Instant realtime GraphQL APIs on Postgres
- NestJS GraphQL – GraphQL module for NestJS framework
- Hot Chocolate – GraphQL server for building .NET apps
- AWS AppSync – Fully managed GraphQL backend powered by AWS
Top GraphQL Client Solutions
While servers provide the GraphQL backend, client applications issue queries to fetch needed data. Client libraries handle activities like:
❕ Sending & validating GraphQL requests
❕ Normalizing response payloads
❕ Managing local state
❕ Caching
❕ Pagination
❕ Real-time updates
Here we explore leading open source GraphQL client libraries for different application stacks.
1. Apollo Client: All-in-One GraphQL Client
The premier client for JavaScript applications, Apollo Client integrates seamlessly with popular frameworks like React, Vue and Angular. It handles data caching, pagination and real-time subscription features outside the box to supercharge development.
Core capabilities developers gain using Apollo Client include:
Fetching – Declare data dependencies at the component level
Caching – Normalizes response data with a unified cache
State management – Retrieve GraphQL results directly in UI state
Error handling – Granular and customizable error handling
Pagination – Track pagination state to handle new pages
Apollo Client integrates with supported frameworks using bindings like @apollo/react-hooks. It optionally connects with the Apollo Server ecosystem for complementary tooling. This makes Apollo Client a turn-key solution for using GraphQL in JavaScript apps with minimal hassle.
Basic Apollo Client Usage
npm install @apollo/client graphql
import {ApolloClient, InMemoryCache} from ‘@apollo/client‘;
const client = new ApolloClient({
uri: ‘http://localhost:4000‘,
cache: new InMemoryCache()
});
client.query({
query: gql`
query GetBooks {
books {
title
author
}
}`
}).then(result => console.log(result));Overall, Apollo Client eliminates lots of complex state management logic and reduces boilerplate for using GraphQL, especially in React environments.
2. Relay – High-Performance GraphQL Client for React
Developed internally by Facebook, Relay serves as a production-ready GraphQL client purpose-built for React. It handles efficient data fetching including features like:
❕ Compile-time code generation for queries
❕ Auto-batching to fetch multiple resources in a single request
❕ Built-in support for pagination
❕ Granular error handling
❕ Optimistic UI updates
Relay achieves best-in-class performance by statically analyzing GraphQL documents at build-time. It prefetches all needed data and defers executing queries until components request them. RELAY_NEXT_DEBUG
For larger, more complex React applications, Relay delivers rock-solid productivity. It does require buying into compilation step and Relay runtime however.
npm install react-relay
import {
graphql,
QueryRenderer,
} from ‘react-relay‘;
const AppQueries = {
user: graphql`
query AppQueriesUserQuery {
user {
id
name
}
}
`
};
function App() {
return (
<QueryRenderer
query={AppQueries.user}
render={({error, props}) => {
if (props) {
return <div>{props.user.name}</div>;
} else {
return <div>Loading</div>;
}
}}
/>
);
}This sample leverages Relay’s QueryRenderer component to declare data needs at runtime and handle loading properly.
Notable Clients for Other Languages
While Apollo and Relay dominate the JavaScript scene, GraphQL client libraries exist for most languages:
| Language | Clients |
|---|---|
| Java | GraphQL Java, GraphQL SPQR |
| C# / .NET | GraphQL .NET Client, OctoGraph |
| Go | graph-gophers/graphql-go, Machinebox GraphQL |
| Python | Graphene, Tartiflette |
| Ruby | graphql-ruby |
Top GraphQL Testing Tools
GraphQL introduces its own challenges for proper API testing. Performant applications require validating the backend schema, testing queries and mutations, benchmarking and more.
Useful GraphQL testing solutions include:
1. Apollo Studio
Part of the Apollo platform, Apollo Studio provides tools like:
Schema checks – Validate schema changes over time
Contract tests – Ensure changes don‘t break existing functionality
Its cloud IDE also supports one-off queries for inspection against production data.
2. GraphQL Playground & Explorer
Both GraphQL Playground and Explorer allow interactively running queries against schemas to understand behavior.
3. E2E Testing
Solutions like Cypress facilitate end-to-end tests against GraphQL backends driving UI behavior.
Complementary GraphQL Software Tools
Besides the foundational servers and clients covered above, purpose-built supporting software exists like:
CMS GraphQL Integrations
Tools like WPGraphQL and GraphCMS add GraphQL APIs to headless CMSes.
Validation & Monitoring
Apollo Graph Manager provides visibility into schema changes, contract tests and error rates.
Benchmarking
graphql-bench measures GraphQL performance by sending representative queries.
Schema Visualization
See your schema visually using GraphQL Voyager or GraphQL Docs.
This represents just a sampling of the robust GraphQL ecosystem emerging to solve specialized needs.
Best Practices for Adopting GraphQL Tools
Follow these top recommendations for integrating GraphQL software successfully:
1. Start with a Simple Prototype
When evaluating GraphQL, spike a basic proof-of-concept server and client against sample data. This exposes how GraphQL development diverges from REST.
2. Understand Schema Structure Upfront
GraphQL begins with the schema acting as the contract between server and clients. Lock down core models early inform tooling decisions.
3. Validate Early, Validate Often
Leverage testing tools to verify functionality constantly as development progresses.
4. Instrument Performance Monitoring
GraphQL performance tuning depends heavily on metrics data. Implement tracing tools like Apollo Graph Manager from the start.
5. Expect & Encourage Feedback
GraphQL allows consumers to customize data needs unlike REST. Solicit input early and often.
6. Start Simple, Then Iterate
Prioritize building basic query capabilities first. Augment complexity piecemeal in phases.
Adopting these best practices distinguishes productive GraphQL implementations from frustrating ones.
The Bottom Line on GraphQL Software
Perfectly fulfilling complex data requirements compounds backend complexity. GraphQL elegantly handles this, but truly mastering it hinges on tooling.
The solutions explored in this guide represent the cream of the crop for building GraphQL infrastructure. Top options exist for JavaScript and .NET developers especially. And the ecosystem continues maturing quickly.
For modern applications, GraphQL already provides immense advantages over REST alternatives. Choose tools like Apollo Server, Relay and supporting technologies to realize efficiencies quickly.
Only by leveraging robust complementary software tools can teams extract the full benefits GraphQL offers compared to REST APIs. Now is the time to build future-facing skills and unlock better application development.
