If you have used GraphQL in place of REST API, then you are not alone because GraphQL is an alternative to REST APIs. They have their share of similarities and differences that we will discuss in this blog.
REST is an API (Application Programming Interface) that conforms to the architectural constraints of REST architectural style and permits interaction with RESTful web services.
In REST architecture, APIs expose the functionalities as resources that could be a service, data, object, or piece of information that a client can access. Every resource (data/service/object) comes with URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) that a client can access by sending a request to the server.
So, whenever a client calls for a RESTful API, the server will respond with the representation of the state of the queried resource. Common REST implementations utilize the HTTP method, which could be GET, POST, DELETE, PATCH, etc.
All operations in REST are based on the same interface. Regardless of the operation, the client and the server use the same patterns to communicate.
All systems that REST works with must be built with a client-server architecture.
The state of the frontend is only understood by the backend but not saved there. See it this way, errors in one process won’t affect the other processes and functionalities.
REST prefers and upvotes segregation of the web architecture on all levels.
When the concept of REST was being developed, client applications were relatively simple, so REST was a good fit for many applications. However, the API landscape has dramatically revolutionized over the years. So, Facebook introduced GraphQL in 2012 because their team needed a data-fetching API that was powerful enough to describe all of Facebook and easy enough to be used with less learning curve for the product developers.
GraphQL is a query language for data from any number of different sources. Other and old query languages are used to query a particular type of data store.
REST is an architectural styled that is largely viewed as a conventional standard for designing APIs. It is server-driven.
GraphQL is a query language that is efficient and flexible enough to solve common API integration problems. It is client-driven.
The REST API holds the idea of multiple endpoints (GET/users/POST/Product), which means multiple URLs or paths are exposed by your web service on the domain you host that web service that reacts to different HTTP requests reaching your web service. It is deployed over a set of URLs where each of them exposes a single resource.
GraphQL works with one Endpoint only that reaches only with a POST/GraphQL request. You can name it whatever you want, but the default name is yourdomain(dot)com/GraphQL. It is deployed over HTTP using a single endpoint that provides the full capabilities of the exposed service.
Multiple Endpoints versus one Endpoint is the major difference between the two.
JSON data is exchanged in the case of REST API. Along with that, you also send back binary data. Similarly, in GraphQL also, JSON data is exchanged.
When working with a REST API, you can use any server-side language, frontend language, and framework. Similarly, with GraphQL, you can use any server-side language, frontend language, and framework.
So, you can build both GraphQL and REST API using PHP, Node, Java, Python or any other programming language. And, you can use the technology and frontend combination such as you could be building a mobile app with Swift or you might be building a web app using React or Angular.
GraphQL lacks an automatic caching mechanism and uses libraries to do the same, whereas REST comes with an automatic caching mechanism.
GraphQL fetches specific data with a single API call, while in REST, you can fetch fixed data with multiple API calls.
Documentation
Only a single tool is used for documentation, i.e., GraphiQL, whereas in the REST case, you have multiple automated documentation options, such as OpenAPI and API Blueprint.
If you want to use a modern design style that does not require multiple round trips to fetch data, then GraphQL could be your best option.
Assuming that you mean to utilize a tried and tested procedure that accompanies strong local caching or validation capacities, then REST could be your ideal choice.