1. GraphQL is more powerful and you don't get all that for free. Personally, one of the things I think is most powerful, and missed in every discussion about G

1. GraphQL is more powerful and you don't get all that for free. Personally, one of the things I think is most powerful, and missed in every discussion about GraphQL, is that it’s more than just an alternative to a REST API (understandably so, given that is it’s primary use case). At its heart, it’s a query language specification with no mention of transport protocols. I can’t speak to other implementations, but graphql-js gives you the tools to parse queries and schemes into abstract syntax trees, and once you have that, there’s a lot you can do. Take a look at Apollo’s work on merging schemas together for a good example.[1] Personally, I’m working on a proxy layer that will sit in front of a GraphQL API and act as a sort of business rule engine. It analyses the incoming queries to figure out which sets of rules need to be run, and then actually alters the incoming query to add in any additional data points required before forwarding the request to the backend API. Once the combined result comes back, it executes the appropriate rules and filters the output before sending back to the client. These sorts of solutions don’t have anything to do with APIs. Heck, you could create a GraphQL schema to act as a classic data access layer, and call it internally from your own code. 2. You end up paying more attention to designing a good GraphQL schema/API because of the type system. Yes indeed. We have been working hand-in-hand with our business SMEs to build out a schema that is essentially our business object model. It has made communication between technology and business much smoother when we can point to a visualization of our API [2] and have our business partners understand exactly what they are seeing. I’m not sure where GraphQL will end up either, but I can see a place for it just about anywhere. (I suppose I’m a bit of a kool-aid drinker.. I wasn’t when I first started using GraphQL, but it has grown on me) [1] https://www.apollographql.com/docs/graphql-tools/schema-stitching.html https://www.apollographql.com/docs/graphql-tools/schema-stit... [2] https://apis.guru/graphql-voyager/ https://apis.guru/graphql-voyager/