GraphQL vs REST in NestJS: Which Is Right for Your Application?

Therefore, when building APIs with NestJS, there is a question of whether to use GraphQL or REST. The best one depends on the performance, and other factors such as flexibility and complexity of the code.

This analysis compares the differences, the main improvements and strategies concerning the usage of each type to aid the decision-making process.

REST is a service architecture used for developing the Interface used for web applications. Thus, it mimics typical paradigms like GET, POST, PUT, DELETE when accessing the application resources.

• Easy to Setup : Using HTTP protocols, it does not require any special technical know-how to set up.
• Scaleability : It is stateless which means that every request received has nothing to do with previous and next requests received.
• Effective Caching : Integrates well with both the browser and server side caching.
• Widely Supported : Compatible with all major programming languages and frameworks.

• Over-fetching & Under-fetching : This implies that the client may end up receiving information that is both beyond his needs and some that he may not require at all.
• Multiple Requests for Nested Data : data related to each other usually requires several queries.
• Lacks Real-time Capabilities : The MVC version requires additions such as, WebSocket or polling for real-time capability.

GraphQL is an API query language which is developed by Facebook, allows clients to fetch only necessary data only. GraphQL’s architecture is quite dissimilar to that of REST for the following reasons, among others: to begin with, GraphQL is normally served from one end point while REST has many.

• Lesser data transfer : As a client, one only gathers the requires information.
• One endpoint for all queries : No more multiple REST endpoints.
• Strong Typing : The API employs a schema and uses SDL (Schema Definition Language).
• Subscription : You are able to get real-time data by default from existant subscriptions.

• More complex : Creating schema, resolver and other additional things is needed.
• Harder to cache : GraphQL does not work well with browser caching as compared to REST.
• Server performance : The use of queries that are not optimized are very damaging to the server.

• For simple CRUD APIs with ordinary actions.
• If concerns such as performance and cache is/are of major importance.
• If working with other RESTful services.

• When working with complex forms of relationships, where the data involves many to many, one to one or one to many, and etc.
• Real time application such as, chat application, stock tracking and live dashboards.
• IF there are several frontend users with unique data dispatch needs. 

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