GraphQL vs Swagger

GraphQL and Swagger are both listed under APIs in the DevPages directory. This page puts the details we hold for each of them side by side.

It does not score them and does not pick a winner. Fields the catalog has no value for say “Not recorded” rather than being filled in with a guess.

GraphQL, Swagger compared field by field. Values are taken from the DevPages catalog; fields we hold no value for read “Not recorded”.
	GraphQL	Swagger
Category	APIs	APIs
Pricing model	Open Source	Freemium
Open source	Yes	Yes
GitHub stars	20.3K	29.1K
Key features	Single endpoint for all data fetching Strong type system and schema Client-specified queries Real-time subscriptions Introspection and documentation Hierarchical data fetching Backward compatibility Language and platform agnostic	OpenAPI Specification standard Interactive API documentation API design and modeling tools Code generation for multiple languages API testing and validation Mock server generation API lifecycle management Team collaboration features
Use cases	Modern web and mobile applications Microservices data aggregation Real-time applications API gateway and data layer Content management systems E-commerce platforms Social media applications Developer tools and platforms	API documentation and specification API-first development approach Team collaboration on API design Client SDK generation API testing and validation Developer portal creation API governance and standards Legacy API documentation
Integrations	Apollo Relay Prisma Hasura AWS AppSync Gatsby	Postman Insomnia Spring Boot Express FastAPI ASP.NET
Tags	query-language api schema type-system flexible	api documentation openapi specification rest
Links	Website (opens in a new tab) GitHub (opens in a new tab) Docs (opens in a new tab)	Website (opens in a new tab) GitHub (opens in a new tab) Docs (opens in a new tab)

What each one is

GraphQL

Query language and runtime for APIs

GraphQL is a query language for APIs and a runtime for executing those queries with existing data. It provides a complete and understandable description of the data in your API, gives clients the power to ask for exactly what they need, and makes it easier to evolve APIs over time.

Full GraphQL listing

Swagger

API documentation and design tools

Swagger is a suite of tools for API developers that includes OpenAPI Specification (formerly Swagger Specification), Swagger UI for interactive documentation, and various tools for API design, building, and testing. It's the most popular framework for designing and documenting REST APIs.

Full Swagger listing

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