ExpressJS vs GraphQL

Overview

ExpressJS

Stacks35.1K

Followers24.0K

Votes1.6K

GraphQL

Stacks34.9K

Followers28.1K

Votes309

ExpressJS vs GraphQL: What are the differences?

Key Differences Between ExpressJS and GraphQL

ExpressJS and GraphQL are both popular technologies used in web development, but they serve different purposes and have distinct features. Here are the key differences between ExpressJS and GraphQL:

Query Language vs Framework: GraphQL is a query language that allows clients to request specific data from the server, while ExpressJS is a flexible and minimalistic web application framework for Node.js. ExpressJS provides a robust infrastructure for building web applications, handling routing, middleware, and server logic, while GraphQL focuses on efficient data fetching and manipulation.
Data Fetching Efficiency: GraphQL allows clients to retrieve only the data they need by specifying the exact shape and structure of the response. This reduces the amount of over-fetching and under-fetching of data, optimizing network efficiency. In contrast, ExpressJS retrieves entire resources or collections of resources, which might include more data than necessary.
Multiple Data Sources: ExpressJS can work with various data sources, such as databases, APIs, and external services, allowing developers to choose the best tools for their specific use cases. GraphQL, on the other hand, acts as a single endpoint for data consumption, aggregating and combining data from multiple sources, making it easier to integrate and access data from different systems.
Client-Driven Data Fetching: With GraphQL, the client has control over the data it receives, enabling efficient batched requests and reducing the number of round trips to the server. The client specifies the required fields, relationships, and even the ordering of the response. ExpressJS, on the other hand, follows a server-driven approach, where the server decides which data to send back to the client.
Schema-Driven Development: GraphQL enforces a strict schema, defining the structure and types of available data and operations, allowing clients to easily understand and query the available resources. This schema-driven development approach provides strong typing and introspection capabilities, making it easier to evolve and maintain the API. ExpressJS, being a flexible framework, does not enforce any specific data schema or structure, giving developers more freedom to design their own data models.
Caching and Performance: While both ExpressJS and GraphQL can cache responses to improve performance, ExpressJS provides more control over caching by utilizing HTTP caching headers and third-party caching solutions. GraphQL, on the other hand, leverages the concept of "caching by default" due to its query-based nature, where responses can be cached at various levels (e.g., network, client, server) to provide efficient data access.

In summary, ExpressJS is a web application framework that provides flexibility and control over server logic, while GraphQL is a powerful query language that offers efficient data fetching and client-driven data manipulation. ExpressJS works well with various data sources, while GraphQL acts as a single endpoint for data aggregation.

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Advice on ExpressJS, GraphQL

Watscho

Fullstack js Developer

Dec 6, 2019

Needs advice

A boilerplate for Node.js apps / API server / Authentication from scratch - express, graphql - (graphql compose), mongodb - (mongoose).

https://github.com/watscho/express-graphql-mongodb-boilerplate

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Detailed Comparison

ExpressJS	GraphQL
Express is a minimal and flexible node.js web application framework, providing a robust set of features for building single and multi-page, and hybrid web applications.	GraphQL is a data query language and runtime designed and used at Facebook to request and deliver data to mobile and web apps since 2012.
Robust routing;HTTP helpers (redirection, caching, etc);View system supporting 14+ template engines;Content negotiation;Focus on high performance;Executable for generating applications quickly;High test coverage	Hierarchical;Product-centric;Client-specified queries;Backwards Compatible;Structured, Arbitrary Code;Application-Layer Protocol;Strongly-typed;Introspective
Statistics
Stacks 35.1K	Stacks 34.9K
Followers 24.0K	Followers 28.1K
Votes 1.6K	Votes 309
Pros & Cons
Pros 381 Simple 336 Node.js 244 Javascript 193 High performance 152 Robust routing Cons 27 Not python 17 Overrated 14 No multithreading 9 Javascript 5 Not fast	Pros 75 Schemas defined by the requests made by the user 63 Will replace RESTful interfaces 62 The future of API's 49 The future of databases 12 Get many resources in a single request Cons 4 More code to type. 4 Hard to migrate from GraphQL to another technology 2 Takes longer to build compared to schemaless. 1 N+1 fetch problem 1 No support for streaming
Integrations
Node.js	No integrations available

What are some alternatives to ExpressJS, GraphQL?

Django REST framework

It is a powerful and flexible toolkit that makes it easy to build Web APIs.

Sails.js

Sails is designed to mimic the MVC pattern of frameworks like Ruby on Rails, but with support for the requirements of modern apps: data-driven APIs with scalable, service-oriented architecture.

Sinatra

Sinatra is a DSL for quickly creating web applications in Ruby with minimal effort.

Lumen

Laravel Lumen is a stunningly fast PHP micro-framework for building web applications with expressive, elegant syntax. We believe development must be an enjoyable, creative experience to be truly fulfilling. Lumen attempts to take the pain out of development by easing common tasks used in the majority of web projects, such as routing, database abstraction, queueing, and caching.

Slim

Slim is easy to use for both beginners and professionals. Slim favors cleanliness over terseness and common cases over edge cases. Its interface is simple, intuitive, and extensively documented — both online and in the code itself.

Fastify

Fastify is a web framework highly focused on speed and low overhead. It is inspired from Hapi and Express and as far as we know, it is one of the fastest web frameworks in town. Use Fastify can increase your throughput up to 100%.

Falcon

Falcon is a minimalist WSGI library for building speedy web APIs and app backends. We like to think of Falcon as the Dieter Rams of web frameworks.

hapi

hapi is a simple to use configuration-centric framework with built-in support for input validation, caching, authentication, and other essential facilities for building web applications and services.

TypeORM

It supports both Active Record and Data Mapper patterns, unlike all other JavaScript ORMs currently in existence, which means you can write high quality, loosely coupled, scalable, maintainable applications the most productive way.

FeathersJS

Feathers is a real-time, micro-service web framework for NodeJS that gives you control over your data via RESTful resources, sockets and flexible plug-ins.

Related Comparisons

ExpressJS vs GraphQL: What are the differences?

Key Differences Between ExpressJS and GraphQL

ExpressJS and GraphQL are both popular technologies used in web development, but they serve different purposes and have distinct features. Here are the key differences between ExpressJS and GraphQL:

Query Language vs Framework: GraphQL is a query language that allows clients to request specific data from the server, while ExpressJS is a flexible and minimalistic web application framework for Node.js. ExpressJS provides a robust infrastructure for building web applications, handling routing, middleware, and server logic, while GraphQL focuses on efficient data fetching and manipulation.
Data Fetching Efficiency: GraphQL allows clients to retrieve only the data they need by specifying the exact shape and structure of the response. This reduces the amount of over-fetching and under-fetching of data, optimizing network efficiency. In contrast, ExpressJS retrieves entire resources or collections of resources, which might include more data than necessary.
Multiple Data Sources: ExpressJS can work with various data sources, such as databases, APIs, and external services, allowing developers to choose the best tools for their specific use cases. GraphQL, on the other hand, acts as a single endpoint for data consumption, aggregating and combining data from multiple sources, making it easier to integrate and access data from different systems.
Client-Driven Data Fetching: With GraphQL, the client has control over the data it receives, enabling efficient batched requests and reducing the number of round trips to the server. The client specifies the required fields, relationships, and even the ordering of the response. ExpressJS, on the other hand, follows a server-driven approach, where the server decides which data to send back to the client.
Schema-Driven Development: GraphQL enforces a strict schema, defining the structure and types of available data and operations, allowing clients to easily understand and query the available resources. This schema-driven development approach provides strong typing and introspection capabilities, making it easier to evolve and maintain the API. ExpressJS, being a flexible framework, does not enforce any specific data schema or structure, giving developers more freedom to design their own data models.
Caching and Performance: While both ExpressJS and GraphQL can cache responses to improve performance, ExpressJS provides more control over caching by utilizing HTTP caching headers and third-party caching solutions. GraphQL, on the other hand, leverages the concept of "caching by default" due to its query-based nature, where responses can be cached at various levels (e.g., network, client, server) to provide efficient data access.

ExpressJS vs GraphQL

Overview

ExpressJS vs GraphQL: What are the differences?