Apollo Client vs GraphiQL
Apollo Client
apollographql.comGraphiQL
graphiql.devSide by side
| Figure | Apollo Client | GraphiQL |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $5/mo | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 4 | 1 |
| Spec score · GraphQL Tools | 8.9 (#2) | 8.4 (#3) |
| Integrations | Community integrations include Angular, Vue, Svelte, Solid.js, Ember, Meteor, Apollo Elements web components, native iOS with Swift, and native Android with Java and Kotlin. | The project provides examples for CDN ESM, Webpack, Create React App, and Parcel, and its repository describes GraphQL language tooling for CodeMirror, Monaco, and Visual Studio Code. |
| Purpose | Apollo Client is a GraphQL state management library for JavaScript that manages local and remote data, fetches, caches, and modifies application data, and automatically updates the UI. | GraphiQL is an interactive, in-browser IDE for GraphQL. |
| Support | Apollo’s support offerings include community support for Free, Developer Support for Developer, Standard Support with SLA for Standard, and Business Support with SLA for Enterprise. | The project directs users to GitHub for issues and discussions and to the GraphQL Discord server for community discussion. |
Plans
Apollo Client
- FreeFree
- Developer$5 a month
- EnterprisePriced on request
- StandardPriced on request
In their own words
Apollo Client
Apollo Client is a JavaScript library for managing GraphQL data in applications. It can fetch, cache and modify data from local and remote sources, then update the interface as data changes. Developers describe a query and receive its data without manually managing loading states. Normalized caching can make responses to cached queries almost immediate. The core @apollo/client library has built-in React integration, including hooks and Suspense, and the library can be added incrementally to JavaScript or TypeScript applications. It works with any build setup and GraphQL API. Community integrations extend support to frameworks including Angular, Vue, Svelte, Solid.js and Ember, as well as native iOS and Android. Apollo Client also supports GraphOS Router features such as incremental delivery, subscriptions and persisted-query safelisting. Chrome and Firefox extensions provide GraphiQL and tools for inspecting watched queries, mutations and cache. Apollo Client is free and open source. GraphOS Free includes one self-hosted router limited to 60 requests per minute; the separate Developer plan is $5 a month, billed monthly.
GraphiQL
GraphiQL is a free, interactive, in-browser IDE for GraphQL. Its editor supports the latest GraphQL specification, with syntax highlighting, type-aware suggestions, query and variable completion, and real-time error highlighting. A searchable documentation explorer can display Markdown, and the built-in query history and documentation explorer are available as plugins. GraphiQL can preserve state in browser localStorage and provides a plugin API for extending its interface. It is also a React package for embedding the IDE in an application; a component needs a fetcher function that sends requests to a GraphQL API. The toolkit fetcher supports HTTP, multipart incremental delivery, and subscriptions through graphql-ws or the legacy WebSocket protocol. Developers can customize the interface with React props and children, while CSS variables are the supported way to change its appearance. GraphiQL is open source under the MIT license. Its project offers a progressive web app demo and examples for CDN, Webpack, Create React App, and Parcel.