Apollo Client vs GraphQL.js

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.

GraphQL.js is the official JavaScript implementation of the GraphQL specification. It provides a parser, validator, executor, type system and related utilities for building GraphQL servers, clients, tools and schema workflows in JavaScript or TypeScript. Developers define a type schema and serve queries against it; the graphql function checks syntax and semantics before execution and reports invalid queries. Documentation identifies v17 as the current stable release, with v16 available for projects requiring older Node.js versions. Getting-started instructions require Node.js 22 or newer and provide installation commands for npm, pnpm, yarn and bun. The library runs in Node servers and browsers, distributes CommonJS and ESModule files, and the project says webpack and rollup builds should work. It is MIT-licensed, free, distributed through npm and intended for self-hosted deployment. Latest and previous major versions receive stated support, but no Long-Term Support version is offered.